Chapter Thirteen - The University as Place of Refuge

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic brought forth significant challenges for higher education. Among them was the fact that it became impossible for many international students to return to their home country. In a unique way, they had become educational refugees. Although most universities asked students to vacate their residence halls, many insti-tutions kept some residential space open for students that had no place to go, among them international students. The recent political debacle and the idea of sending students taking online only courses back to their countries brought forth a united and strong reaction from higher education. Together with States Attorney Generals, uni-versities sued the Federal administration and were successful in their efforts to allow students to stay in this country. This is only the latest example of universities working as a place of refuge. Programs such as Scholars at Risk have been protecting faculty members for the last 20 years, bringing them out of dangerous situations and placing them at universities where they could be safe. We have hosted a couple of scholars at my institution, and we have retained at least one of them in our tenured faculty. However, this is not a new role for universities. In this chapter, I trace just a handful of the many instances when scholars and institutions have worked to help displaced individuals and to protect human rights.

Colonization and Social Justice

The year 1492 was a crucial year for Western history. A Genoese sailor, sponsored by the Spanish crown, crossed the Atlantic. In the words of Francisco López de Gómara, Columbus's voyage was “The greatest thing after the creation of the world, excluding the Incarnation and death of the one who created it, is the discovery of the Indies; and like this, they are called the New World.” This “greatest thing” opened the doors to a massive movement of people from all over the world over the next five centuries. The initial years of the sixteenth century brought many challenges and possibilities to Spain. After Columbus’ initial travels, Spanish conquistadors and colonists explored the Caribbean and made approaches to the mainland. Emerging from the centuries of “Reconquista” and religious wars, theologians had developed sophisticated explanations of what constituted a “just war.” The Muslims had been offered the “true” religion of Christianity and many had rejected it, so it was “just” to make war on them.