The University of Connecticut released a statement Wednesday decrying a Trump administration directive for international students enrolled at schools holding courses only online to leave the United States.
In the letter addressed to “UConn Nation,” Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Carl Lejuez wrote the directive by Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be devastating to UConn, which has 2,055 international undergraduate and graduate students in Connecticut, including 1,558 who are currently abroad and unable to return to campus.
“We are frustrated by this decision and the way it targets international students, who have already endured so many challenges related to the pandemic,” Lejuez wrote. “This new ICE directive will cause severe disruption to the lives of our international students, a core part of the UConn family.”
In a press release sent out Monday, ICE said international students in the U.S. whose schools move to all online instruction this fall — as most colleges and universities did during the spring semester, after the COVID-19 forced shutdowns in March — must leave the country or use other possibly available methods to maintain legal residency like taking medical leave.
Taking steps to ban international students from attending U.S. higher education institutions could be devastating to those schools’ budgets, because these students typically pay full tuition and housing fees, as opposed to the approximately 90% of U.S. college students who receive some form of financial assistance.
[Read more: CT colleges will see fewer high-paying international students this fall amid COVID-19 fears]
UConn had already expected its international student enrollment rate to drop by as much as 25% this fall. The university estimated it would lose between $9.4 million and $13.5 million in fiscal 2021 if the school ceded between 40% and 65% of its international students.Â
In a worst case scenario where UConn is still fully online, with bigger losses of international and out-of-state students, it would lose about $121.6 million, UConn President Thomas Katsouleas told UConn’s board of trustees in April.
In a board of trustees meeting last month, before the ICE directive was released, board members and university administrators announced UConn will end four of its sports programs, including men’s tennis and women’s rowing, as the state’s flagship university projects a $47 million budget shortfall for the fall semester.
Lejuez, UConn’s provost, wrote in his Wednesday letter that the university’s global affairs team and graduate school are studying the new restrictions and developing guidance and strategies to try to allow as many international students as possible.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong also released a statement this week opposing the Trump administration directive.
“My office is dedicated to protecting Connecticut and her residents, including our immigrant neighbors, and we stand ready to lead our sister states in doing so yet again,” Tong said.
In addition to UConn, Wesleyan University released a statement saying under the Trump administration, “the federal government has demonized immigrants and undermined the security of many who were temporarily in the United States to work or study.”
Harvard University and MIT in neighboring Massachusetts sued the Trump administration over the order, with Harvard President Larry Bacow saying, “its cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness.”
