Student Union
- By Aline Barros
Foreign Students Anxious Over Immigration Order
Students applying for student visas and Optional Practical Training say they feel anxious over recent immigration orders.
The U.S. government’s recent executive order to suspend the issuance of Lawful Permanent Resident permits (green cards) has left international students at U.S. colleges and universities uncertain about their enrollment and future plans.
Though the decision does not directly affect student visas, it left open the option to review nonimmigrant programs “within 30 days of the effective date of this proclamation” and could recommend “other measures to stimulate the United States economy” (during the COVID-19 crisis).
Student visas are under the nonimmigrant visa category issued to foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States on a temporary basis.
Athiyah Azeem, a journalism student at the University of Maryland who graduates in May, said she applied for Optional Practical Training (OPT) but is worried her paperwork will not be processed before her visa expires.
“When I apply for jobs, it's very much like putting on my cover letter, ‘You don't have to sponsor me.’ I have work authorization that should be kicking [in] by June 1, just because I'm banking on it,” she told VOA.
OPT legally allows college graduates with student visas to stay in the United States and work in their field of study for up to three years.
Azeem, a former intern at VOA, explained that though the executive order does not affect students like her, it adds to the anxiety.
“I get the news alert that [President Donald] Trump is going to come up with an executive order to temporarily ban immigration, I'm just, like, ‘What do I do? ... Can I stay? What's going to happen?’ ” she said.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency responsible for administering the nation's legal immigration system, offices will reopen on June 4, but the USCIS staff has continued to perform duties that do not involve face-to-face contact with the public.
'Absolute unmitigated disaster'
For more than a month, the U.S. government has stopped processing all nonimmigrant visas, flights have been canceled, immigration offices are closed and schools are hosting their classes online.
Rebecca Hamlin, graduate admissions chair at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said concerns have been ongoing about international students since no one can apply to enter the country, even students already accepted at U.S. institutions.
“We've been having calls about this and conversations about this for the past month, about whether or not the students that we had admitted for fall 2020 are going to be able to come. And so far, we just don't know the answer,” she said.
Hamlin said having an executive order covering nonimmigrant visas is an “absolute unmitigated disaster for higher education in this country.”
The higher education industry in the U.S. faced documented evidence of daunting competition from other countries in 2018 that offer lower tuition, immigration pathways and less controversy for international students.
Online publication Inside Higher Ed reports an estimated 15 percent drop in overall student enrollment in the next academic year, including a 25 percent decline in international student enrollment. The findings could mean a loss of $23 billion in revenue.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that even though colleges are taking steps to offset deep revenue losses, universities have furloughed hundreds of employees and announced revenue hits of more than $100 million. Small campuses may suffer the most or not recover at all from the financial challenges of COVID-19.
According to the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) annual Open Doors report, there were 1.1 million international students (5.5 percent of all students) among 19.8 million total students in institutions of higher education in the U.S. for the 2018-19 school year.
China sent the most students — 369,548, or 33.7 percent of all foreign students. India sent 202,014, the second-largest number, or 18.4 percent of all foreign students.
“One of the unfortunate aspects of this is that we can't even offer a remote option for students whose student visa has not been processed in time,” Hamlin said. “Because even though they would not be physically trying to enter the United States, if they were taking classes remotely from their home country, they can't be an officially enrolled student and take classes for a grade until their student visa has been processed.”
After OPT
Azeem said she hopes the work the USCIS staff is doing during the COVID-19 crisis means her OPT application will be finalized by June.
“After OPT, I'm really hoping I will work as much as I can to make sure that I am continually employed under OPT. Then, after gaining work experience, I'm able to apply for an H-1B next year,” she said.
An H-1B visa allows for temporary employment among nonimmigrants. Immigration lawyers say becoming an H-1B holder is a natural progression for international students.
Rosanna Berardi, an immigration lawyer from Buffalo, New York, said most of her clients who applied for H-1B visas were international students.
