The Board of Regents has officially rescinded the ban on undocumented students, marking a significant victory for equitable access to education in Georgia. I am grateful to the 3,037 individuals who lent their names to this effort. We will remain observant to ensure the implementation of this policy remains consistent …
February 10, 2014
Final supporters
Updates
Reached 2,500 supporters
January 28, 2014
January 26, 2014
The momentum surrounding our petition is building as we approach the threshold of 2,500 signatures. Please encourage your colleagues and peers to review the policy goals outlined here.
Reached 1,000 supporters
October 19, 2011
Reached 100 supporters
August 14, 2011
August 12, 2011
The number of signatures is nearing one hundred. Please circulate this petition within your networks to ensure we reach this milestone before we present our formal request to the Board of Regents.
150 Comments
As an Engineering professional, who was previously undocumented, I fully support the rescinding of this ban, which is not only discriminatory to a specific group of individuals, but also limits the potential these students have to offer to the progress of our country.
The ban imposed by the BofR is detrimental to the wellbeing of all Georgia citizens. Please rescind it. Overton Brent Berlin Graham Perdue Professor of Anthropology (Emeritus) Former Director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute
We say we live in a society of equality and desegregation, but we fail to acknowledge the undocumented students in Georgia, who are residents and contributing members to this state and country. LIFT THE BAN! Equal education for all.
As child, I never realized I was different from all the other kids. I had the same dreams and aspirations of actually growing up and being someone. My senior year came around the corner and that's when reality finally hit me. It was graduation day and I had won salutatorian title of my class. Indeed I was proud of myself but at the same time I was immensely upset and angered. I thought to myself, "Those 14 years of school didn't count for anything". However, here I am today, taking back the thought I had at my graduation. Today, I blessed, attending my first year of nursing school. My parents and I have worked hard to acquire every dollar and penny to pay for my education. Every semester we struggle to pay the expensive and unreasonable price of out of state tuition. .... I am sure that there plenty of others that are going through my situation. Yet, please stop and think about those bright and talented others, dreams have been thwarted and aren't able to better their education... Many of us, have spent our childhood in Georgia soil. We didn't have choice of being brought here undocumented. We are just human beings wanting to be SOMEONE in life. However, the best way that can be done is through education. I pray and ask that in-state tuition is considered for daca-mented.
As child, I never realized I was different from all the other kids. I had the same dreams and aspirations of actually growing up and being someone. My senior year came around the corner and that's when reality finally hit me. It was graduation day and I had won salutatorian title of my class. Indeed I was proud of myself but at the same time I was immensely upset and angered. I thought to myself, "Those 14 years of school didn't count for anything". However, here I am today, taking back the thought I had at my graduation. Today, I blessed, attending my first year of nursing school. My parents and I have worked hard to acquire every dollar and penny to pay for my education. Every semester we struggle to pay the expensive and unreasonable price of out of state tuition. .... I am sure that there plenty of others that are going through my situation. Yet, please stop and think about those bright and talented others, dreams have been thwarted and aren't able to better their education... Many of us, have spent our childhood in Georgia soil. We didn't have choice of being brought here undocumented. We are just human beings wanting to be SOMEONE in life. However, the best way that can be done is through education. I pray and ask that in-state tuition is considered for daca-mented.
Taking away education because origin, economic condition or legal status is taking away the golden key that leads a country and its people to become a true leader. Building walls, closing doors and locking away opportunities is stealing hope, robbing a brighter future and and demolish the opportunity to have a better society.
Education is for everyone, No one should be neglected that opportunity because of their status
In order for this great nation to survive, and strive, ALL it's citizen's need to be able to compete on a global scale. These undocumented students will be this nations greatest citizens. I know because I walked in their shoes. We must find the best and the brightest, and use them to this nation's advantage. Everyone must be give a chance to contribute, and compete. This is how this great Nation, and it's citizen's will move forward. "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Eucation is free every one
I completely agree with the statement made in this petition. I believe that all people should be offered the opportunity to obtain higher education, regardless of their immigration status.
I grew up in Athens, GA and now live in California. Make us proud! Do the right thing!
All students deserve equal and fair access to higher education regardless of immigration status.
As a GSU student, I support Freedom University's mission and will act as an agent to raise awareness for those without a voice.
