International students unsure if they can study in U.S. amid new rules
LOS ANGELES – Unlike many international students, Grace Wang of Claremont Mckenna College opted against returning to Beijing and moved to a friend’s home in March when her campus switched to online classes and sent students home amid the coronavirus emergency. She felt it was best to stay in America.
But as Wang awaited news of the college’s fall reopening policies, her plans were further upended when federal officials announced new visa guidelines that prohibit international students from staying in the U.S. if they continue to take all of their courses online.
“If we go online, I don’t have a choice but to go back to China,” she said Tuesday.
Wang is among the more than 1 million international students whose lives – already thrown into turmoil by sudden suspensions of classes, campus closures and sealed borders – suddenly became more complicated and uncertain by rules widely condemned by many higher education leaders.
“We couldn’t have envisioned the situation getting worse but somehow it did,” Wang said.
If she is forced to return home, the rising senior majoring in international relations and economics is particularly worried about being able to excel in online classes during her final year of college with a 15-hour time difference. Plus, she will begin work on a research thesis this fall, requiring access to American search engines and scholarly databases.
“For me to be inside the borders of mainland China ... within the firewall ... the quality of my thesis will not be close to the quality of research I will be able to conduct within the States,” Wang said.
Many higher education institutions, including the University of Southern California, Stanford and the 23-campus California State University, have said they plan to offer primarily online classes this fall due to the resurging public health threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Others, including UCLA, have said they will offer a hybrid learning format.
The new guidelines prohibit non-immigrant students who take a full course load online from remaining in the U.S.
Those who left during the pandemic or for the summer will not be allowed to return, while those remaining must depart or take alternative measures, such as transferring to an in-person institution, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday.
Students can stay in the U.S. if they attend some hybrid programs of online and in-person classes.
On Tuesday, university officials and higher education administrators throughout California and the nation condemned the move, while some faculty vowed to circumvent it.
“ICE’S announcement is perplexing, given that some degree of remote instruction is necessary for colleges and universities to protect the safety and well-being of their communities and the public at large, while still allowing students to continue their studies,” UC President
Janet Napolitano said.
Nearly 50,000 international students enrolled at UC in fall 2019.
“This ICE policy is immensely misguided and deeply cruel,” Association of American Universities President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement. “It is also likely to do further damage to our nation’s universities, which are already struggling with unprecedented uncertainty, massive logistical complications, and significant financial losses due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
ICE had permitted non-immigrant students in the spring and summer semesters to take more online courses than normally allowed because of the pandemic.