This pandemic has raised serious questions about education at every level. Should teachers be pressured and guilted into returning to the classroom because society needs them to when society has failed to slow the spread of COVID-19? What does remote learning look like for second graders? High school students? College students? What do families do about childcare? Can students effectively learn from home even if their parents can work from home, given that parents are still working and not able to supervise online learning effectively? And the latest is: how do international students at universities teaching online in the fall maintain their lawful status?
ICE announced Monday that international students taking fully online coursework in Fall 2020 cannot remain in the United States. This announcement, known already as the #StudentBan, follows a decision by many universities to teach online in the coming semester as COVID-19 cases continue surging in the US. The move is designed to force international students out of the country or to force universities to hold in-person classes during a pandemic. This is both cruel and stupid.
Partly, this is about the Trump administration trying to force schools and universities to “open up” for in-person classes so they can keep pretending the pandemic is over and get back to “business as usual.” Partly, this is the administration’s demonstrated xenophobia (which has not only targeted “undocumented” folks). Partly, this is a lack of understanding (or, more likely, willful ignorance) about the financial reality of US higher education.
This is obviously cruel to our international students. They’re being told, “if your program is online for health and safety reasons during a global pandemic, you will be removed from the country, and if you don’t want to be removed you need to transfer to a school with in-person classes.” This is also economically ruinous, as international students’ tuition and fees fuel American higher education. International students subsidize domestic students, making higher education attainable despite declining public investment in colleges and universities. And this is a detriment to our learning communities and to our domestic students, as we gain so much from exchange, interaction, and community with folks from different backgrounds and lived experiences.
Also, no students are “online students” right now. We are in a pandemic. The CSU announced early and definitively that a majority of Fall 2020 classes will be held online (some labs or clinics as exceptions). This was the safe, health-conscious, responsible decision for the well-being of our campus community. Not many of us are relishing teaching and learning online. But as I keep harping to anyone who will listen: this is not online learning, this is pandemic learning, and they are not the same thing. We are now going to punish our international students for US society’s failure to follow basic social distancing to slow the pandemic? We knew what we needed to do and we didn’t do it. That’s on us, not on them.
So, to follow Chris Marsicano’s suggestions for battling the #StudentBan: First, tweet and post about the #StudentBan, using the hashtag to keep this trending. Second, call your members of Congress, particularly members of the Judiciary Committees in the House and Senate, and tell them you oppose the #StudentBan. Third, write OpEds like this one – organize with other colleagues to take turns writing them to keep the conversation alive. And for the love of God, vote.
Sara Salazar Hughes, Ph.D is an assistant professor of global studies at CSU Monterey Bay.
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July 14, 2020 at 05:28AM
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Guest Commentary: #StudentBan both cruel and stupid - Monterey Herald
"stupid" - Google News
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