The university is responding to an ICE alert using the campus emergency system after student needs
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The University of Oregon acceded to the students’ demands after placing a new ICE alert on the university’s campus emergency response system, which went into effect Wednesday.
An April 30 email to students, from Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Jimmy Howard, said the university’s official campus system will be allowed to be used for an alert system, which uses campus police and other university resources, to alert students of any imminent operations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The decision follows HB 4709, which was issued in February and signed by the governor in April, which required K-12 public schools and institutions of higher education to designate a program to inform students about the presence of immigrants in the state. However, the deadline for the suspension of that program is until the end of September and the students are complaining that this program must be started soon.
“As requested by our campus community and required by Oregon House Bill 4079, we are implementing a notification system in the event of immigration enforcement activity on campus,” said Howard’s email, which was shared with Fox News Digital by students in the independent campus publication that first reported the story, the Daily Emerald.
THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON WILL GIVE DISPENSABLE PILLS TO PHARMACY THIS FALL AFTER A CAMPAIGN TO PUSH STUDENTS.
University of Oregon campus located in Eugene, Oregon. (Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The university sent Fox News Digital a statement indicating that HB 4079 was signed into law by Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on April 9, less than a month ago, after passing the state Legislature, which has a Democratic majority in the House and Senate.
A day later, student groups, including the school’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the University of Oregon Anti-ICE Coalition, delivered a petition to the Office of the President calling for an ICE warning system to be started before the mandatory September deadline.
Fox News Digital asked university spokespeople why the warning system was implemented so far ahead of the deadline, and whether any other options were considered.
“The University of Oregon already uses its emergency alert system to notify the campus community of certain law enforcement activity on campus and other concerns (eg, server outages, traffic collisions, etc.), and we have done so for years,” a university spokesperson responded. “It is important for students and staff to be aware of law enforcement on campus so they don’t inadvertently disrupt it while walking through campus to class.”
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The Anti-Ice protest took place in Oregon where anti-immigration rallies have been common since President Trump’s deportation. (Photos by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty)
The current ICE Alert system will use the same system as the University of Oregon Alert, according to a campus-wide email obtained by Fox News Digital, which includes getting confirmation from the Office of the General Counsel, university police, and Safety and Emergency Services before sending alerts. Additional staff are also being recruited for other campuses affiliated with the University of Oregon system.
“The University of Oregon complies with all federal and state laws,” the university said in an official statement sent to Fox News Digital. “In accordance with the new state law, the University of Oregon is creating the necessary policy, specifying the conditions that would authorize such notice and the method of communication. Any notice issued under the new policy will follow state guidelines and will not include personally identifiable information that cannot be disclosed. The notice will not be sent to perform routine organizational work, such as checking visa status.”
The new alert system follows pressure from campus organizers, including the school’s DSA chapter, and incidents of ICE activity on campus in early November 2025.
“(The September deadline) leaves a huge gap in student protection. People will be here in the next few weeks and even in the summer, so obviously there is a big gap in protection,” said a member of the University of Oregon Anti-ICE coalition, according to the Daily Emerald, which has included student pressure.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents leave the Yamato Engine Specialist plant in Bellingham, Washington, after raiding the plant for illegal aliens, Tuesday, February 24, 2009. (Philip A. Dwyer/Bellingham Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“We have seen the unresponsiveness of the UO and its insistence that we comply with the administration of the state. And we do not agree with it. We think it is not safe,” one student organizer told the Daily Emerald in mid-February. “We think we’re better than that, we’ve got the defensive resources. So we’re here to make a point with that and keep the pressure up.”
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In March, Fox News Digital reported that the University of Oregon also recently announced that it will begin offering abortion pills to its students starting in the fall, as well, following student pressure.
In February, the Daily Emerald report that the DSA chapter at the University of Oregon “has been campaigning for abortion access on campus for the past three years but has made it a major focus since this fall,” including making access to the abortion pill among its campaign priorities.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel del Guidice contributed to this report.
