The News
The Trump administration is weighing a ban on allowing foreign students at certain US colleges if the government deems them too “pro-Hamas,” Axios reported.
The plan would involve revoking schools’ certifications to accept student visa-holders. “We gave you a visa to come and study to get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, following the detention of a foreign student at Tufts University.
The discussions mark the latest escalation in tension between the administration and colleges in the wake of pro-Palestinian student protests that rocked campuses across the country in the last two years. More than 300 students have reportedly had their visas revoked, while scores of universities are under investigation for antisemitism.
SIGNALS
Trump crackdown could erode US universities’ bottom line
Foreign students are coveted sources of revenue for US universities, providing $43.8 billion dollars to the economy and supporting more than 378,000 jobs in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to an organization that promotes international education. It’s not yet clear whether Trump’s policies will cause a sharp decline in foreign students, but 40% of US colleges saw fewer applications from international students during his first term. The administration is also mulling a wide-ranging travel ban on more than 43 countries, which could further cut international enrollment. Amid added uncertainty over federal funding, a proposed increase in the endowment tax, and cuts to research grants, many colleges have already frozen hiring, while some have even laid off workers.
Administration faces legal challenges over student visa cancellations
The administration’s embrace of rarely used laws to cancel student visas has opened it up to a range of legal challenges. In the high-profile case of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder, the administration leveraged a little-known provision that allows the secretary of state to deport someone whose presence has “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” “The theory of the case that they’re advancing here is astonishingly broad,” one Columbia University lawyer told The Guardian; Khalil’s lawyers argue that he is being punished for his political views. His and several other students’ challenges against the administration will now have to play out in court.
Universities weigh how to respond to Trump
US universities have taken drastically different responses to the Trump administration’s pressure on campuses and willingness to freeze hundreds of millions in federal funding. New York’s Columbia University made sweeping changes as demanded by the administration, even as some its own law professors argued they had no legal basis. The president of Princeton University decried Trump’s attack on Columbia as “a radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research,” and the “greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s.” In one recent poll, 94% of university presidents agreed that the Trump administration is “at war” with higher education, but so far only a handful of leaders have spoken out publicly.