Denying an undocumented immigrant access to education is inconsistent with our Judaeo-Christian tradition: "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt." (Leviticus 19:33-34)
El Pueblo unido, nuca sera vencido.
Everyone deserves a right to learn regardless of their legal status. What harm comes from getting educated, bettering yourself and the community?
Everyone deserves the chance to earn a degree, which is essential in today's climate in order to attain a well-paying job. How can we boast our freedoms and rights if we don't provide them for all people?
As an undocumented immigrant, being denied education is very painful. Seeing all of your friends and peers moving on in life, getting an education while you don't have the chance to truly is awful. Everyone deserves the chance to get an education. Why are we being discriminated against?
For Equality.
In the past students were banned from school based on skin color now they are banned based on citizenship status. End all discrimination! It is idiotic to ban someone who wants to get an education.
Education is a right, therefore it should not be denied from us. We deserve an equal education and a chance to succeed.
Georgia and its Board of Regents should support in-state tuition for all Georgia students graduating from Georgia high schools. Successful applicants should be selected based on their academic credentials, not their immigration status. The current ban penalizes our state by forcing some of our best and brightest students to attend college outside of our state.
Students should all have the right to attend the university of their choice despite their status.
Every young person in the United States should be granted the opportunity to learn, study and reach for their goals.
We need a change NOW.
Education is a fundamental right, we can not continue denying opportunities to students who can be positive assets to our communities.
This is one of the most racist things we are doing in GA. Forget the religious Freedoms Bill how can we forbid students who make the grade from going to our colleges? Is this supposed to help our nation? It will not. Everyone deserves the right to education.
We are all one people, one earth. The majority of undocumented people in the US come from lands south of the US border. Have you considered why people leave these places? Have you considered that the violence and economic disparity in many areas south of the US border are a direct result of US foreign policy, that the instability is largely our nation's fault? And then you have the nerve to deny these migrant people higher education when they leave their homelands in search of something better. And that's not even considering the many people who have lived in the US without documentation for many years, who are subject to deportation even for minor offenses. And if you think they should instead immigrate legally, consider that for some, the waitlist for legal immigration is over 100 years long. This is part of the global apartheid, using artificially constructed borders to exclude people from the land you stole only a couple centuries ago.
Don't condemn a child for the actions of their parents.
Knowledge is free. There is no holding from our brothers and sisters what is OURS.
The ban is wrong and should be overturned.
What kind of person are we, if we deny education to anyone?
It is a benighted society indeed that does not see the justice, the rightness, and the value of educating (all) of its children. Then again, education is a dangerous thing; when people start to analyze the world around them, and to see the structures of inequality and ideologies that undergird and perpetuate them, they are likely to heat up, act up, and demand change (a clear threat to the powers-that-be).
Everyone should have equal oppurtunites, no matter what they wanna do in life
Give ma boi Jose a chance.
Undocumented students are people too . Do not deny them of an education. Please and thank you!
It's great
K
Yes I strongly agree immagrants make a big differences in our society!
Everybody deserves a chance to achieve success in education, especially the ones that have fought their way to be in advanced placement.
Hope the goal is reached good luck!
everybody deserves a chance of education.
Education is never a bad thing.
The opportunity of a higher education should be a given right to everyone no matter their lawful status. This degrading system needs to be put to an end.
If we educate all children up through high school, why stop there and deny them a college degree? It's not fair.
Georgia canno afford to lose any mind that craves education
History will not be kind to those that purvey and promote bigotry and intolerance. These kids deserve our respect and support.
Education is a right, not a privilege.
One day I will attend Georgia State University!!!!!!!
In solidarity.
I believe all students graduating from Georgia high schools should be compared based on the merit of their application and not on their status.
#FUGeorgia!
There is no good justification for doing this.
Be fair.
Education is a basic human right. Put yourself in someone else's shoes for a second.
Persons who grew up here should be welcomed into Georgia colleges, if they qualify academically.
This ban is a racist step backward. It penalizes bright young Georgians who deserve better, who deserve equal access to education.
Let people get educated.
Please rescind the ban on undocumented students and do everything in your power to ensure that all Georgians have equal access to higher education.
Shameful and silly not to enroll these people
education for all
Educate all students today for the hope that they will build a better world tomorrow
What about students who can't return home because of finances but would like to reenter school but because they are undocumented they cannot reenter school which would change their status. I think it's more than fare since they do work in our state (Ga,) we get their money but will not allow them to be educated. Shameful and degrading for our country. They can get food stamps and medcaid!!
