New England professors are among about 30,000 academics from around the U.S. to sign an open letter condemning a new federal policy regarding international college students. The Trump administration is barring those students from staying in the U.S. if they only take online classes this fall.
The letter condemns the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy and says colleges need to make difficult decisions in order to protect staff and students if the pandemic worsens. If universities were to force students back into classrooms, it would put people's lives at at risk.
“Now suddenly we're scrambling," said Ginetta Candelario, a Smith College professor who signed and distributed the letter. "We're trying to figure out how do we help protect our [international] students.”
The student ban is part of what Candelario called a "pattern of attacks" on higher education from the Trump administration.
Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy at UMass Amherst called the policy "an assault" on the 3,400 international students on campus. Harvard and MIT are suing to stop the policy.
Many colleges agree the international student ban is a poorly-considered federal immigration policy. Those schools also depend on international student revenue, as students coming from overseas don’t receive financial aid.
