June 22, 2020
Dear Carnegie Mellon Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Carnegie Mellon has been an international university since our inception more than a century ago, and we are enriched by having the best and brightest students and faculty from around the globe as part of our community.
We remain committed to our international students, faculty, staff and alumni as a critical foundation of our academic and research excellence. And, we are also mindful of the number of proposed or pending executive actions and legislative changes that could shift immigration policies of the United States. We are aware that recent actions could have significant impacts on our community, and we are committed to keeping you informed as we learn more about the implications of these measures.
We want to assure you that the university is actively engaging in advocacy for our international students to help preserve the open, welcoming environment that is central to our values as a community and to our education and research missions. As part of this, CMU leadership is working closely with our local, state and federal leaders; higher education peers, industry associations and partners, including the American Association of Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and others.
We recognize that this is occurring at the same time that we are confronting unacceptable injustice against Black and African American members of our society and while we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. We know that this is a stressful time for many of you. It is at times like this that we as a community must reaffirm our values and ensure we take actions to remain true to the welcoming campus we strive to be for all of our students.
We embrace the diversity that has always made, and continues to make, CMU an amazingly vibrant and unique world-leading university. We value all of you — the members of our CMU community are essential to making us who we are.
We are committed to provide updates as we learn more about how our international students, scholars and wider community might be affected by any policy changes.
Sincerely,
J. Michael McQuade, Vice President for Research
Jim Garrett, Provost