I am a proud University of Georgia graduate. I loved being a bulldog; however, I will not give a dollar to UGA students with DACA can have the same benefits I did. DACA requirements are extremely strict and students who meet them deserve to access the University of Georgia system.
I am with you.
Thanks to my education I can read this petition, provide for myself and family, and can use my cognitive thinking to fight for what is right. Let students empower themselves!!
The ban on undocumented students put in place by the Board of Regents is not only statistically unfounded and questionably constitutional but a method of segregation that is unacceptable. All students should be given access to public higher education regardless of their immigration status. Rescind the ban!
These Dreamers are hungry for education and ready to contribute to our society. This is their home. Please rescind this ban.
I am with you and I believe that all students should have access to public higher education!
All people are legal.
Lift the ban. These people deserve access to quality, affordable higher education.
In honor of Dr. King's legacy, we stand united in fighting for equal access to education for all.
The USA extolls the virtue of human rights, and this should apply to all within its borders: Article 26 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights: (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
It is a dumb decision to prevent anybody from gaining access to education. It's a shame that Georgia with its dark history of racism and slavery still decides to further enslave Immigrants by denying them access to education. They are ok with employing immigrants as farm workers, dish washer and chef in their restaurants. Learn from Finland open and free education policy.
As a student at Georgia College and State University, I want to appeal to the Georgia Board of Regents to allow undocumented immigrants to attend school at GCSU and the other state universities.
This would be a dream for me.
#SigueLaLucha
Education for all, human rights for all.
Please continue supporting these individuals for college scholarships.
End Segregation Now!
If students meet State Residency requirements, their citizenship status should not matter!
Education over discrimination!
These students should not pay for the decisions made when they were children.
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. -Emma Lazarus
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. -Emma Lazarus
Share Petition
Don't stop at signing, share the petition link with friends to multiply our impact
Copy link or share directly
The Board of Regents has officially rescinded the ban on undocumented students, marking a significant victory for equitable access to education in Georgia. I am grateful to the 3,037 individuals who lent their names to this effort. We will remain observant to ensure the implementation of this policy remains consistent …
February 10, 2014
Final supporters
Updates
Reached 2,500 supporters
January 28, 2014
January 26, 2014
The momentum surrounding our petition is building as we approach the threshold of 2,500 signatures. Please encourage your colleagues and peers to review the policy goals outlined here.
Reached 1,000 supporters
October 19, 2011
Reached 100 supporters
August 14, 2011
August 12, 2011
The number of signatures is nearing one hundred. Please circulate this petition within your networks to ensure we reach this milestone before we present our formal request to the Board of Regents.
150 Comments
As an educator who has had the privilege of teaching brilliant undocumented and first-generation college students, I am appalled that the state would deny young people the education and future they deserve. On the eve of MLK's birthday, I pray for freedom and equality in his home state of Georgia.
As an Engineering professional, who was previously undocumented, I fully support the rescinding of this ban, which is not only discriminatory to a specific group of individuals, but also limits the potential these students have to offer to the progress of our country.
The ban imposed by the BofR is detrimental to the wellbeing of all Georgia citizens. Please rescind it. Overton Brent Berlin Graham Perdue Professor of Anthropology (Emeritus) Former Director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute
We say we live in a society of equality and desegregation, but we fail to acknowledge the undocumented students in Georgia, who are residents and contributing members to this state and country. LIFT THE BAN! Equal education for all.
As child, I never realized I was different from all the other kids. I had the same dreams and aspirations of actually growing up and being someone. My senior year came around the corner and that's when reality finally hit me. It was graduation day and I had won salutatorian title of my class. Indeed I was proud of myself but at the same time I was immensely upset and angered. I thought to myself, "Those 14 years of school didn't count for anything". However, here I am today, taking back the thought I had at my graduation. Today, I blessed, attending my first year of nursing school. My parents and I have worked hard to acquire every dollar and penny to pay for my education. Every semester we struggle to pay the expensive and unreasonable price of out of state tuition. .... I am sure that there plenty of others that are going through my situation. Yet, please stop and think about those bright and talented others, dreams have been thwarted and aren't able to better their education... Many of us, have spent our childhood in Georgia soil. We didn't have choice of being brought here undocumented. We are just human beings wanting to be SOMEONE in life. However, the best way that can be done is through education. I pray and ask that in-state tuition is considered for daca-mented.
