Building Capacity to Support Undocumented Students

Scholarly Inquiry. Education. Activism.

Cal Poly opened a Dream Center in April 2017. As described by Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Humphrey, the Dream Center is designed to provide,  “a safe and welcome space where undocumented students,” students in mixed documentation status families, “and their supporters can gather in community to receive support from staff, access resources, and draw on the strength of their peers.”

The opening of the Dream Center is one component of efforts to make Cal Poly more "undocufriendly." As defined by United We Dream – the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation – the term undocufriendly “is used to refer to schools that have systems and practices in place that work with and for undocumented students.”

Women’s and Gender Studies students, staff, and faculty are actively involved in these efforts to build capacity to support undocumented students at Cal Poly and throughout the region.

Here are a few outstanding examples:

• ZULEMA ALEMAN: Undocumented Student Liaison in Safer
• JENNIFER MACMARTIN: The Institutional Impact of the Undocumented Student Working Group’s UndocuAlly Training
• JOSE LOZANO: Growing the Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success (CCC-USS)
• GET CONNECTED: Your Work to Build Capacity to Support Undocumented Students