Dominican University President Addresses Trump’s ‘Alarming’ Statements

The core mission of higher education is the advancement of knowledge, people and society. Dominican University of California is committed to upholding free inquiry, serving our community and creating opportunities for all students to pursue their educational and career goals.

President-elect Donald Trump’s statements about the future of the Department of Education lack clarity but are nevertheless alarming. About 30% of Dominican’s undergraduate students qualify for Pell grants. I am concerned that federal funding, which already has not kept pace with costs and is not equally available to all would-be students or institutions, could erode further.

As the president of a federally designated minority-serving institution, I value education’s promise of social mobility and equity. Three-quarters of our undergraduates are students of color; one in four is from a family’s first generation to attend college. Many of our students are immigrants and children of immigrants, raised and educated in the United States.

Unfortunately, immigrants have often been the targets of Trump’s campaign comments. I, too, am an immigrant. I was able to settle in the U.S. legally, not because I earned that right but simply because of where I was born and my father’s profession. People who labor to put food on Americans’ tables and prop up the economy, as well as serve and care for others, all without safety or freedom, deserve so much better. Our nation will be stronger and healthier when they are fully enfranchised.

First and foremost, Dominican is prepared to double down on our efforts toward equity and inclusion. This might well require additional investment and creativity – developing new ways to reach potential students and devoting more analysis and human support time toward alleviating obstacles to enrollment and persistence.

We will expand our work to make Dominican accessible to students from all backgrounds. Each year we distribute more than $30 million in institutional aid to 99% of our undergraduates. We do not ask about the immigration status of our students – a practice we will continue to uphold.

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We are committed to maintaining a safe and welcoming environment for all, including our LGBTQ+ students and employees. We will continue to offer “Safe Zone” training as part of an initiative developed several years ago to prepare our faculty and staff to serve as role models for inclusivity for our students.

We uphold these commitments at a time when higher education is already under enormous pressure. There are dire predictions that smaller colleges and universities will go out of business, merge or close. In the Bay Area, those predictions are already coming true.

Now, more than ever, our work will need the support of our community and donors who truly value educational equity. We cannot do this based on federal or state funding alone, nor by further stretching families’ decreasing capacity to pay for college. We are a worthwhile investment, as it is often the small private regional universities that do the best job of educating students, particularly underrepresented students, and helping them stay in school to graduate.

Dominican’s four-year graduation rate is more than 20 percentage points higher than the national average and twice that of the California State University system. Several years ago, we emerged from a major national study as the 11th most successful college in the U.S. for enabling students from the lowest economic quintile to move into the highest economic quintile over the course of their careers.

Dominican’s own investment in our students greatly benefits our community. Our nursing program enrolls 400 students, a significant response to local and national shortages. We recently celebrated 100 years of training teachers. Our students go on to medical school, law school and graduate school. They contribute to the Marin and Bay Area economies in business, industry, medicine, the arts, nonprofit service and education.

Dominican is a home to a beautifully diverse community. Home should be a place of empathy, open ears and open hearts for students of all backgrounds, nationalities and political affiliations. In times of change, we will protect the right of every student to attend Dominican. We will continue to serve our communities and prepare students to participate in the institutions of a democratic society.