International students face special challenges when navigating life in the U.S., writes Roshni Rao, executive director of doctoral and postdoctoral career design at Johns Hopkins University.

To manage, she writes, it's crucial that students engage in active self-advocacy, not just adaptation.

"Understanding and articulating our needs while making informed decisions becomes paramount when navigating the complex terrain of building a career in a new country," she writes. "This isn’t a luxury; it serves as the guiding compass that keeps us oriented and propels us forward in these uncharted waters, far from the security of our familiar shores."

Read the full story here. (January 2024)

The recently overhauled Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, doesn’t give many international students federal money.

But it can be used to apply for many other kinds of aid, including merit scholarships. Jennifer Calonia explains in Forbes Advisor (January 2024)

AzEdNews.com takes a look at money matters for international students in the U.S., including how to open an account and what kinds of accounts are available.

Get the full story here. (January 2024)

MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma — 

The hallways of Bacone College are cold and dark. In the main hall, there are no lectures to be heard, only the steady hum of the space heater keeping the administrative offices warm.

Students aren't attending classes here this semester but work still needs to be done. In the college’s historic buildings, there are leaks to plug, mold to purge and priceless works of Native American art to save from ruin. Not to mention devising a plan to keep the college from shuttering for good. It’s a daunting task for the nine remaining employees.

But on this rainy December morning, the college's president is running a DoorDash order. “If we have the money, we can pay,” Interim President Nicky Michael said regarding salaries.

Founded in 1880 as a Baptist missionary college focused on assimilation, Bacone College transformed into an Indigenous-led institution that provided an intertribal community, as well as a degree. With the permission of the Muscogee Nation Tribal Council, Bacone's founders used a treaty right to establish the college at the confluence of three rivers, where tribal nations had been meeting for generations.

Throughout the 20th century, the center of this was Bacone’s Native American art program, which produced some of the most important Indigenous artists of their time, including Woody Crumbo, Fred Beaver, Joan Hill and Ruthe Blalock Jones.

They and their contemporaries pushed the boundaries of what was considered “Native American art.” During a period of intense hostility against tribal sovereignty by the U.S., Bacone became defined by the exchange of ideas its Native faculty and students created and represented a new opportunity for Indigenous education and academic thought.

“Bacone was the only place in the world where that could happen for Native people,” said Robin Mayes, a Cherokee and Muscogee man who attended Bacone in the ’70s and taught silversmithing there in the ’90s. “It’s a tragedy to think that it’s going to be discontinued.”

For decades, the college has been plagued by poor financial choices and inconsistent leadership, triggering flashpoints between administration, students and staff over the mission and cultural direction of the college.

Some have accused recent administrations of embezzlement, fraud and intimidation, resulting in multiple lawsuits. Students expressed frustration with a lack of resources and cultural competency among some school leaders. The college also has had trouble maintaining its accreditation.

Last year, a lawsuit crippled Bacone's finances. Ultimately, Michael made the decision to suspend classes for the spring semester. She hopes the deferment is temporary, but if the college can't muster up millions of dollars, Oklahoma’s oldest continually operating college likely will close its doors.

“It has endured for over 140 years through terrible decisions,” said Gerald Cournoyer, an instructor who was hired in 2019 to restart the college’s art program.

“Providing oversight for Bacone has been a struggle because of the leadership or lack thereof,” said Cournoyer, who also is a renowned Lakota artist. Some presidents focused time and money on athletic programs, others on Bacone's Baptist missionary roots. “When you put absolutely no money, nothing, not $20, not $10, into your fundraising efforts, this is what you get.”

During the time Patti Jo King was the director of the Center for American Indians at Bacone from 2012 to 2018, leadership wanted to build a state-of-the-art museum to replace the 80-year-old building housing many priceless pieces of Native art.

“We didn’t even have the money to keep it open seven days a week,” said King, now a retired Cherokee professor, writer and academic.

