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Students call for immediate UC emergency protocol after mass visa revocations; President says most SEVIS records were restored
Summary
Students and student leaders criticized UC's response to a recent mass revocation of international student visas and urged the Regents to adopt a UC‑wide emergency action protocol; President Drake said the majority of revoked SEVIS records were restored and the university provided legal and financial support to affected students.
Student leaders told the Regents the university's response to the abrupt federal revocation of some student visas was delayed and inadequate, and they asked the Regents to establish a UC‑wide emergency protocol for international and undocumented students.
Kieran Youn, director of academic advocacy for the UCLA international student representative, said the UC response "was shamefully passive, pathetic, and delayed" and that student communities had to build legal guides and pool funds to assist affected students. He urged the Regents to "put in safeguards for international students facing political retaliation, border detention, and or administrative action" and to create a standing emergency action protocol.
In the president's remarks later in the meeting, President Drake said campus teams and the Office of the President "provided funding to help students with questions about their visa status and to access legal resources" and reported that federal authorities had restored most revoked SEVIS records: "for our students, it was 157 of the 159 records were restored," Drake said, and the university and campus offices contacted impacted students and the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center offered support.
The public comments asked for clearer crisis response mechanisms and immediate legal and housing guarantees for international and undocumented students; the Regents heard these requests during the public‑comment period, and the president described actions taken to assist impacted students in the days following the visa revocations.
