Dear Western Community,

Last Thursday I wrote you to express our university’s concern and outrage over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s announced plan to take away the U.S. visas of international college students if their coursework were to be delivered entirely online in the fall.  Many universities across the country also denounced this decision and supported lawsuits aimed at blocking the misguided directive.  I write to update you on this issue.

On Friday, July 10, 2020, the Associated Students of Western Washington University (ASWWU) Executive Board convened for a special meeting to discuss the vacant position of AS President. Nicole Ballard, AS VP for Governmental Affairs, has been the acting AS President since the position became vacant on June 13, 2020.

A number of changes were recently made to increase the visibility and wayfinding to the University's COVID-related resources from the Western home page.

At Western, the education of our students is core to all that we do.  Not only do we care very much about our students’ success and dignity as they pursue their dreams, we commit ourselves to fostering and furthering that success and opening paths to goals our students might not have envisioned previously.  This doesn’t just apply to students from our state or our country.  Our international students are a vital part of our student body, and they have the right to pursue their degrees without having their lives and education unnecessarily disrupted beyond the c