GEO Supports our Member Yidong (Ivor) Chen
The Graduate Employees’ Organization Local 6300 (GEO) wants to state our support for our member Yidong (Ivor) Chen. We want to reiterate that we support widespread testing as a way to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, but there are members of our campus community and within our union that face significant risks to themselves and others by complying with the University Administration’s testing policies. This is why an exemption process was created. This was the case for Ivor Chen. Ivor has been the primary caregiver for his mother for almost a year. Due to the pandemic his mother was not able to return to China. She is an older adult who is at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19. The actions Ivor took were to protect his mother hence he limited his outings to essential activities such as grocery shopping.
Unfortunately, the University Administration did not outline the exemption process in its mass mails, which made the information easy to miss. He did not know about the exemption process in the Fall semester but as soon as the University Administration sent an email outlining the exemption process for the Spring 2021 semester, he applied for it and received it. To the best of his knowledge, Ivor also never received any emails warning him about his testing noncompliance until December 21, 2020. Even if Ivor did receive a mass-emailed non-compliance notification, the GEO does not believe that his not testing, for valid reasons, and missing a single email warrants dismissal.
On January 29, 2021 Ivor went to the disciplinary hearing where he received the decision of the OSCR subcommittee, which stated that Ivor would be dismissed from the University for 1 year, must complete a 1,000 word essay on the how his research in Physics impacts the general population, a 1,000 word report on the book “Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)”, and write a letter about his academic and work history. This punishment is too harsh and disproportionately impacts Ivor because of his status as an international student. His immediate dismissal from the University means that he loses his visa status, employment, and has to uproot his and his mother’s current life in the US. If he is not able to return home in a timely manner, it could have far reaching immigration consequences that could affect the possibility of him receiving another visa, if he was readmitted to the University.
For the reasons outlined above, we request that at the very least the 1 year dismissal sanction be removed.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
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