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The University of Oregon caved to student demands after infusing a new ICE alert into the university’s campus-wide emergency alert system, which took effect Wednesday.
An April 30 email to students, from Associate Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Jimmy Howard, said that the university’s official campus-wide alert system will be allowed to be used for an alert system, which utilizes campus police and other university resources, to warn students about any nearby activity from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
The decision follows H.B. 4709, passed in February and signed by the governor in April, which required public K-12 schools and higher education institutions to designate a system to notify students of federal immigration presence. However, the deadline to set that system up was not until the end of September and students complained that the system needed to be set up sooner.
“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,” Howard’s email stated, which was shared with Fox News Digital by students at an independent campus publication that first covered the story, The Daily Emerald.
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The university sent Fox News Digital a statement pointing out H.B. 4079 was signed into law by Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on April 9, less than a month prior, after making its way through the state legislature, which has both a Democratic House and Senate majority.
A day later, student groups, including the school’s chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the University of Oregon Anti-ICE Coalition, delivered a petition to the Office of the President demanding the ICE alert system be instituted ahead of the mandatory September deadline.
Fox News Digital inquired with university spokespeople about why the alert system was being implemented so far in advance of the deadline, and whether any other alternative systems were considered.
“The University of Oregon already uses its emergency alert system to inform the campus community of certain law enforcement activity on campus as well as other concerns (e.g., server outages, motor vehicle crashes, etc.), and we have done so for years,” a university spokesperson responded. “It’s important for students and employees to be aware of law enforcement activity on campus so they do not unintentionally interrupt it while moving through campus to get to class.”
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The current ICE alert system will use the same University of Oregon Alert system, according to the campus-wide email obtained by Fox News Digital, which includes getting verification from the Office of the General Counsel, university police, and Safety and Risk Services before sending out alerts. Extra personnel are also designated for other campuses tied to the University of Oregon system.
“The University of Oregon follows all federal and state laws,” the university said in a formal statement sent to Fox News Digital. “In compliance with the new state law, the University of Oregon created the required policy, which clarifies the conditions that would warrant 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. Notice will not be sent for routine federal activity, such as visa status checks.”
The new alert system follows pressure from campus organizers, including the school’s DSA chapter, and incidents of ICE activity on campus as early as November 2025.
“(The Sept. deadline) leaves a pretty big gap in protection for students. People are going to be here for the next couple weeks and even over the summer, so there is obviously a big gap in security,” a member of the University of Oregon Anti-ICE coalition said, according to The Daily Emerald, which has covered the student pressure.
“We’ve seen UO’s lack of response and its insistence that we be compliant with the federal administration. And we don’t agree with it. We think it’s unsafe,” another student organizer told The Daily Emerald in mid-February. “We think that we’re better than that, we have the resources to protect ourselves. So we’re here to make a point about that and keep the pressure up.”
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In March, Fox News Digital reported that the University of Oregon also recently announced it would begin offering abortion pills to its students beginning in the fall, once again, following pressure from students.
In February, The Daily Emerald reported that the University of Oregon’s DSA chapter “has been campaigning for campus abortion access for the past three years but has made it a major focus since this fall,” including by making abortion pill access among its top campaign priorities.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel del Guidice contributed to this report.
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