The ICE statement is infuriating! My neighbor’s niece attends a large public university that is probably going all online and has a large percentage of international students. She had to move to California because she couldn’t go back to her home country due to Covid restrictions. Now if the university goes online, I guess she loses her visa?? She could work from my neighbor’s house next year if it was online. This is wrong on so many levels!
I assume they will make exceptions if, you know, their home country is banning travel from the US?? UGH
I think you are mistaking “them” for someone who cares.
I can’t imagine the scrambling happening at the colleges today. Universities like Illinois have a very large percentage of international students. Some smaller schools like Grinnell do as well.
ICE, or its predecessor, has the well-deserved reputation as the most unfriendly government agency. And it shows.
Plenty of speculation that ICE’s policy is part of an effort to coerce colleges into providing in-person instruction
The problem is that most colleges and universities cannot wait a year, and just offer “some classes online.” As colleges discovered after last spring’s abrupt move to remote learning, you cannot find simple ways to “make up money.” The result of the shortened residential term in the spring left many colleges and universities (including the elites) needing to furlough or layoff employees, and make other cuts in their budgets. Colleges are already starting this new academic year with a deficit, even if all students return to the dorms in the fall. That is just after 1/2 semester with students back home. Can you imagine a year? Waiting a year means many non-elites will go under and their students will have to find another college to attend. As @privatebanker has mentioned, the Ivies are not a reliable gauge for the challenges facing higher ed.
I understand the evolving situation makes this scenario possible from a public health standpoint, but if it happens people should be prepared for an avalanche of closings. The competition for state schools and T50-75 will skyrocket because students will have fewer options. Not having “The Great Migration” will have ripple effects in higher ed that many can’t imagine.
Colgate had a town hall this eventing to expand on its recent announcement that all students will be welcomed back this fall. President Casey emphasized that this is still a moving target based upon changes in the situation, but he believes that Colgate will be able to make, what he acknowledges is an “ambitious” plan, work.
As previously announced, all students must provide proof of a negative test within 5-10 days of moving to campus, and will be tested within 2 days of arrival and a week later. There will be additional periodic and random testing though out the semester. Classes will be a mix of online and in-person, with the specifics of each class to be announced in a few weeks.
All students and employees will be required to abide by a code of conduct, with “severe” repercussions for those who violate the rules. Full remote study is available for those who won’t or cannot comply.
Nothing about this will be easy, but an isolated rural school like Colgate is surely better positioned than the larger schools and schools in urban settings. Our son, who will be a freshman, said he is committed to giving it a go. Nerve-wracking for us as parents, but he’s a responsible young adult and I’m confident he will dutifully follow the rules.
Medical Science is starting to weigh in on this and dovetails with Dr Fauci’s testimony. Young people should be in school f2f.
President of the American Academy of Pediatrics advocates for schools to open based on the science of the disease. Children and adolescents.
I think college age students fall into the same category. I also think they can follow the rules around social distancing and masks while in public or be sent home.
“Dr. Goza added that keeping children out of schools worsens racial and social inequalities, or could lead to even worse consequences. "It can lead adolescents to become depressed and anxious, and even suicidal ideations,” the doctor said.
FWIW. I believe a conversation around texting while driving, binge drinking, hazing, sexual assault, mental health and drug use for college students is vip. And scares me much much more than Coronavirus as issues that lead to tragic health outcomes. For them and society at large. Stunning how little they are really discussed at the level of 495 pages of this thread alone.
Regarding kids going back to schools, I read an article a few weeks ago that mentioned a strong reason to have kids back to school is to help ensure there are independent adults (teachers, etc) to help ensure child abuse is being identified and reported.
Wow. That’s a really good point.
Looks like Wesleyan will be among the last of the NESCAC/Ivies to reveal the details of their Fall plans. They were pretty gung-ho back in April, mounting an all but certain return of “most” students absent a show of special need. Now, I’m not so sure. There’s a zoom meeting between the president and alumni scheduled for Thursday. IMO, if this means a Friday-just-before-the-weekend public announcement, it can’t be good news.
@circuitrider Why the alumni?
Purdue’s newspaper just ran an article about international students and online classes. Purdue strongly encouraged current international students not to leave the country in the Spring but itt totally screws the incoming class and those students that did return home. Horrible.
Good question, @GKUnion . Wesleyan is a SLAC; it depends on a significant amount of alumni support, something like $40 milliion a year. Keeping them happy I’m sure is part of the president’s job description.
^ I’d be mildly offended if I was a non-alumni parent of a current student.
Alumni and alumni’s parents received the Bowdoin decision at the same time as the current students. They also had an alumni town hall to discuss!
At Florida Tech, 1/3 of the students are international. Tech is planning in person classes.
Now they just have to get the students into the country.
Not all doom and gloom. Students have to take the minimum number of online courses that they can, so take Bowdoin for example. The only in person class is going to be freshman writing, so the student would have to take that class in person, and then the others are only offered online. If another school offers 4 classes online, the the international student would have to take those classes (if appropriate).
If on an F1 visa, those rules allow one online class but exceptions were made in the spring to finish classes that were in person as online classes. If on another type of visa, I can understand why ICE doesn’t want to issue visas so that the student can attend a school in Pennsylvania but rent an apartment in Texas. ICE doesn’t want to lose track of the student and the school in PA can’t have the student living in TX check in regularly or keep track of them if they drop out. ICE is trying to prevent the situation everyone is suggesting on here - rent a house anywhere and go to school online. Not allowed before covid, not allowed now. Why can’t the French citizen take the classes from France?
@twoinanddone what about all of the Bowdoin students who aren’t freshmen? And internationals at schools like Harvard where all are online?
I would bet that a lot of colleges will be working the new ICE rules into their housing plans for the fall. The money is simply too important; so I would suspect that international students will get priority for in-person classes and therefore would need housing so would also get priority for housing.
I would not be surprised to see a announcement by schools that already made plans for limited on-campus housing to revise those plans to give international students priority which would leave less room for those who had been expecting to live in university housing; i.e domestic freshman at Harvard.
I guess it’s possible some schools may lease rooms from local hotels (and perhaps could get good deals to do so because of a lack of occupancy) but I think that would be only an option at the wealthiest schools. I don’t see how already struggling schools could afford to do so.