“They are really going to be shut out, because if you're not able to get an H-1B after your student status expires, you have to return to your home country,” she said.
According to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), students who are not able to keep their visa status have 60 days to return to their home country.
“Some have been here for six years,” Berardi said. “They did their bachelor's degree and then a master's program. … These are people that I love being in immigration because they're just chasing the American dream. They're doing it lawfully, respectfully. They're paying the government their fees. They're paying their taxes.”
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College athletes push for voter turnout while largely avoiding controversy as election nears
Lily Meskers faced an unexpected choice in the lead-up to the first major election she can vote in.
The 19-year-old University of Montana sprinter was among college athletes in the state who received an inquiry from Montana Together asking if she was interested in a name, image and likeness deal to support Sen. Jon Tester, a three-term Democrat seeking re-election. The group, which is not affiliated with the Tester campaign, offered from $400 to $2,400 to athletes willing to produce video endorsements.
Meskers, who is from Colorado but registered to vote in Montana, decided against the deal because she disagrees with Tester's votes on legislation involving transgender athletes in sports.
"I was like, OK, I believe that this is a political move to try to gain back some voters that he might have lost," Meskers said. "And me being a female student-athlete myself, I was not going to give my endorsement to someone who I felt didn't have the same support for me."
Professional athletes such as LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and Stephen Curry have taken high-profile stances on hot-button topics and political campaigns in recent years, but college athletes are far less outspoken — even if money is available, according to experts in the NIL field. Being outwardly political can reflect on their school or endanger potential endorsement deals from brands that don't want controversy. It can certainly establish a public image for an athlete — for better or for worse — or lead to tensions with teammates and coaches who might not feel the same way.
There are examples of political activism by college athletes: A Texas Tech kicker revealed his support for former President Donald Trump on a shirt under his uniform at a game last week and a handful of Nebraska athletes a few days ago teamed up in a campaign ad against an abortion measure on the Tuesday's ballot.
Still, such steps are considered rare.
"It can be viewed as risky and there may be people telling them just don't even take that chance because they haven't made it yet," said Lauren Walsh, who started a sports branding agency 15 years ago. She said there is often too much to lose for themselves, their handlers and in some cases, their families.
"And these individuals still have to figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their lives, even those that do end up getting drafted," she added.
College coaches are not always as reticent. Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has used social media to make it clear he does not support Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in next week's presidential election. Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy once caused a stir with a star player for wearing a shirt promoting a far-right news outlet.
Blake Lawrence, co-founder of the NIL platform Opendorse, noted that this is the first presidential election in the NIL era, which began in July 2021. He said athletes are flocking to opportunities to help increase voter turnout in the 18-to-24 age demographic, adding that one of his company's partners has had 86 athletes post social media messages encouraging turnout through the first half of the week.
He said athletes are shying away from endorsing specific candidates or causes that are considered partisan.
"Student-athletes are, for the most part, still developing their confidence in endorsing any type of product or service," he said. "So if they are hesitant to put their weight behind supporting a local restaurant or an e-commerce product, then they are certainly going to be hesitant to use their social channels in a political way."
Giving athletes a voice
Many college athletes have opted to focus on drumming up turnout in a non-partisan manner or simply using their platforms to take stands that are not directly political in nature. Some of those efforts can be found in battleground states.
A progressive group called NextGen America said it had signed players in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia to encourage voting among young people. Another organization, The Team, said it prepped 27 college athletes in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan to lead volunteer voter participation opportunities for students. The organization also said it got more than 625 coaches to sign a nonpartisan pledge to get their athletes registered to vote.
The Team's executive director is Joe Kennedy, a former coach who coordinated championship visits and other sporting events at the White House during President Barack Obama's administration. In early October, it hosted a Zoom event during which panelists such as NCAA President Charlie Baker and WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Natasha Cloud gave college athletes advice about using their platforms on campus.
