Editors’ Note: Anonymous sources mentioned in this article are referred to as “RA ‘A’” and “RA ‘B.’” City on a Hill Press is committed to protecting the identity of these sources. All protocols and policies stated solely pertain to College Nine and John R. Lewis College residential and neighborhood assistants.

Do not report to your co-workers. Do not send a message to your residents. Do not engage. Most of all, do not deviate from protocol. 

Instead, call your supervisor, then wait. 

According to multiple sources, this is the protocol for reporting ICE activity at UC Santa Cruz for College Nine and John R. Lewis College (C9/JRL) resident assistants (RA) and neighborhood assistants (NA).

C9/JRL RAs cited that Lazareth Sye, the assistant director for C9/JRL, implied that student staff could be terminated if they did not follow the university’s protocol for reporting ICE activity during on-call shifts.

 “They told us you need to report up, not out,” RA ‘A’ said. “It was implied that if we tell our residents, and it’s incorrect and it’s actually not ICE, that we’d be fired.” 

In late February, RAs/NAs were informed that if there is suspected ICE activity on campus, they are required to contact the coordinator for residential education (CRE) on-call — administrative supervisors who support RAs — or the dean of students hotline, instead of notifying colleagues or residents.

Each college has a different protocol when it comes to ICE activity reporting. C9/JRL RAs are the only verified student team facing the possibility of termination. This means that some RAs/NAs may have to choose between a job that provides food and housing, or their values.

“I think it’s so ridiculous to be gambling with people’s livelihoods. RA positions are livelihoods,”  RA ‘B’ said. “It’s my housing, it’s my food, and it’s literally the only reason that I have an opportunity at higher education.” 

This information came to all C9/JRL RAs during a Monday night all-staff meeting, where a supervisor presented this information in a slideshow on what to do if ICE enters campus. 

“You are a supportive presence — not an investigator,” a slide on the presentation read. “Let the institution handle the response.” 

Termination or loss of position was not mentioned in the slideshow.

Currently, John R. Lewis College does not have a CRE. Lazareth Sye temporarily stepped in after he was hired for the assistant director position in the beginning of winter 2026. 

In response to claims about job termination, Sye provided the following in an email to City on a Hill Press.

“Accountability is a standard part of any role, and expectations are applied consistently, fairly, and with context,” he wrote. “This approach supports both students and staff by maintaining clarity in responsibilities while responding thoughtfully to individual circumstances.”

Once a supervisor is notified and authority is handed off to the dean of students, RAs/NAs cannot disclose any information to colleagues and residents. They must wait for administrators to verify the activity and sighting first. The amount of time for action to be taken is not specified.

“Timelines for verification will vary depending on the situation, but the priority is to assess quickly and communicate clearly through appropriate channels,” Erin Elliott, communications director for student success and campus climate, wrote in an email to City on a Hill Press.

RA ‘B’ expressed the importance of timeliness in these circumstances. 

“That time gap is quite literally life or death,” they said. “Especially in the climate that we’re in now, any type of ICE interaction has been life or death, even for people just observing … So much can happen in a short amount of time.”

RA ‘A’ also cited that the demographic background of the residential colleges may be correlated with these increasing concerns.

“We are in the international college, we have an international floor, we have the international living center,” RA ‘A’ said. “We have students from all over the world residing here. It is so important that we are aware of these protocols, so we can protect our residents.”

One C9/JRL RA expressed their concerns about the “report up, not out” protocol. To them, their responsibility to their community overrules their loyalty to their RA position. 

“It’s ridiculous to me that we can’t alert residents,” RA ‘A’ said. “If it were me, personally, my morals are more important than my RA job. If I see ICE on campus, I’m calling [my residents and colleagues]. I don’t care. They can try to fire me, I do not care.”

Political Suppression and Lack of Clarity

Since the start of the 2025-26 academic year, this is the first time RAs/NAs have been informed of rules for dealing with situations regarding immigration officers. 

According to C9/JRL RAs/NAs, many staff members had been asking for a concrete system and a distribution of resources to residents since the beginning of 2026, when residents reported a slew of ICE sightings throughout the Bay Area.

RAs reported that Lazareth Sye was dismissive about these concerns, and did not send out resources until several other student staff members pushed for it.

“I am deeply committed to supporting undocumented students by ensuring they are connected to accurate, vetted resources and have direct access to the campus offices best equipped to support them,” Sye continued in is statement.

On top of these policies, the C9/JRL housing administration is requiring RAs/NAs to wear lanyards, which display their name, picture and title. Staff are expected to wear these lanyards during university sanctioned events, on-call shifts and when patrolling through the halls. However, many expressed that the line between acting as an RA/NA and a student is often unclear. 

“Either you’re human and you stand up for something, or you are this university robot that follows a policy that doesn’t give a fuck about you,” RA ‘B’ said. “It’s so insane to even put [these identities] next to each other.”

When asked to clarify when RAs/NAs are considered employees versus students, Erin Elliott wrote:

“RAs and NAs are students first and do not clock in and out of shifts in a traditional sense, though being on-call is the closest equivalent. They remain connected to their communities and may encounter a range of situations.”

Through a direct message on Instagram to City on a Hill Press, RA ‘A’ pointed out a contradiction in Elliott’s statement:

“We are students first, and if we act as if a student would — following our instincts and morals in reporting ICE — it’s weird that our RA role suppresses that action.”