Navarro College, a two-year institution based in Corsicana, has sent multiple application rejection letters to students from Nigeria, saying, “Unfortunately, Navarro College is not accepting international students from countries with confirmed Ebola cases.”
Tell @NavarroCollege ; Stop Ebola, Stop Discrimination! http://t.co/6upQGZjp7x. cc @renoomokri @lindaikeji pic.twitter.com/C4YbB3gwo7
— Idris Ayodeji Bello (@idrisayobello) October 13, 2014
The letters, which I first read about at CNBC.com, are being widely circulated on social media by African-focused Texas entrepreneur Idris Ayodeji Bello. CNBC reported that they were sent to the address of Kamorudeen Abidogun, a Richmond, Texas, man who is related to the applicants; he said five relatives in Nigeria had applied to the school and used his home as a U.S. mailing address.
The letters are signed by Elizabeth A. Pillans, Navarro’s international programs director. I’ve tried to contact her, to no avail. (I’ll update this post if I hear from the school.) But they did attempt to backtrack in an “update from the director” online:
Our college values its diverse population of international students. This fall we have almost 100 students from Africa. Unfortunately, some students received incorrect information regarding their applications to the institution. As part of our new honor’s program, the college restructured the international department to include focused recruitment from certain countries each year. Our focus for 2014-15 is on China and Indonesia. Other countries will be identified and recruitment efforts put in place once we launch our new honors program fall 2015. We apologize for any misinformation that may have been shared with students. Additional information regarding our progress with this new initiative will be posted on our website.
They “apologize for misinformation that may have been shared with students”? Like official rejection letters? Signed by the director? Mailed on college letterhead?
That’s not an adequate response. Let us count the reasons:
- *The applicants are from a city in Nigeria that have had no Ebola cases.
- *Nigeria has gone 43 days without any new cases of Ebola and is just days away from being declared Ebola-free by the WHO.
- *This goes way beyond CDC guidelines of how colleges best respond: “CDC is not recommending colleges and universities isolate or quarantine students, faculty, or staff based on travel history alone.”
- *This tragic irony: There are new confirmed cases of Ebola this week just 65 miles from Navarro College, at Presbyterian Dallas.
Navarro officials need to offer a better explanation for what happened. And if the rejections were made because of Ebola, as appears, the school should reverse course.