In its early days, The Team seized upon momentum from the record turnout seen in the 2020 election. The NCAA that year said Division I athletes could have Election Day off from practice and play to vote. Lisa Kay Solomon, founder of the All Vote No Play campaign, said even if the athletes don't immediately take stands on controversial issues, it's important for them to learn how.
"It is a lot to ask our young people to feel capable and confident on skills they've never had a chance to practice," Solomon said. "We have to model what it means to practice taking risks, practice standing up for yourself, practice pausing to think about what are the values that you care about — not what social media is feeding into your brain, but what do you care about and how do you express that? And how do you do it in a way that honors the kind of future that you want to be a part of?"
Shut up and play?
Two years ago, Tennessee-Martin quarterback Dresser Winn said he would support a candidate in a local district attorney general race in what experts said was very likely the first political NIL deal by a college athlete.
There have been very few since.
The public criticism and fallout for athletes who speak out on politics or social issue can be sharp. Kaepernick, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, hasn't played in an NFL game since January 2017, not long after he began kneeling during the national anthem at games.
Meskers, the Montana sprinter, said political endorsements through NIL deals could create problems for athletes and their schools.
"I just think that NIL is going to run into a lot of trouble and a lot of struggles if they continue to let athletes do political endorsements," she said. "I just think it's messy. But I stand by NIL as a whole. I think it's really hard as a student athlete to create a financial income and support yourself."
Walsh said it's easier for wealthy and veteran stars like James and Ogwumike to take stands. James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, started More Than a Vote — an organization with a mission to "educate, energize and protect Black voters" — in 2020. He has passed the leadership to Ogwumike, who just finished her 13th year in the WNBA and also is the president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association. More than a Vote is focused on women's rights and reproductive freedom this year.
"They have very established brands," Walsh said. "They know who they are and they know what their political stance is. They know that they have a really strong following that -- there's always going to be haters, but they're also always going to have that strong following of people who listen to everything that they have to say."
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor at Emory University who teaches African American politics, also said it is rare that a college athlete would make a significant impact with a political stand simply because they tend to have a more regional platform than national. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Eminem are better at increasing turnout than championing candidates.
"They are certainly very beneficial in helping to drive up turnout among their fans," Gillespie said. "The data is less conclusive about whether or not they're persuasive – are they the ones who are going to persuade you to vote for a particular candidate?"
Athletes as influencers
Still, campaigns know young voters are critical this election cycle, and athletes offer an effective and familiar voice to reach them.
Political and social topics are not often broached, but this week six Nebraska athletes — five softball players and a volleyball player — appeared in an ad paid for by the group Protect Women and Children involving two initiatives about abortion laws on Tuesday's ballot.
The female athletes backed Initiative 434, which would amend the state constitution to prohibit abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions. Star softball player Jordy Bahl said on social media that the athletes were not paid.
A University of Montana spokesperson said two athletes initially agreed to take part in the NIL deal backing Tester. The school said one withdrew and the other declined to be interviewed.
For Meskers, deciding against the offer boiled down to Tester twice voting against proposals to bar federal funds from going to schools that allow transgender athletes to play women's sports, a prominent GOP campaign topic. Tester's campaign said the proposals were amendments to government spending packages, and he didn't want to play a role in derailing them as government shutdowns loomed.
"As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level," a Tester spokesperson said. "He has never voted to allow men to compete against women."
Meskers said she believes using influence as college athletes is good and she is in favor of NIL. She just doesn't think the two should mix specifically for supporting candidates.
"I think especially as student athletes, we do have such a big voice and we do have a platform to use," she said. "So I think if you're encouraging people to do their civic duties and get up and go (vote), I think that's a great thing."
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More than $140 million from billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s charitable programs have been spent getting talented low-income students into top colleges, but an analysis of those programs found they fell short of goals.
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Music students find community through 'international chat' program
State University of New York at Fredonia is trying a new method to help international music students feel at home.
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Read the full story here. (October 2024)
