Carolina Calvo
225 Baker Drive
Davidson, North Carolina, 28035
February 15, 2026
Davidson College Archives
Cover Letter
To whom it may concern,
I want to research the impact of movements organized by Latinx organizations in liberal arts college campuses in North Carolina.
I am curious about this question because it is something that is relevant to today’s society. OLAS (Organization of Latin American Students) and the Immigrant Justice Coalition here at Davidson have been a source of comfort, contemplation, and action for students. The ICE deportations that have been occurring in Charlotte and throughout the country have taken over some students’ sense of belonging.
An example of this was an event hosted by the Immigrant Justice Coalition. The event was at the OLAS house, and it was aimed for students who wanted to understand what was happening with ICE’s presence in Charlotte, how to stay safe, understand the laws that surrounded that, and ways to get involved to take action to protect our neighbors. The meeting also cleared the misinformation that is being spread about immigration and deportations that are happening in the Latinx communities. The meeting drew people that were Hispanic and also non-Hispanic.
This meeting is an example of the impact that I want to research further in this project. My research question aims to look at the ways that Latinx student organizations raise awareness on social issues and enable other students to join an action, whether that be having conversations with professors and other students, writing to and calling senators, etc. Using the archives to look at posters that promoted events calling for certain actions would be interesting to learn about how broader movements are made, like comparing those posters to posters found at other liberal arts institutions in North Carolina and their archives. I am interested in learning about the ways that student organization movements have evolved, and the impact that they have on liberal arts campuses.
Primary Source Analysis
In the Davidson Archives, there is a poster from OLAS that is calling for reform on language that was being used in the United States, and is still being used, to call undocumented immigrants, “illegal”. It strikes me that we are still grappling with issues today that have turned into extremism of “us against them”, and how that has taken over our state of the country. or even, in the case of the poster that I am analyzing, stop using a certain word that is harmful and causes negative rhetoric on a group of people.
The poster I am writing about focuses on identity, and how people understand one another on campus. I want to learn more about how language identifies people’s humanity.
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2012, the year that the OLAS poster was made requesting the stop of the use “illegal” to describe immigrants, there was a record number of deportations in the United States. This artifact reveals that there was probably a negative narrative that was being used to describe undocumented immigrants, which could mean that immigration was a topic that was appearing in the news a lot, and therefore the word “illegal” was being used a lot. The word is harmful as it degrades the dignity and value of human beings that we are sharing spaces with, and OLAS took that and spoke up about the importance of dropping the word.
The poster addresses a call to action. It says that there is a meeting from 9am-4pm outside of Chambers, signifying that there was probably an event or rally of some sorts. I am interested in learning more about what that event was, if there was a large turnout, what were the demographics of the turnout, and if there were any actions that students took that made effective change on what the purpose of the event was– the overall mobilization of student groups on the campus.
Another thing that I noticed from the poster is that it took place on September 23, which is during Hispanic Heritage month. The words “Take the Pledge” are bolded in the poster, implying that students would take a pledge to stop using the word “illegal” to describe undocumented immigrants, but it could also mean something else.
I am curious to see how effective posters are, or if events are spread more effectively through word of mouth. The dark red color emphasizes that it is an important and urgent topic, and it could also symbolize the Davidson College school colors. I wonder what the effects are of the artistic choices of the poster.
Learning about the different ways that student organizations like OLAS have enacted change on liberal arts college campuses in North Carolina is important to research as it is something that is still occurring today. I am very curious to see if there are other Latinx organizations that are similar to OLAS across other liberal arts campuses that have spoken up about current events and what the impact is on the student body.
Sources
Gonzalez-Barrera, Ana. “Record Number of Deportations in 2012.” Pew Research Center: Short Reads, 24 Jan. 2014,www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/01/24/record-number-of-deportations-in-212/. Accessed February 1, 2026
Davidson College. Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS). (2014). Drop the I word Poster, September 2014 [Graphic]. Davidson College.
