I wonder if this is one of the reasons so many large publics are opening in person. I know my sons school had many international students stay on campus in the spring and said they were helping them with any visa issues. Maybe these schools anticipated this problem and that’s one of the reason so many seem to be attempting in person or hybrid classes.
Purdue’s population is 20% international. They added a ton of courses this summer and kept dorms open so international students could stay on campus and be in compliance with Visa rules. They told students not to leave the country if they didn’t have to. Purdue is planning on doing in person courses and has all along.
I live near Northwestern and their dorms remained open as well and there were many international students that remained in Evanston.
I think some schools must have seen the writing on the wall.
I think the biggest unknown here is if an international student’s school has fully moved on line, there is no guarantee the initial student visa will be renewed and processed in time to return to campus when in person resumes. Incoming freshmen have an even bigger dilemma.
If ICE could change the rules for spring, I don’t buy the argument that they couldn’t extend the changes while the pandemic is still raging for the upcoming semester.
^^^ same at Michigan. When my son stayed on campus last semester it was evident that there was lots of internationals that were staying and not going home.
*I don’t see were it says an online student can NEVER apply for a student visa in the future. *
I definitely read something to that effect, but I can’t find it again now, so perhaps it was a mistaken interpretation by the journalist.
It’s difficult if you interrupt your schooling to return. So while it’s not “never, ever”, it’s “very difficult”, because you’ve interrupted your visa when you interrupt your studies, thus have to resume the whole process and can be denied because you interrupted your studies, even if you only interrupted them because of a rule the government itself put in place.
The situation for Americans who want to go abroad is health-related: Americans are seen as walking petri dishes who willfully chose to do away with safety recommendations and don’t seem to understand basics of contamination, exponential growth or geometric progression, etc. “Pandemic out of control in the US”, “woman throwing things because she’s asked to wear a mask”, etc, are the news coming out of the US right now. And YES this doesn’t apply to many if not most but numbers are clear, the 1st wave never fell; and images are obviously all in the “outrageous” category because that sells. 
Americans will be welcome everywhere as soon as the numbers appear to be under control. Well, I hope. I’m tired of “you guys are crazy” and other less nice comments.
International students from countries where the pandemic is under control for now aren’t in the same situation. There’s no reason why the Spring rules couldn’t be applied to them, with the caveat they have to report to campus and live in the dorms so they can be tracked.
I too am a bit perplexed as to why internationals need to be offered dorm accomodations if that experience isnt offered to other students? If the goal is to de-densify a campus, only students with extreme living situations that make study at home impossible would be allowed to remain. If a cohort is invited back to reside, then both foreign and domestic members of that cohort should return.
Here is the actual press release: https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/sevp-modifies-temporary-exemptions-nonimmigrant-students-taking-online-courses-during
please read it before posting about the impacts.
International students can not be 100% online.
International students can be hybrid, so they need a F2F class. If a college can’t create a system with 1 F2F class, then the college is incompetent.
International students need housing in order to take in-person classes. If they must take in-person classes, they must have housing.
Domestic and international students are in the same pickle, since students often find their housing 10 months ahead of moving in, in October or November freshman year for Sophomore year, etc.
However, domestic students who can’t find housing or can’t be on-campus don’t have to take in-person classes.
Let’s use Purdue as an example : students all return, and by the end of September there is a gigantic wave of infection that spreads into the community as well. Businesses shutter. Services shutter. And Purdue goes to all online coursework. At that point, any international students are required to leave the country, and Purdue is required to certify that they have.
Let’s assume intl students all make it home, even though flights out of the US are restricted. And by January, Purdue doesn’t go back to physical coursework , but can only decide that in…November, let’s say. – those students can’t reenter the country either because it still isn’t allowed, or they don’t have time to get their visa.
Raise your hand if you think ICE and Immigration are staffed to cope. Or Purdue is. Half our consulates are closed anyway. And all these suggestions of “just make a 3-cr course for basketweaving” – who is teaching that? Who is doing the hiring and onboarding?
It sure would be nice if Congress could ever get together and negotiate a compromise and create a better immigration system where no side gets everything they want. Given how much of a mess the current system is, it should not be too hard. Unfortunately, no one wants to compromise at all…
I’m confused. I confess I haven’t really investigated the details of this, but is there any point to it beyond sheer mean-spiritedness? Especially since, you know, COVID is just going to disappear on its own, if it hasn’t already.
There is no point in this except mean-spiritedness toward international students who have legal student visas to be here and xenophobia.
Oh, and making colleges and universities have to deal with even more chaos. That’s just the icing on the cake!
The in person requirement has always been there, but for the spring and summer it was suspended because of the pandemic. Basically if a student needs to stay in the US to study, then there needs to be an actual class.
Is this political? I’m sure part of it is. Immigration is always political and it’s rarely fair.
Presumably, there are some foreign students in the US that could now just as easily do their online learning from their home country but I am not sure why it is necessary to force them back home. I can see an argument for not letting them come til this is over but not sending them back. Ultimately, we need both their money and their academic qualifications so it seems very mis-guided.
I wish instead there was a move to change the law such that those that graduate from colleges with degrees that we need here in the US, are granted an accelerated, easy path to citizenship.
Maybe universities are hoping that if classes start in person but go online midway through, that those international students will get the same exemption that they did in the Spring.
A lot of schools allowed international students to stay on campus in the spring and summer, so that part is doable.
Purdue needs to create 1 class that is in person once a week. Purdue can’t have a professor hold class outside once a week where students ask questions? Purdue can’t create a walking class that costs $1?
This isn’t that hard.
@AlwaysMoving I can see the in person requirement being valid when in person is available, but we’re in kind of an odd situation here. What is the problem with continuing to suspend it? The whole thing kind of smells, which should surprise exactly no one.
From the link: “Due to COVID-19, SEVP instituted a temporary exemption regarding online courses for the spring and summer semesters. This policy permitted nonimmigrant students to take more online courses than normally permitted by federal regulation to maintain their nonimmigrant status during the COVID-19 emergency.”
I don’t see why the above cited exemption cannot continue, since the first wave of COVID is continuing, and even if that eases or ends, there will be more until a vaccine or effective treatment. ICE is acting as if COVID is over.
This is horrible and will be a financial disaster for many public universities.
The students affected are in all different kinds of situations. The ones I know are in doctoral programs and have apartments, and lives here, but will have to return to their home countries. It is entirely life-disrupting.
Not sure how some will get home, and also not sure whether all will be able to return.
As a side note, as some have said, ZOOM (lecture with slides, links, multi-media, small group work, polls, questions and responses etc.) can be offered both synchronously (live) and asynchronously (recorded) and Canvas and Blackboard, which often accompany Zoom, can be done asynchronously. The professor or TA can have office hours on Zoom, and can offer extra help to those doing the lecture asynchronously.
Wondering about medical students , researchers, artist and many many others who so benefit our country when they can ultimately stay and work here. Doctor shortages loom, for one.
And what if the universities all get together and just say NO! Sorta like the safe zone for immigration like last year. Are we going to see ICE really on campuses dragging people away? Is this the media anyone wants…HMMMM…should of thought about that before I typed this…
I just don’t see it. Local government should not allow it. This whole thing is a sham and a shame. Maybe universities will have like a "fake " class that anyone can take and add at will like self improvement that you would have to go to. Maybe like walk there and pick up a flyer of something on your way to get your boxed lunch? I am sure universities can figure out something. Can’t believe that ICE would be at every university in the nation tracking which school are online or not. Maybe I am naive?
This also hits graduate students who are on F1 visas… not just undergrads. For them, having to leave the country will have much bigger consequences.