Andrea Gaytan, director of the AB540 and Undocumented Student Center at the University of California, Davis, meets
with some students.
Standing in the middle of the new center for undocumented students she helped create at the University of California, Davis, Ana Maciel, a junior, gets a little choked up describing the walls going up and desks and couches starting to fill the small space in October.
“I’m getting a little teary-eyed now talking about it, to be honest,” Maciel says. “I walked in and saw the fruits of all that hard work.”
The center, officially called the AB540 and Undocumented Student Center, is unique in the UC system and even the country, in its specific mission to aid undocumented students. (AB540 refers to the California law that allows students to pay resident tuition if they have attended a California high school for at least three years, graduated and met other requirements.)
Undocumented students face various obstacles to higher education. For example, they cannot receive federal financial aid and often cannot work due to their status. But the barriers go beyond the financial. Undocumented students can feel isolated and fearful of deportation.
This center tries to address that. Along with offering academic, emotional and legal counseling, the center’s goal is to give students a sanctuary.
That means a lot, says Maciel, the academic coordinator for the center as well as one of the driving forces behind its creation.
“I just had a student yesterday,” she says. “She honestly just stared at the whole place, and just said, ‘Wow, I feel like I’m home, like there’s a place for me here.’”
