UC Merced students dismayed over New York Times story that used dorm room numbers

UC Merced students profiled this month in a New York Times story about undocumented immigrants say their safety has been put at risk because the Times’ reporter published their dorm room addresses.

In a story titled “Creating a Safe Space for California Dreamers” that ran online on Feb. 3, and in the following Sunday’s print edition, Times reporter Patricia Leigh Brown profiled a number of undocumented students in Merced, telling their stories and describing how the campus tries to help them be successful in the classroom.

The story includes the names of undocumented students, the dorm hall they live in and many of their room numbers. Advocates for the students have said the story was too specific and could put the young people in danger.

Chancellor Dorothy Leland addressed the article and concerns from the campus community, noting that undocumented students and the children of undocumented parents are experiencing “difficult times” since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“Student affairs staff members have engaged in a number of conversations with the involved students,” Leland said in a statement. “We have identified ‘safe space’ housing for the students if they choose to use it. The safety of our students is paramount and security measures have been undertaken.”

“Sadly, they refuse to remove the private information from the online article, despite our multiple requests for this outcome,” Leland said.

The university declined to say whether any students had since been threatened or had asked to change rooms, citing privacy issues, according to spokesman James Leonard.

The article spurred a meeting of undocumented students from UC Merced, according to Zuleyma Guillermo, a 21-year-old psychology student. Students already were nervous about a Trump presidency, she said, and their fears have continued to grow as he makes changes to immigration policy.

Guillermo was not featured in the Times story, but manages the Mi Casa SALE, a rental property run through the UC Merced student group Students Advocating Law and Education that often houses undocumented students.

Using the dorm room numbers “just wasn’t necessary,” she said.

“They should have been a little more cautious about the people they’re dealing with,” she said. “We’ve been tiptoeing where we step. Releasing this kind of information – it’s scary.”

Even if they are protected under the deferred-action program, known as DACA, students can be targets of hate or anger, she noted.

Printing a student’s dorm room number is tantamount to printing someone’s address, according to Alex Delgadillo, who oversees services for undocumented students and special populations at UC Merced. He said the immigration status of students is a “hot topic” that could make the students into targets.

He said the students in the original story were disappointed in the use of dorm rooms numbers, but were handling it with “poise and grace.”

“They didn’t lose sight of the essence of the article and what it was intended to do,” he said. “They feel resilient in that regard that they’ll still get their message across and other young people are going to read that story and, beyond the room numbers, will see, ‘Hey, that’s my story. I can do the same.’ ”

There are 444 undocumented students at UC Merced, he said on Monday.

In a New York Times column from Feb. 7 called “When Details in a Story Can Put People at Risk” authored by public editor Liz Spayd, the editor discussed the controversy. The use of the dorm room numbers is portrayed as a storytelling tool to add “some visual geography as (the reporter) described their modestly decorated surroundings.”

Brown said she regretted using the dorm room numbers, according to the column. All of the students profiled agreed to allow use of their names, and those who were photographed signed a release, according to the Times.

“I am a mother myself and the last thing I’d want to do is jeopardize any student’s safety or give them cause for alarm,” Brown said in the column. “In hindsight, understanding that the room numbers seem to have caused distress and concern, I, of course, would not have used them. I gave the students the option of not using their full names (none of them took it) and did ask for their room numbers, even double-checking them with some.”

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 4:29 PM with the headline "UC Merced students dismayed over New York Times story that used dorm room numbers."