Even when she first arrived on campus, King said Bacone's financial debts already had caught up to it. The student dorms didn’t have hot water, staff were severely underpaid and graduation rates among the college’s remaining students were low.

Still, she and other faculty endeavored to make it a place where Native students could find community, but Bacone’s old problems never went away. Like Cournoyer, after years of working toward rebuilding, she left in frustration.

Today, the old museum is empty. Its artifacts were moved to another location so they wouldn’t be exposed to extreme temperatures.

The remaining staff act as caretakers of the historic stone buildings that predate Oklahoma, themselves important pieces of the past. In the museum, Ataloa Lodge, the fireplace is made of stones sent to the college from Indigenous communities across the country: one from the birthplace of Sequoyah, one from the grave of Sitting Bull, another from the field where Custer died. Five hundred in all, each stone a memory.

Michael, the interim president, and others have been cleaning up buildings in hopes they might soon host graduation banquets and student gatherings. Other staff chase off looters. Rare paintings still hang across campus, including pieces by members of the Kiowa Six, who became internationally famous a century ago, and Johnnie Diacon, a Muscogee painter and alumnus whose work can be seen in the background of several episodes of the television show Reservation Dogs.

A few years ago, experts from a museum in Tulsa warned that many of the paintings are contaminated with mold, which will spread to other nearby works of art. Leslie Hannah, a Cherokee educator who sits on the college’s board of trustees, said he’s concerned, but the cost of restoring them falls far down the list, behind broken gas lines, flooded basements and a mountain of debt.

Bacone’s current financial crisis stems partially from a lawsuit brought by Midgley-Huber Energy Concepts, a Utah-based heating and air company that sued the college over more than $1 million in unpaid construction and service fees. Twice last year, the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office put Bacone’s property up for sale to settle the debt. Both times the auction was called off, most recently in December.

MHEC owner Chris Oberle told KOSU last month that he intended to purchase the historic property. Attorneys for MHEC have not returned repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Alumni have called the validity of any sale of the property into question, pointing to the

treaty right that established the campus and its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Attorneys for the college declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Michael said she doesn’t know what stalled the auction, but she is grateful for more time to try to save Bacone.

The U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings have been criticized by many schools, and some, especially medical and legal programs, have withdrawn from them.

Yet at the same time, many other schools pay U.S. News to advertise their ranking each year. Alan Blinder investigated for the New York Times (January 2024)

International students in the U.S. aren't eligible for aid from the federal government. But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a story from Forbes magazine says. The form can help students get other aid opportunities.

Get the details here. (January 2024)

The OPT program allows international graduates in certain scientific fields the option to remain in the U.S. for few years without being sponsored by an employer for a visa.

The U.S. government is broadening the rules and is making it easier for OPT holders to work for startups. Kim Martin has more for The PIE News (January 2024)

International students often get a flood of advice as they set off to study in the United States.

But there's a key aspect that's often overlooked: how to deal with law enforcement.

Knowing your rights and how the system works can help students feel more confident and informed, says a story from JD Supra.

Get the full story here. (January 2024)

Amid allegations of plagiarism, Harvard President Claudine Gay recently resigned.

The University of Pennsylvania’s president recently stepped down as well. College campuses are at the center of a free speech debate in the U.S., especially surrounding the Israel-Gaza war. Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports for Voice of America. (January 2024)

Despite culture shock and visa challenges, Roshni Rao of Johns Hopkins University thrived by seeking out new connections and being willing to roll with the punches.

She offers advice to international students in this op-ed for Inside Higher Ed. (January 2024)

Iowa State athletes caught in a gambling sting last year were criminally charged and lost NCAA eligibility as a result of improper searches into their online wagering activities, according to defense attorneys' court filings.

Attorneys for former Iowa State football players Isaiah Lee and Jirehl Brock and wrestler Paniro Johnson wrote in motions for discovery last week that special agents for the state Division of Criminal Investigation had no reasonable cause to track their clients' use of sports wagering apps.

