U. CAN’T STAY IN THE USA
Foreign college students told to get out if they’re only taking online classes
Federal immigration officials’ decision to revoke the visas of international students whose colleges offer only online courses this fall sparked outrage in the world of higher education — and devastated students like Alexandra Panzarelli, who may be forced to uproot her life and return to Venezuela if the rule holds.
“When I heard the news … I couldn’t even listen to it,” said Panzarelli, a 39-year-old politics Ph.D. student at The New School in Greenwich Village, which because of the coronavirus pandemic canceled in-person classes this fall — a decision she supported.
“To face a decision like this is quite dramatic…these kind of messages create this panic and chaos in our lives,” added the Venezuela native, who hasn’t returned to her home country in three years because of ongoing civil strife.
The stunning announcement from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — which manages the hundreds of thousands of F1 and M1 student visas issued each year — sent shock waves through the ranks of international students attending city colleges and universities, and threw a wrench into their fall reopening plans.
The rule requires international students enrolled in online-only courses to “depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction, to remain in lawful status” or face consequences including deportation, according to an ICE statement.
City colleges and universities are still in the throes of thorny debates over if and how to reopen campuses this fall.
Columbia announced Monday a “hybrid” approach that mixes online and in-person teaching, and NYU has signaled it will offer a similar approach.
The 275,000-student CUNY system has yet to make a final decision, indicating only a higher-than normal proportion of online teaching.
Other institutions, like the The New School in Greenwich Village, have already committed to online-only classes.
“Our decision to conduct classes online this fall was made out of a prevailing sense of responsibility to prioritize community health and safety,” New School officials wrote in a Tuesday letter to students responding to the ICE guidance.
“It is important that any federal policy change respect such prudence,” officials continued.
The new ICE mandate will undoubtedly complicate colleges’ plans for the fall. Universities were already scrambling Tuesday to reassure anxious international students who can’t simply pack up their lives and leave the country or transfer schools.
New School officials also reassured students they’re “looking at every possible alternative to support our students in a safe and responsible way.”
“CUNY campuses have thousands of international students whose status is threatened by the new rule,” CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez said Tuesday.
“These students are a valuable and a vital part of our community. I have instructed my administration to explore and pursue measures that would help these students remain in the country and continue their education at CUNY,” he added.
Columbia University president Lee Bollinger said in a university-wide email that the university “must continue to vigorously oppose immigration policies that damage Columbia, higher education, the national interest, and the international students, researchers, and faculty who immeasurably enrich our institution and the intellectual and
personal experiences of each of us.”
Bollinger said the ICE mandate has a “destructive and indefensible purpose” and that it will “severely disrupt and cause enormous harm to the lives of the international students.”
Many colleges and universities depend on international students for a substantial chunk of their tuition revenues because they often pay full freight — an important consideration for them amid the deep financial strain caused by the pandemic.
“I don’t understand how this is going to benefit the American economy,” said Nicole Agu, a College of Staten Island student from Nigeria with a double major in accounting and international business who is at risk of losing her visa if CUNY goes fully online and the federal policy holds.
Agu, the vice chair for international students in the student senate, is helping lead a group of CUNY students mobilizing against the federal rule while also pushing university officials to quickly declare a hybrid model of remote and inperson learning for the fall to offer a measure of protection to foreign students.
“I’m using everything I have to advocate for the board of trustees to declare a hybrid class model,” Agu said. If the rule is allowed to take effect, she said, “CUNY needs to be ready.”
Agu said if she was forced to return to Nigeria to continue with her online CUNY courses, she would be hampered by unreliable electricity and WiFi, and a five-hour time difference that would completely upend her class schedule.
“For you to say, ‘Your university might transfer online, you should move home’ — that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. It doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
Panzarelli, who’s lived in the U.S. for four years, isn’t even sure how she’d get home.
“In Venezuela we’re almost stateless people right now. There’s no flights from the U.S.,” she said.
Federal immigration officials’ suggestion that international students should transfer to colleges that offer in-person classes is also a non-starter, said Panzarelli, who’s attending The New School on a scholarship that won’t automatically transfer to a different school.
“It seems like these laws are more affecting the lowincome people,” she said. “Because if you really have money it’s more possible to maybe enroll in another university.”
Agu, the Nigerian College of Staten Island student, said she’s fought too hard for the opportunity to study at CUNY to give it up now.
“I did so well in school, applied to scholarships, was a part of anything at College of Staten Island. I just took advantage of every scholarship opportunity. I pay my tuition independently,” she said. “I can’t just turn around and go back.”