As child, I never realized I was different from all the other kids. I had the same dreams and aspirations of actually growing up and being someone. My senior year came around the corner and that's when reality finally hit me. It was graduation day and I had won salutatorian title of my class. Indeed I was proud of myself but at the same time I was immensely upset and angered. I thought to myself, "Those 14 years of school didn't count for anything". However, here I am today, taking back the thought I had at my graduation. Today, I blessed, attending my first year of nursing school. My parents and I have worked hard to acquire every dollar and penny to pay for my education. Every semester we struggle to pay the expensive and unreasonable price of out of state tuition. .... I am sure that there plenty of others that are going through my situation. Yet, please stop and think about those bright and talented others, dreams have been thwarted and aren't able to better their education... Many of us, have spent our childhood in Georgia soil. We didn't have choice of being brought here undocumented. We are just human beings wanting to be SOMEONE in life. However, the best way that can be done is through education. I pray and ask that in-state tuition is considered for daca-mented.
Taking away education because origin, economic condition or legal status is taking away the golden key that leads a country and its people to become a true leader. Building walls, closing doors and locking away opportunities is stealing hope, robbing a brighter future and and demolish the opportunity to have a better society.
Education is for everyone, No one should be neglected that opportunity because of their status
In order for this great nation to survive, and strive, ALL it's citizen's need to be able to compete on a global scale. These undocumented students will be this nations greatest citizens. I know because I walked in their shoes. We must find the best and the brightest, and use them to this nation's advantage. Everyone must be give a chance to contribute, and compete. This is how this great Nation, and it's citizen's will move forward. "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Eucation is free every one
I completely agree with the statement made in this petition. I believe that all people should be offered the opportunity to obtain higher education, regardless of their immigration status.
I grew up in Athens, GA and now live in California. Make us proud! Do the right thing!
All students deserve equal and fair access to higher education regardless of immigration status.
As a GSU student, I support Freedom University's mission and will act as an agent to raise awareness for those without a voice.
Denying an undocumented immigrant access to education is inconsistent with our Judaeo-Christian tradition: "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt." (Leviticus 19:33-34)
El Pueblo unido, nuca sera vencido.
Everyone deserves a right to learn regardless of their legal status. What harm comes from getting educated, bettering yourself and the community?
Everyone deserves the chance to earn a degree, which is essential in today's climate in order to attain a well-paying job. How can we boast our freedoms and rights if we don't provide them for all people?
As an undocumented immigrant, being denied education is very painful. Seeing all of your friends and peers moving on in life, getting an education while you don't have the chance to truly is awful. Everyone deserves the chance to get an education. Why are we being discriminated against?
For Equality.
In the past students were banned from school based on skin color now they are banned based on citizenship status. End all discrimination! It is idiotic to ban someone who wants to get an education.
Education is a right, therefore it should not be denied from us. We deserve an equal education and a chance to succeed.
Georgia and its Board of Regents should support in-state tuition for all Georgia students graduating from Georgia high schools. Successful applicants should be selected based on their academic credentials, not their immigration status. The current ban penalizes our state by forcing some of our best and brightest students to attend college outside of our state.
Students should all have the right to attend the university of their choice despite their status.
Every young person in the United States should be granted the opportunity to learn, study and reach for their goals.
We need a change NOW.
Education is a fundamental right, we can not continue denying opportunities to students who can be positive assets to our communities.
This is one of the most racist things we are doing in GA. Forget the religious Freedoms Bill how can we forbid students who make the grade from going to our colleges? Is this supposed to help our nation? It will not. Everyone deserves the right to education.
We are all one people, one earth. The majority of undocumented people in the US come from lands south of the US border. Have you considered why people leave these places? Have you considered that the violence and economic disparity in many areas south of the US border are a direct result of US foreign policy, that the instability is largely our nation's fault? And then you have the nerve to deny these migrant people higher education when they leave their homelands in search of something better. And that's not even considering the many people who have lived in the US without documentation for many years, who are subject to deportation even for minor offenses. And if you think they should instead immigrate legally, consider that for some, the waitlist for legal immigration is over 100 years long. This is part of the global apartheid, using artificially constructed borders to exclude people from the land you stole only a couple centuries ago.
