Though LSA freshman Daniel Morales spent the majority of his life in California after being born in Mexico, he had to wait one year before matriculating into the University due to his inability to receive financial aid because of his status an undocumented citizen.

Morales and three other panelists shared stories of living as undocumented citizens with about 40 students, faculty and administrators who attended the Forum on Access for Undocumented Students in the Michigan Union yesterday evening in an effort to promote tuition equality at the University.

The event was a collaboration between the Coalition for Tuition Equality, a student organization that advocates for the rights of undocumented students, and its sub-group Political Intelligence Leaderships and Organizational Training. CTE has held various events to raise awareness in recent months, including a lecture on immigration reform last month by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas.

Morales didn’t become a legal resident until last summer and said he often felt ashamed in high school because of his immigration status.

“I just lied to my friends and told them I was really bad at driving and that’s why I didn’t drive,” Morales recounted. “I feared being reported and sent to (live in) a country I had never been to.”

Morales said he was encouraged by the University’s reception of the coalition’s goals and emphasized the importance for tuition equality in his speech.

“We’re talking about human beings who don’t want a leg up, who don’t want an advantage in any way,” Morales said. “(They) simply want to be treated like everyone else.”

LSA sophomore Evelyn Galvan, a PILOT representative, said she decided to help with the forum because she believes undocumented students from Michigan should be able to pay in-state tuition costs and wants to get others involved.

“One of the things that we think is very important is ... really looking at the University as working for us,” she said. “At the end of the day, every office that is here is here to work for the students and to make the students’ time here better.”

Galvan said PILOT and CTE have attended multiple meetings of the University’s Board of Regents to discuss the issue and have continued to attempt to connect with the student body.

“Now that we have done the awareness things, we really want this event to be the action planning of this whole movement,” Galvan said. “We do have a panel, but it’s not just a panel. It’s about everyone getting involved in the discussion on why we value higher education.”

The event featured four panelists and a question and answer session, after which the attendees were broken into smaller groups to discuss ways to help the undocumented students.

Public Policy junior Kevin Mersol-Barg, who formed CTE, said he was happy with the turnout for the “low-key” event.

“The people we had on the panel provided really powerful narratives and powerful information that I think people could take away from this,” Mersol-Barg said. “I think the kind of impact we had will be long-lasting, (and) the people here will advocate for this to the various communities they come from. “

He said the forum provided an avenue to “localize” the problem and clear up any perpetuated falsehoods about the issue.

“If you put a face to the issue, if you tell them, ‘Are you going to deny this individual a University education?’ I think they’re going to have a much harder time saying yes,” Mersol-Barg said.