Despite rule reversal, SEMO foreign student program facing challenges

The Trump administration has reversed a proposed policy announced last week that would have barred international students from staying in the U.S. while taking classes solely online.

The policy, announced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), would have required international university students to be enrolled in traditional “face-to-face” classes this fall in order to enter — or remain in — the United States. Foreign students enrolled at universities that plan to operate entirely online this fall would be required to leave.

The announcement was made as many universities across the nation prepare to shift more coursework online during the fall semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was met with several lawsuits asking the courts to keep it from being enforced. A U.S. district judge in Massachusetts announced Tuesday afternoon a settlement had been reached in a suit filed by Harvard University and that ICE would withdraw the policy.

The court action capped a week of questions and confusion for international students and university administrators alike.

‘What does it mean?’

“As soon as the ICE announcement came out last Monday, we got tons of emails and phone calls from concerned students asking, ‘What does it mean?’” said Kevin Timlin, executive director of international education and services at Southeast Missouri State University.

The day after ICE released its proposed guidelines, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), which is a branch of ICE, issued a list of “frequently asked questions” about the policy, which Timlin said resulted in more questions than answers.

“Unfortunately, there were a lot of issues that were either not addressed or there was contradictory information between the Monday and Tuesday reports,” he said. “It left us with a whole host of questions.”

But even if it had gone into effect, Timlin said the proposed ICE regulations would have had little or no impact on Southeast.

“All institutions have to report to ICE if they’re going to be operating fully face-to-face as normal, operating completely online or operating in a hybrid capacity,” he said. A hybrid model would include a combination of online and in-person classes.

Southeast plans to offer “HyFlex” (short for hyperflex) courses this fall, allowing students to take classes online, in person or a hybrid of the two modes.

“We think we’ll be justified in telling ICE we’re operating in a hybrid capacity,” Timlin said. “Hybrid, according to ICE, is considered face-to-face, so our students would have been perfectly fine.”

Reversal of the ICE policy will permit a continuation of the policy that went into effect in the spring during the initial coronavirus outbreak when many universities — including Southeast — converted to online classes.

Visas

But Timlin said there’s another issue related to the pandemic that poses a significant challenge not only for Southeast but for virtually all the nation’s universities that serve international students.

“During the pandemic, staffing by the State Department embassies and consulate offices around the world has been reduced and they have suspended processing of what they call ‘nonessential’ visas,” he said. “Student visas are considered nonessential, so for the fall semester, we have had a great number of applications and admissions from international students around the world, but very, very few, if any, will be able to get visas to start in the fall.”

Those who are able to apply for visas are being declined “at a much higher rate in the last few years,” Timlin added.

As a result, he said, “the incoming class of international students across the country is going to be practically nonexistent.”

Declining enrollment

Southeast’s international student population accounted for approximately 10% of the university’s enrollment in 2015, when the number of foreign students on campus reached its peak of 1,131. In recent years, the school’s international census has fallen significantly, dropping to about 630 during the 2019-2020 academic year.

There have been several reasons for Southeast’s declining international student enrollment, Timlin said. In addition to growing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak in America, many students, he said, are beginning to have a negative image about the U.S.

“There are a lot of things going on societally that kind of cast us in a negative light in other countries,” he said.

“There’s some hope on the horizon,” Timlin said. “We have some students from a few counties that are telling us they have visa appointments later this month, so we’re hopeful we’ll still be able to admit some of those students, it’s just not going to be nearly as many as we would typically do.”

Many of the foreign students at Southeast come from India, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan and South Korea, often to study computer science, cybersecurity and business.

“We also have a lot of Saudi Arabian students, but that number has been on the decline in the last five years because of a governmental scholarship program in their country that doesn’t offer the same level of support as it did before,” Timlin noted.

Good word-of-mouth

Still, he said, Southeast remains a popular choice for many foreign students aspiring to study in the U.S.

“Our number of international student applications has increased over the last couple of years even though our enrollment has declined,” Timlin said, “and a lot of that has to do with word-of-mouth from our current international students about the experiences they’ve had here and the support they get here. This is still a place people want to come to and that’s largely due to the administration and the overall support for international students by our entire university community.”

Specifically, he credits Southeast president Carlos Vargas and vice president for enrollment management and student success Debbie Below for the success of the university’s international student program.

“Having the support of Dr. Vargas and Dr. Below really makes what we do a lot easier,” he said.

According to NAFSA: Association of International Educators, there were nearly 1.1 million foreign students in the United States in 2019 who contributed approximately $41 billion to the nation’s economy and supported nearly 460,000 American jobs. Missouri ranked 15th in the nation last year with 22,428 international students who spent almost $638 million in the state.

In Missouri’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Southeast and several other colleges and universities, 2,192 international students supported 558 jobs and contributed almost $51 million to the region’s economy in 2019.

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