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WNIJ's summary of news items around our state.

U Of I, NIU Officials Stand By Students In Face Of Trump's Travel Order

"Airplane" by Flickr User Sean MacEntee / (CC X 2.0)

A University of Illinois senior administrator says President Trump’s recent Executive Order halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries could be harmful to the university’s mission.

Executive Vice-President Barb Wilson says the U of I needs what she calls “open doors” to fulfill its mission.

“We need international students, and faculty, and visiting scholars to come here, and we need to be able to send our students to other countries to learn and to engage in scholarship,” Wilson said.

Wilson says this Executive Order puts that ability into question. She says the U of I is still compiling data, but that “well over 300” students, faculty, and visiting scholars could be affected by the order.

She says the university is advising those from the seven countries on the list to defer any international travel until pending legal challenges are resolved.

Meanwhile, in an email to campus members, Northern Illinois University President Doug Baker says the recent action "raises many questions and concerns for the higher education community, especially the impact it could have on some of our international students, faculty and staff."

Baker says "NIU will not abandon its core value of embracing diversity in all of its forms" in his report.

  • Illinois Public Radio's Jeff Bossert and Jessie Schlacks contributed to this report.
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