The Chinese Students & Scholars Association (CSSA) of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) hosted a very successful campus seminar earlier this evening on "Campus Safety and Security Related Topics" that are directly impacting the international students at UT, as part of the response to a recent campus assault case against one Chinese student resulting in serious bodily injuries (according to campus police report).
Becky Yu, Managing Member of Yu, South & Associates, PLLC, talks to the students, shown below, about campus safety, criminal charges with immigration consequences and some special US immigration benefits available to the victims of certain criminal activites such as domestic violence, VAWA, U visa and T visa, as well as how to seek consular assistance in time of an emergency, during the "Campus Security Seminar" organized by UTCSSA on the evening of Oct. 16, 2013.
The seminar, held in ART-1.110 Lecture Hall, was endorsed by the UT Police Department and invited speakers included lawyers from Dallas based Yu, South & Associates and their local affiliated Kercher Firm here in Austin. The following picture shows the organizers were setting up the projector prior to the seminar and they are: Mr. Guanyang Ye, Vice Chair of Supervision, External Liaison & Academic Affairs, CSSA (left), Mr. Qiang Liu, Person-in-Charge, GEC (center), and Miss Sophia Zhang, Director of Academic Affairs, CSSA (right).
The picture here shows Miss Sa Wang, President of UTCSSA welcoming the invited speaker, Becky Yu, Managing Member of Yu, South & Associates, while audience arriving at the seminar on Oct. 16, 2013.
The following photo is Miss Sophia Zhang, the main organizer and Director of Acadecmic Affairs, CSSA, welcoming the two guest speakers: Attorney Becky Yu and Attorney Margaret Kercher before the seminar:
The three speakers for the seminar as shown here are: UT Campus Police Officer Layne Brewster (Center), Immigration Attorney Becky Yu (Right), and Criminal Defense Attorney Margaret Kercher (Left):
Organizers of UTCSSA and GEC jointly sponsored the free food and drinks to all attendees and the delivery from the restaurant into ART-1.110 Lecture Hall was timed perfectly as the driver pushed open the door right after Ms. Sophia Zhang announced “free food will be provided...”
Great attendance with lots of food and drinks, provided by CSSA and GEC:
Mr. Qiang Liu, Person-in-Charge, UT GEC, started the evening by welcoming the audience and thanked CSSA for initiating the very meaningful seminar, shown belown:
Miss Sophia Zhang, Director of Academic Affairs, UTCSSA, welcomed the speakers and introduced UT Campus Police Officer Layne Brewster to start the seminar:
Officer Brewster from UT Campus Police Department speaks to the students about campus safety tips and available resources including the campus police department website features:
Margaret Kercher, a local criminal defense attorney working with the Dallas based international and immgiration law firm of Yu, South & Associates, PLLC speaks to the students on self defense, criminal procedures and what to do when involved in a criminal activity or proceedings, shown below:
Becky Yu, Managing Member of Yu, South & Associates, PLLC and Margaret Kercher, her Austin affiliated criminal defense lawyer of the Kercher Firm, PLLC were talking before the seminar started:
The seminar drew a large crowd including quite a few American students in the audience:
The large lecture hall at ART-1.110 was quickly filling up before the seminar started and some people even sat on the stairs at this very popular seminar organized by UTCSSA, as shown here:
All three speakers delivered the presentation in English and then Abraham Yu, Office Manager and Director of Immigration Divsion at Yu, South & Associates summarized the speeches in Chinese for CSSA audience and, as requested, responded to the questions from CSSA members in Chinese.
The seminar was such a great success that the original scheduled time from 6:00PM to 7:00PM for the session had to be extended numerous times to accommodate the enthusiastic questions from the audience. Organizers had to end the discussion at 8:05PM, 65 minutes past the original schedule, so that the special guest speakers Becky Yu and Abraham Yu could drive back to Dallas that night. Many students said it was a very informative seminar and they learned a lot about many important things. UT CSSA organizers said they are very pleased with the seminar and they look forward to more cooperation with Yu, South & Associates in the future.
Abraham reporting from UT Campus, Austin, Texas
Related articles in Chinese:
- World Journal “世界日报”；
- Dallas Chinese News “达拉斯新闻”；
- UTCSSA Press Release.