The DCI public information officer and the three defense attorneys did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.

Lee, Brock and Johnson were among about two dozen Iowa State and Iowa athletes criminally charged. Those three each face a felony charge of identity theft and an aggravated misdemeanor charge of tampering with records. Former Iowa State football player Enyi Uwazurike, who faces the same charges as the other three in Iowa, is now with the Denver Broncos and was suspended indefinitely for betting on NFL games in 2022.

Most of the Iowa and Iowa State athletes who were charged pleaded guilty to underage gambling, paid fines and had identity theft charges dropped. The identity theft charges stemmed from athletes registering accounts on mobile sports betting apps under different names, usually a relative.

The investigation and prosecutions drew national attention because athletes at the two schools were the primary targets and occurred as the NCAA was addressing concerns about a nationwide expansion of legal sports wagering.

NCAA rules prohibit wagering by athletes, coaches and staff, with athletes losing varying amounts of eligibility depending on the violation. Lee and Brock were among five starters on the Cyclones football team who lost some or all of their eligibility and are no longer in the program.

Johnson, the Big 12 champion at 149 pounds last year, is on the wrestling roster but has not competed for the Cyclones. He has participated in open events as an unattached wrestler.

Lee's attorney, Van Plumb, citing depositions taken two weeks ago, wrote that DCI special agent Brian Sanger conducted warrantless searches on the Iowa campus. Sanger found wagering apps were opened in freshman and sophomore dormitories, but he could not determine whether they were used to make wagers. Sanger asked his superiors for permission to expand the search and was told no, according to the filings.

Sanger then placed a geofence around an Iowa athletic facility and again found evidence of open wagering apps. He requested subpoenas for account information of hundreds of individuals without reasonable cause, Plumb wrote, and the result was indictments against Iowa athletes. Plumb contends their privacy had been invaded.

In his January 19 deposition, Sanger said that while he didn't recall why he conducted warrantless searches, he was concerned about possible match fixing and people infiltrating Iowa's athletic teams to gain insider information.

Johnson's attorney, Christopher Sandy, cited the deposition of DCI special agent Mark Ludwick, who said the search of athletes was illegal and that he was misled by other agents about the purpose of the investigation. He said special agent Troy Nelson had said the nature of the investigation was administrative with the targets being FanDuel, Draft Kings and other online gaming operators.

According to the filing, Ludwick reassured Lee the focus was on the gaming operators and no criminal consequence would come from what was said. Lee made statements regarding his online gaming activities; Ludwick said when he reported his interview to Nelson he was congratulated “for obtaining a confession.”

Ludwick, who told his superiors he would no longer participate and requested reassignment, said there was no geofence warrant and there was no reasonable suspicion to conduct the search. His deposition also was cited in a motion filed by Brock’s attorney, Matthew Boles.

Michigan’s Lake Superior State University released its annual list of misused and overused words – words that should be banished in 2024.

The list, published by CBS News, is intended to provide a lighthearted look at language. And the university is already accepting nominees for the 2025 list. (January 2024)

Prospective international students – and their families — should begin preparing early if they want to enroll in a prestigious university.

In Business Insider, Jerome Barty-Taylor shares tips for getting international students into top U.S. colleges. (January 2024)

More students enrolled at Massachusetts community colleges this past fall as a result of the UMass Community College Advantage Scholarship, which offers $5,000 annual scholarships to community college students finishing in the top 10% of their class.

According to The Daily Hampshire Gazette, another enrollment driver could be MassReconnect, which offers free community college tuition to students 25 and older. (December 2023)

The Wall Street Journal analyzed spending at Auburn University, a public university in the American South renowned for its football programs.

Surprisingly, relatively little of Auburn’s spending surge was educational. Instead, administrators took home higher salaries, new buildings were rapidly constructed and sports programs were lavishly funded.

Read the analysis from Andrea Fuller, Tawnell D. Hobbs, Stephanie Stamm and Andrew Mollica. (December 2023)