Student Union
- By Parth Vohra
Is Campus Violence in US Scaring Foreign Students?
As violence unfolded near the University of Virginia-Charlottesville recently, international students about to start school in the U.S. asked themselves: “What just happened?”
Devesh Sahai, a junior in economics and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia-Charlottesville (UVA), was in India when Charlottesville dissolved into violence. He said he has never felt threatened by white supremacy and has not faced discrimination since he joined UVA in fall 2015.
But the events in a park near campus made him “a lot more cautious” when he returned this fall.
“On several occasions, I have had to deal with ignorance towards my cultural background, but at no point have I found this ignorance malicious,” said Sahai.
Among the uninformed questions about his ethnicity?
“What part of India is Dubai in?” or “Do you speak Indian?” Sahai explained. (Answer: Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates along the Persian Gulf. And, most of India speaks English because the British colonized the country for nearly 200 years.)
UVA hired Virginia firm MSA Security to assess safety-risks for large campus events, and it has increased campus police on UVA grounds, among other safety measures, according to University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan on Thursday.
“Such events obviously make you consider the limitations of freedom of expression,” Sahai said. “While an integral tenet of democracy, freedom of expression needs to have boundaries … freedom of expression needs to be curtailed the moment it turns violent.”
Ali Muhsen, an environmental systems engineering senior at the Pennsylvania State University in State College from Kuwait, has weighed freedom of expression on college campuses. He says he is against it becoming a platform for “hate,” or “supremacy.”
“Giving a stage and an audience to someone who will encourage and spread hatred is not something I’d ever encourage,” wrote Muhsen to VOA Student Union.
At UC-Berkeley, 132 faculty members are pondering the same issues.
The faculty members have written to the campus community and called for a boycott of classes and campus activities during “Free Speech Week” September 24-27. The Berkeley Patriot, a conservative student group, said it had invited conservative personalities Milo Yiannopoulos, Steve Bannon and Ann Coulter to speak.
“As faculty, we cannot ask students and staff to choose between risking their physical and mental safety in order to attend class or come to work in an environment of harassment, intimidation, violence and militarized policing,” the faculty letter stated.
But this week, Bannon and Coulter said they would not be at the event because of "logistical issues," the Daily Californian reported.
Muhsen moved to the United States to study for an undergraduate degree in engineering in fall 2012, he said. He is part of the Kuwaiti Student Association on campus and is managing public relations for his club this semester.
Like Sahai, Muhsen said he has not faced discrimination in the United States, except when someone used a “racial slur” against him at a pit stop enroute to another city, he recalled.
White supremacy “doesn’t frighten me because I have hope that the world will not allow for such a thing to continue and grow stronger,” Muhsen wrote to VOA StudentU.
Neither does it frighten Jack Liu, an agribusiness management junior at the Michigan State University, who said he sometimes feels unsafe on campus because of the “unpredictable” nature of colleges campuses across the United States.
“It's like we never know what is going to happen in next second no matter where you are.”
Liu who is from Zhengzhou, China, moved to the United States for college in fall 2015.
While Sahai, Muhsen and Liu say they don’t worry about white supremacy, its presence continues to grow on college campuses, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Since September 2016, 188 instances of white supremacist propaganda have been identified on 126 college campuses in 39 states, it said in a press release.
Liu hopes that incidences of violence such as Charlottesville never occur at MSU or any other campus in the future.
“It was terrible what happened,” he wrote to VOA StudentU, “and it made students want to hide in fear or be afraid.”
Please leave a comment here, and visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, thanks!
See all News Updates of the Day
‘College Deserts’ leave many communities without higher education options
“College Deserts” – areas where high schools are located more than 30 miles away from the nearest community college – leave large groups of people unable to pursue higher education because of transportation problems, Lexi Lonas Cochran writes in The Hill.
Most college deserts are in the Southern U.S., with a recent study in Texas showing that long commuting distances discourage many potential students from attending college. (December 2024)
Analysts say rate of college closures likely to increase
If current trends continue, the rate of college closures is expected to increase, according to a new study reported in Forbes.
Closures are more likely to affect private institutions, and while the number of closures might seem small on a national level, it could cause serious problems for the smaller and mid-sized communities where those colleges are located. (December 2024)
Judge upholds racial considerations in US Naval Academy admissions
Although the U.S. Supreme Court last year decided that civilian colleges and universities could not consider race or ethnicity in admissions, a judge ruled that the U.S. Naval Academy had established a national security interest in a diverse officer corps.
That means the academy – and other military service academies – can continue to consider race. A similar policy at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has also been challenged, but that case has not yet gone to trial, according to a report in Navy Times. (December 2024)
Harvard recommends gap year as a strategic move
While some students and parents see the gap year as a waste of time, others see the break in academic studies as valuable for developing maturity, earning money or focusing goals.
MSN.com explains some of the reasons why Harvard – and other prestigious schools in the United States – are recommending that students take a gap year. (December 2024)
Student dilemma: Financial aid applications can expose undocumented parents
Many students in the U.S. rely on financial aid to attend colleges and universities, but as Julia Barajas reports in LAist.com, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid could cause a dilemma for students with an undocumented parent.
If students fill out the application, they will share their parents’ financial information – and potentially raise questions about their immigration status -- with the federal government. If they don’t fill out the application, they won’t get federal financial aid. (December 2024)
