Latest news with #SarahSpreitzer
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal government revokes visas for eight OSU international students
Oklahoma State University confirmed eight OSU international students have had visas revoked. According to the university, International Student Services monitors the records frequently for changes and notifies students. 'The university is continuing to monitor the situation and is focused on providing appropriate guidance and support to those impacted,' a university statement reads. A report Monday from the Associate Press said Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA and Ohio State University reported student visas being revoked among a 'growing list' of colleges. OSU Communications would not immediately confirm which countries the students with revoked visas were from, or questions of possible rules that may have been violated, citing possible Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act restrictions. FERPA limits access to private student information. OSU said it had approximately 1,500 international students. In national reports, some of the more of the publicly known revocations of visas was tied to pro-Palestinian protests. In many cases, no reasons have been given to universities, according to the AP. 'The very public actions that are being taken by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security around some of these students, where they are removing these students from their homes or from their streets, that's not usually done unless there is a security issue when a student visa is revoked,' Sarah Spreitzer of the American Council on Education told the AP. 'The threat of this very quick removal is something that's new.'
Washington Post
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Feds are revoking student visas without notifying colleges
Scores of international students and scholars across the country have recently learned that their visas have been abruptly revoked, according to university leaders, leaving college officials scrambling to understand what is happening and how to advise frightened students. It is unclear how many visas have been revoked or whether the targeted people were all notified that they must now leave the country, college officials said. It's alarming, said Sarah Spreitzer, vice president and chief of staff for government relations at the American Council on Education, which led a group of 15 higher education associations asking the departments of State and Homeland Security for more information about what is happening as schools report that international student records have been terminated in a federal database. 'We are very concerned,' she said. Typically universities would enter changes to the database, rather than the government, said Miriam Feldblum, chief executive of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. But in recent days universities have found records terminated by the government without clear reasons or recourse for appeal or corrections. The actions appear to be 'arbitrary, unpredictable, unresolvable,' and are creating havoc on campus and alarm for anyone on campus who is not a U.S. citizen, she said. The latest changes are adding to the climate of uncertainty on many college campuses as moves by the Trump administration rapidly upend budgets, policies and practices. Spokespeople for the departments of State and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Last month, after high-profile detentions and pursuit of students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that federal officials had already revoked many visas and would continue to do so. 'Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,' he said. Trump has vowed to deport international students involved in 'pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American' protests over the Israel-Gaza war. This latest flurry of revocations may be tied to minor infractions of the law such as traffic tickets, rather than protest activity, several university officials said; many institutions are trying to discern if there is any pattern. In some cases, the infractions were known at the time the visa was issued or renewed. Students and others are asking for more specifics, said Fanta Aw, the chief executive of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, so if there's an error they can correct it, and if not, they can figure out how to proceed. Some schools have reported detentions of international students and scholars in the last several days. Many colleges have alerted their campus community to the situation. At most schools, officials are reporting fewer than a dozen students affected. At Arizona State University, federal authorities revoked visas of at least eight students in cases that, according to a spokesman for the university, did not appear to be related to campus protests. In some cases they may have been connected to minor legal infractions, he said. The University of California system said that students at several of its campuses have seen visas terminated, calling it a fluid situation. A spokeswoman for the University of California at Berkeley said that six people had visas terminated last week: One undergraduate, three graduate students and two recent graduates working in the optional practice training program for science, technology, engineering and math students which allows students on visas to apply to stay longer to get experience in their field. Over the weekend, UCLA's chancellor Julio Frenk said six current students and six people participating in a training program had their records terminated in the database. At Harvard University, the school learned during a routine record review that three students and two recent graduates have had their student visas revoked, officials said. At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Chancellor Javier Reyes told the campus community that five students had their visa status revoked. The university was not notified by federal authorities of these status revocations and only became aware 'as a result of proactive checks in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database,' he wrote. School officials will keep monitoring that database, he said, for further updates. 'Like so many others, I came to the United States to study through the student visa program,' Reyes wrote. 'We came to better ourselves, better our communities, and better the country that welcomed us as scholars.' Veena Dubal, general counsel at the American Association of University Professors, and a professor of law at the University of California at Irvine, said the association is urging administrators to ensure affected students have access to legal counsel, and to keep them enrolled. It's not clear that the database status changes are lawful, she said. Some students reported getting emails that notified them that their visas were revoked and directing them to self-deport through a Homeland Security app, without information about whether it was possible to appeal the decision, according to the American Council on Education. A group of 15 national higher education associations have asked to meet with officials from the departments of State and Homeland Security to clarify the situation. ACE sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem asking for an explanation amid reports that student visas are being revoked and records terminated in SEVIS without information being shared with schools they attend. The groups also asked about recent communication to U.S. consulates requiring enhanced social media vetting for all student visa applicants. They wrote that they support the need of the U.S. government to protect national security, including by vetting visa applicants and those currently in the country. The hope, said Bernard Burrola, vice president for international, community and economic engagement at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, is 'to get some clarity from the government so we can ensure that our schools are compliant and our students are compliant, and remove some of this ambiguity and uncertainty for our international students about their status.' More than a million international students attend colleges in the U.S. every year, contributing nearly $44 billion to the national economy, according to NAFSA. Right now, many students accepted to U.S. colleges are deciding whether to enroll — or, Spreitzer said, perhaps choose to study in another country.
