Fall semester brings uncertainty due to pandemic and new guidelines for international students. Photo by Robert Rios.
By Brenda Fernanda Verano, News Editor
While universities across the country, many of the approximately 1 million international students who are planning on studying in the U.S. in the fall semester await the ruling of a federal judge tomorrow that could determine whether they can remain in the country past July 15, the California State University has a little more breathing room.
Wednesday is the deadline for universities that plan on offering only instruction solely in the fall to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the ICE website, schools that will offer in-person or a hybrid of in-person and online classes have until August 1 to notify ICE.
New restrictions announced last Monday by ICE stipulated that international students attending campuses that will be completely online must either transfer to a college that offers in-person classes or risk deportation.
The Wednesday deadline, however, does not apply to the California Student University system, according to Dr. Hamoud Salhi, associate dean of Extended and International Education and senior international officer. He said CSU’s have until Aug. 1 to report their designation, and Aug. 4 is the deadline for all international students to enroll in at least one hybrid class.
“This is the deadline… to have all international students register in at least one hybrid class,” Salhi said. “If students are unable to register in such a class, regardless of the circumstances, they must leave theUS or risk deportation.”
Salhi said that since the decision was announced last Monday, CSUDH has been working in close conjunction with the Chancellor’s Office.
According to Salhi, the university is currently identifying and assessing what 3-unit, in-person classes can be made available to international students without compromising their health and safety.
ICE lists three educational models for fall 2020: remote, in-person and hybrid. A remote model is one where, “students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the U.S,” as stated on the official website of the Department of Homeland Security. The in-person model consists of schools operating under their normal in-person classes, where students may take a maximum of one class online to remain in the country. Finally the third is a hybrid model, a mixture of online and in person classes, where students will also be able to stay in the country as long as they take at least one three-unit- online class.
According to Salhi, although the majority of classes at all 23 CSU campuses will be online in the fall, the fact that some will be offered in-person puts CSU’s in the third category. But that means the university now has to create in-person classes for its approximately 150 international students, since, “every international student who plans on remaining in the U.S. and attending CSUDH will need to have at least one face-to-face 3-unit course,” he said.
But this is not the case for all of California’s educational institutions. Unless the federal judge suspends the ruling tomorrow, international students whose schools plan to resume the fall semester exclusively online must now leave the U.S. by July 15 or risk deportation. “Basically, you are given less than a week to pack and leave,” said Salhi.
However, for some students returning home and continuing their studies is not an option. The Trump administration and ICE are quick to dismiss the fact that not all students have access to internet connection back home, while also disregarding that many of the countries these students come from are in volatile regions, like Iran whose many geographically separated areas have been targets for unexplained fires and explosions since June 26.
Dr. Salhi said the new regulation could be a tactic to negatively affect the financial stability of universities by the threat of losing revenues that international students pay in increased tuition fees.
“[Trump] can’t force universities to open, but they can use these federal decisions as punishment because international students contribute so much to the revenues of their universities,” Salhi said.
“While international students do benefit universities in the amount of money they generate through higher tuition fees,” Salhi said their real benefits come through the, “huge value on the intellectual and educational growth of the university.”
Anessa Escobar, the International Student Services (ISS) adviser, wanted international students to know that they are not alone and that the ISS office is here to support them. “The ISS office is doing its best to keep students informed of any new developments, we will be resuming the weekly zoom meetings for international students,” she said.