Don't condemn a child for the actions of their parents.
Knowledge is free. There is no holding from our brothers and sisters what is OURS.
The ban is wrong and should be overturned.
What kind of person are we, if we deny education to anyone?
It is a benighted society indeed that does not see the justice, the rightness, and the value of educating (all) of its children. Then again, education is a dangerous thing; when people start to analyze the world around them, and to see the structures of inequality and ideologies that undergird and perpetuate them, they are likely to heat up, act up, and demand change (a clear threat to the powers-that-be).
Everyone should have equal oppurtunites, no matter what they wanna do in life
Give ma boi Jose a chance.
Undocumented students are people too . Do not deny them of an education. Please and thank you!
It's great
K
Yes I strongly agree immagrants make a big differences in our society!
Everybody deserves a chance to achieve success in education, especially the ones that have fought their way to be in advanced placement.
Hope the goal is reached good luck!
everybody deserves a chance of education.
Education is never a bad thing.
The opportunity of a higher education should be a given right to everyone no matter their lawful status. This degrading system needs to be put to an end.
If we educate all children up through high school, why stop there and deny them a college degree? It's not fair.
Georgia canno afford to lose any mind that craves education
History will not be kind to those that purvey and promote bigotry and intolerance. These kids deserve our respect and support.
Education is a right, not a privilege.
One day I will attend Georgia State University!!!!!!!
In solidarity.
I believe all students graduating from Georgia high schools should be compared based on the merit of their application and not on their status.
#FUGeorgia!
There is no good justification for doing this.
Be fair.
Education is a basic human right. Put yourself in someone else's shoes for a second.
Persons who grew up here should be welcomed into Georgia colleges, if they qualify academically.
This ban is a racist step backward. It penalizes bright young Georgians who deserve better, who deserve equal access to education.
Let people get educated.
Please rescind the ban on undocumented students and do everything in your power to ensure that all Georgians have equal access to higher education.
Shameful and silly not to enroll these people
education for all
Educate all students today for the hope that they will build a better world tomorrow
What about students who can't return home because of finances but would like to reenter school but because they are undocumented they cannot reenter school which would change their status. I think it's more than fare since they do work in our state (Ga,) we get their money but will not allow them to be educated. Shameful and degrading for our country. They can get food stamps and medcaid!!
I am a proud University of Georgia graduate. I loved being a bulldog; however, I will not give a dollar to UGA students with DACA can have the same benefits I did. DACA requirements are extremely strict and students who meet them deserve to access the University of Georgia system.
I am with you.
Thanks to my education I can read this petition, provide for myself and family, and can use my cognitive thinking to fight for what is right. Let students empower themselves!!
The ban on undocumented students put in place by the Board of Regents is not only statistically unfounded and questionably constitutional but a method of segregation that is unacceptable. All students should be given access to public higher education regardless of their immigration status. Rescind the ban!
These Dreamers are hungry for education and ready to contribute to our society. This is their home. Please rescind this ban.
I am with you and I believe that all students should have access to public higher education!
All people are legal.
Lift the ban. These people deserve access to quality, affordable higher education.
In honor of Dr. King's legacy, we stand united in fighting for equal access to education for all.
The USA extolls the virtue of human rights, and this should apply to all within its borders: Article 26 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights: (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
It is a dumb decision to prevent anybody from gaining access to education. It's a shame that Georgia with its dark history of racism and slavery still decides to further enslave Immigrants by denying them access to education. They are ok with employing immigrants as farm workers, dish washer and chef in their restaurants. Learn from Finland open and free education policy.
As a student at Georgia College and State University, I want to appeal to the Georgia Board of Regents to allow undocumented immigrants to attend school at GCSU and the other state universities.
This would be a dream for me.
#SigueLaLucha
Education for all, human rights for all.
Please continue supporting these individuals for college scholarships.
End Segregation Now!
If students meet State Residency requirements, their citizenship status should not matter!
Education over discrimination!
These students should not pay for the decisions made when they were children.
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. -Emma Lazarus
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. -Emma Lazarus
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As an educator who has had the privilege of teaching brilliant undocumented and first-generation college students, I am appalled that the state would deny young people the education and future they deserve. On the eve of MLK's birthday, I pray for freedom and equality in his home state of Georgia.