Students across the country have been pressuring their college officials to go public with their support of the DREAM Act. After UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, University of Arkansas Chancellor Gearhart and UC Berkeley Chancellor Charles Birgeneau declared their support publicly, now President Drew Faust at Harvard has also voiced her support.

Harvard students said they have been lobbying Faust for months on the issue. They held a rally and submitted a petition with 120 signatures, said Harvard junior Kyle de Beausset, one of the organizers.

In recent months, two Harvard students who are in the United States illegally met with Faust in her office to seek her support. Yesterday, one of those students, an 18-year-old former high school valedictorian who has been in the United States since he was 9, said he was thrilled.

“We realized that what we were asking her to do wasn’t an easy thing. The issue of immigration is politically charged,” said the student, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. “I am and will forever be indebted to this institution.”

Read more at the Boston Globe.

Harvard is supposed to be a sanctuary campus and Cambridge calls itself a sanctuary city even though students like Nur Munir have been detained in recent times.

We hope to get a deeper and first-hand account of Harvard students advocacy on behalf of the DREAM Act from Citizen Orange as soon as he finishes the semester. The buildup to how this support was received is documented here, as well as the advocacy efforts of other students in the Northeast.