Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) Director Hernan Diaz-Alonso and Chairperson of the Board Tom Gilmore emailed a letter of support to members of the SCI-Arc community directly impacted by President Trump’s anti-Muslim travel ban yesterday afternoon.

In the memo, which has since been posted to the university’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, Diaz-Alonso and Gilmore voice solidarity with the students who have been impacted by the controversial (and potentially illegal) executive order signed by the president late last week, saying, “We want you to know that every one of us is affected by this. What affects one of us in our community affects all of us.”

It is unclear how many students, faculty, and staff at SCI-Arc have been affected by the order. See below for the full text of the memo.

Dear SCI-Arc Community,

Let’s remember at this uncertain moment that SCI-Arc was founded on the premise that architecture can make the world better. In almost half a century since a small group of passionate individuals moved into modest sheds in Santa Monica, SCI-Arc has built a global community of students, faculty, and alumni that have dedicated themselves to a noble vision of civilized space. This vision has inspired us to bring the world, in all of its diversity, to our campus here in Los Angeles, and we will continue to do so.

Architecture can be a marker in civilization for its finest values and aspirations. It has the capacity to bring people together in extraordinary ways. Recent political trends would have us turn inward and away from one another. This is something that SCI-Arc can never do. We refuse to let architecture become a tool for divisiveness and demoralization.

Over the weekend, a new executive order has impacted some of you directly. We want you to know that every one of us is affected by this. What affects one of us in our community affects all of us. We also want you to know that we see it as a profound risk to our core mission and the open future that belongs to all of us at SCI-Arc. Every member of the SCI-Arc community, regardless of where you come from, what you believe, or whom you love, is indispensable to our mission.

Creating an environment that stimulates education, speculation and humanity is at the center of who we are and do.  SCI-Arc is committed to protecting the rights to all the members of our community, and to do whatever is possible within the law to keep doing so.

Now as always we stand together with you to defend a more just and open future.

 

Hernan Diaz Alonso
Director/CEO

Tom Gilmore
Chairman of the Board

(Also see: Studio Libeskind comes out against Trump travel ban, will boycott companies that support his administration’s policies)