Boston Globe
24-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump's higher ed crackdown could deter international student enrollment. These New England schools could be hit hard.
'When a student is thinking about making an investment in their education, and they're looking at which English-speaking country they may be going to, it's going to be harder for the United States to stay competitive,' said Sarah Spreitzer, vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education. In New England, any decrease in enrollment could be a significant hit. Nearly a dozen schools in the region count more than 1,000 international students each, and at some universities, international students are a significant presence on campus. At Northeastern University, international students made up 38 percent of the school population in Fall 2024, according to Advertisement Other institutions have international cohorts numbering in the low hundreds — but for small colleges, that's often still enough to make up a sizable percentage of the student body. Overall in 2023-24, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy, in tuition and fees as well as living expenses, according to the NAFSA Association of International Educators. Given Boston's reputation as a bastion of higher education, it's no surprise that a big slice of the economic impact — $3.9 billion, according to NAFSA — is of international students, behind California, New York, and Texas, supporting thousands of jobs in retail, dining, and other sectors. 'They're renting apartments, they're buying cars, they're purchasing goods and services in the communities where their institution of higher education is located,' said Spreitzer. 'So it's a huge economic advantage for the United States to welcome these international students.' Advertisement But recent moves by the Trump administration have put current and prospective international students on edge. Earlier this month, immigration officials arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student and legal permanent resident, Last week, Brown warned international students, including permanent residents, to Related : That means the U.S. may lose interested students to other countries such as Canada and Australia, which have seen their international enrollments surge in recent years. Spreitzer said those countries offer something that the United States, at the moment, does not: the certainty that 'once you're in,' immigration authorities won't suddenly 'change the terms' of entrance to the country, in law or in practice. That's especially an issue considering that international students often pay 'full freight' tuition and fees — effectively helping pay for domestic students on scholarships and financial aid. For small colleges that Here are some the colleges and universities in New England with the largest populations of international students, according to online data published by the schools. Advertisement Harvard University, Cambridge International students overall (undergraduate and graduate): 6,631 (27 percent of total student population) as of Fall 2023 International graduate/professional students: 5,645 (32 percent) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge International students overall (undergraduate and graduate): 3,455 (29 percent) as of Fall 2024 International graduate/professional students: 2,926 (40 percent) Northeastern University, Boston International students overall: 18,508 (38 percent) as of Fall 2024 International graduate/professional students: 15,285 (64 percent) Boston University, Boston International students overall: 10,740 (29 percent) as of Fall 2023 International graduate/professional students: 6,441 (36 percent) Tufts University, Medford/Somerville International students overall: 1,912 (14 percent) as of Fall 2024 International graduate/professional students: 971 (15 percent) Babson College, Wellesley International students overall: 1,358 (34 percent) as of Fall 2024 International graduate/professional students: 516 (45 percent) Berklee College of Music, Boston International students overall: 2,101 (39 percent) Boston College, Chestnut Hill International students overall: 1,873 (12 percent) as of Fall 2023 International graduate/professional students: 938 (18 percent) Brandeis University, Waltham International students overall: 1,280 (25 percent) as of Fall 2024 International graduate/professional students: 580 (37 percent) Brown University, Providence, R.I. International students overall: 2,470 (21 percent) International graduate, non-medical students: 1,397 (41 percent) Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. International students overall: 1,470 (21 percent) as of Fall 2024 International graduate/professional students: 762 (32 percent) Emerson College, Boston International students overall: 896 (16 percent) as of Fall 2023 Hult International Business School, Cambridge International students overall: 945 (87 percent) as of Fall 2024 International graduate students: 531 (94 percent) Rhode Island School of Art & Design, Providence, R.I. International students overall: 924 (37 percent) College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine International undergraduate students: 77 (21 percent) as of Fall 2023 Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley International undergraduate students: 428 (20 percent) as of Fall 2024 Suffolk University, Boston International students overall: 948 (14 percent) as of Fall 2023 International graduate, non-law students: 398 (18 percent) Wellesley College, Wellesley International students overall: 316 (13 percent) as of Fall 2024 Yale University, New Haven, Conn. International students overall: 3,564 (24 percent) as of Fall 2023 Advertisement International graduate/professional students: 2,840 (34 percent) University of Massachusetts Amherst International students overall: 1,600+ (approximately 20 percent) International graduate/professional students: 3,800+ (approximately 80 percent) as of Fall 2024 Camilo Fonseca can be reached at
