The inaugural Alumni Symposium recreated Professor Byron Nichols' "Moral Dilemmas of Governing" seminar for about 20 alumni.
When David Eppler ’82 reunites with Union College classmates, conversation often returns to one of their toughest and best-remembered courses: Byron Nichols’ “Moral Dilemmas of Governing.” For Eppler, such conversations seeded an idea that in mid-July became the first Alumni Symposium at Union.
David Eppler and his sister, College Trustee Nancy Eppler-Wolff ’75, were the driving force behind the symposium, which brought roughly 20 graduates ranging from the Class of 1971 to the Class of 2005 back to campus for a weekend-long series of discussions about illegal immigration and undocumented workers in the United States. The goal was to recreate the thoughtful yet lively exchange of ideas that made Nichols’ course memorable.
“When we get together, the conversation will often come back to ‘Moral Dilemmas of Governing,’” David Eppler said. “That very much was the origin of this weekend. We’d say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to get generations from ‘Moral Dilemmas’ back to do it again.’”
And so on the evening of Friday, July 13, Nichols' former students began arriving in the Nott Memorial for a cocktail hour, dinner and group discussion. Robert Wells, longtime professor of history at Union and accomplished folk singer, performed a series of American folk songs connected with immigration. The performance was followed by short speeches from Nichols and President Stephen C. Ainlay.
“This symposium is part of a single flow of personal and intellectual development that began, for each of you, at Union,” Nichols said. “It connects back to who you were as undergraduate and to the lives that you now lead, both personal and professional. It connects back to issues that society faces and to who you were when you came to Union 15, 25 even 35 years ago. This is all part of an evolution; And part of the reason for this symposium is to expose and reveal the kind of continuity that ought to exist.”
The College plans to create a recurring series of symposium-style events that allow alumni to re-engage in the intellectual life they enjoyed while enrolled at Union, according to Ainlay. The symposiums are part of expanded alumni offerings such as faculty-led international tours and downloadable recordings of lectures available from the College Web site.
Before arriving at the symposium, alumni were asked to complete several readings and to write an essay about an aspect of illegal immigration and undocumented workers. Those essays became a 40-page book that was distributed to participants on Friday evening. Essay topics varied but nearly all agreed with a stance taken by Dr. Henry G. Fein ’71: “We have a deep moral obligation to provide basic services to those in need, no matter when or how they arrived.”
For Bruce Lawton ’89, a state Department of Civil Service analyst from Schenectady, the weekend was a chance to experience again the debate found in a Union classroom and to survey opinions across generations.
“It can be a reaffirming experience and you can really learn a lot about what the public discourse is. You may not be able to speak to that in your 9-to-5 work life,” Lawton said. “We have people going back to the 1970s. We are trying to get an idea and see if our Union experience is the same across generations.”
The Alumni Symposium weekend continued on Saturday with an outdoor dinner at the President’s House and media presentation in the Emerson Auditorium. Alumni stayed at the Parker Inn in nearby downtown Schenectady. The symposium, organized by College Relations Officer Sally Webster and Union student Cristina Liquori ’10, wrapped up on Sunday morning with a brunch at Abbe Hall.
Alumni essays on illegal immigration and undocumented workers
The psychological journey
The process of leaving one’s homeland and adapting to a new country is lengthy and arduous. The immigrant must give up his or her sense of identity – and place – within their established community – to move to a new and unfamiliar situation. The loss of family, friends and culture is inevitable. Immigration is a lonely process; a process in which the individual must separate successfully from their former culture, and reinvent herself in a new, and foreign society. The process of immigration has been described by psychologists as a process of mourning. The psychological steps of numbness, or disassociation, and anger, sadness, and finally, acceptance, must be lived and relived to make a healthy adjustment. When the immigrant lives in fear of possible deportation, the experience of these feelings is compromised, if not impossible.
Without moving through this sequence, an immigrant is unable to gain a renewed sense of identity, and to establish themselves in a new community of friends and co-workers. Most illegal immigrants are simply not able to attain a basic level of human services. Can we, a nation of immigrants ourselves, turn our backs on providing basic human services for illegal immigrants? I don’t think so.
(Nancy Eppler-Wolff is a psychologist based in New York City.)
Moral obligation
Illegal immigration is an issue that many communities struggle with, not the least of which are those in the Washington, D.C. area. Loudon County, Va. garnered worldwide publicity just this week[ when the county council unanimously approved a measure to essentially bar illegal immigrants from all county services and to require purveyors of these services to check immigration status.
Providing basic services to all is simply the right thing to do, both morally and practically. Immigration is a fact of life around the world in the 21st century. We, as a society, generally agree that it is morally unacceptable to round people up and forcibly deport them. Short of such actions, we need to deal with the needs of immigrants (illegal or otherwise) just the same as we should for the native-born population.
(Dr. Henry Fein is a retired U.S. Army Medical Corps colonel, endocrinologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore.)
Symposium conclusions
The group distilled their discussions into a set of consensus recommendations regarding illegal immigartion and undocumented workers.
• Increase enforcement of workplace legislation.
• Increase the number of legal immigrants each year.
• Encourage private humanitarian efforts to aide illegal aliens.
• Increase enforcement of border security.
• Provide illegal immigrants access to programs that promote the public good and public safety like drivers licenses and worker’s compensation.
• The privilege of legal residency can be earned by the following:
– Gainful employment
– No criminal record
– Length of time in the country
– A family member who is a U.S. citizen
– Evidence of taxes paid