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Perspective: A Uniquely American Crisis

Bonnie Taylor
/
Pixabay

We’re all suffering from outrage fatigue, making it hard to pay attention to all the new outrages. But please don’t miss this one. Trump, in a masterstroke of “two-for-the-price-of-one awfulness” managed to put bullseyes on both international students and university budgets.

America has hugely benefitted from having colleges and universities welcome foreign students. For decades we’ve attracted the world’s brightest minds to our shores for undergraduate and graduate degrees. A great many of these students end up settling here, immeasurably contributing to the US economy and our future. Others, having had a great educational experience, return to their home countries and become leaders there, while acting as informal ambassadors for America. At the same time, given the deep cuts to public higher education in recent years, many universities depend on the financing most international students bring. 

In a highly cynical effort to both force universities to open for on-campus classes, risking further spread of coronavirus, and deport foreign students, the president recently ordered ICE to eject foreign students if their classes are being taught remotely, rather than face-to-face.

If this new policy were to be implemented, the damage would be multi-facetted, without a single upside for anyone. It must not be enacted, especially in light of the health crisis we’re currently enduring, and its heavy economic toll.  I ask you to join me in taking action against this policy by both taking it to your social media platforms, and by writing to your local, state and federal elected officials. Tell them how important it is that our colleges and universities continue to be beacons of global knowledge, and how important it is that right now we do whatever is necessary to solve, not exacerbate, this uniquely American health crisis, and our uniquely American political crisis.

I’m Reed Schererand that’s my perspective.

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