Latest news with #visaissues
Skift
4 hours ago
- Business
- Skift
Canceled, Moving to Canada: Science Conferences Shun the U.S.
As scientific groups cancel or relocate their conferences, the U.S. is losing ground as a host for academic exchange, along with the economic impact that comes with it. Visa delays, funding cuts, and geopolitical tensions are driving scientific conferences out of the U.S. Some are relocating. Others are canceling. The International Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (IACBT) canceled its August 14-17 conference in Nashville — its first U.S. meeting in 40 years. Approximately 900 were expected. Organizers cited visa uncertainty, federal funding cuts, and concerns about U.S. policy as reasons for the cancellation. In a message to registrants, the IACBT wrote: 'It's with sorrow that I must inform you that the IACBT conference, as was planned, must be canceled due to the actions and regulations of the Trump administration related to funding and international relations. These factors were neither present nor foreseeable when the conference was planned.' U.S. Seen as Unwelcoming 'We started hearing from attendees who said they couldn't risk buying a ticket as they were not sure if the U.S. would be welcoming and if they could even get a visa,' said Aaron Brinen, PsyD, a psychologist who was the conference chair. IACBT is reviewing its venue contract with the Renaissance Nashville, site of the conference. Organizers hope to invoke the impossibility clause to avoid penalties tied to shifting U.S. policies. 'This is frustrating, heartbreaking even, as we had an opportunity to bring together thought leaders in the world of cognitive and behavioral therapy to discuss how we can help people recover from mental illness,' said Brinen. 'We had the conference in place. Everything was set, and we were registering people, and now it's all gone. I worked so hard on this conference, and so did my team.' Stephanie Woodrow, LPC, the owner and clinical director of the National Anxiety and OCD Treatment Center, who was scheduled to present at IACBT, said the cancellation reflects a broader crisis. 'Given the current administration's actions — canceling university research funding, terminating NIH grants, pressuring reputable peer-reviewed journals, and censoring NIH researchers' language across all forms of communication — the outlook for science and public health is deeply concerning,' said Woodrow. The Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. reports the city has lost less than 1% of its convention business to date. Canada Benefits as Conferences Shift North Some conferences planned for the U.S. are moving north to Canada. The International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) has moved its 2026 biennial meeting from Atlantic City, NJ, to St. Catharines, Canada. 'Many [members] expressed concerns about hostility toward international people visiting the U.S. After polling our members, it was revealed we couldn't have a conference anywhere in the U.S,' said Brad Bushman, professor of communication at The Ohio State University, and ISRA's executive secretary. Three Canadian members stepped in to help with the relocation. 'They saved our conference,' said Bushman. The meeting typically draws around 250 attendees and has previously been held in Ottawa and Munich. 'The future is grim for conferences in the U.S. Scientists work together to solve problems and will not meet in places where they feel excluded,' said Bushman. Others are following suit. The International Conference on Comparative Cognition (CO3) will hold its 2026 gathering in Montreal. This is the first time the event will take place outside the U.S. This year's meeting, held in Albuquerque, NM, drew 210 attendees. While there were no issues, concerns lingered. 'Many expressed hesitation about crossing the border,' said Caroline Strang, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Western University in London, Ontario. A travel advisory from the Canadian Association of University Teachers urging academic staff to visit the U.S. only when essential ultimately tipped the scales in favor of relocating. CO3 will add a virtual component to the 2026 conference to expand access and participation. Montreal Replaces Boston Additionally, the Work and Family Researchers Network (WFRN) is moving its 2026 biennial conference to Montreal. Initially scheduled for Boston, the event is expected to attract around 500 attendees. The North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) was set to meet in Seattle in November. But there was an issue. Some 40% of its members are Canadian, and many don't want to attend due to Trump administration's policies. The solution? A three-part format. NASSS will host a smaller Seattle event, a parallel in-person gathering at UBC Robson Square in Vancouver, and a virtual option.
CNN
a day ago
- Business
- CNN
‘Time is of the essence': Pause on international student visa interviews sends schools on another Trump-induced scramble
At Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts school some 90 miles west of Boston, administrators have few answers so far for their perspective international students who are no longer certain they will be allowed to study in the US. The Trump administration's order directing US missions to pause new visa interviews for international students has thrust schools into a scramble to assess the impact on institutions and their students. 'This is supposed to be a celebratory time where they're looking forward to coming to the United States, going here for their education, and suddenly, all of that's, you know, been thrown up in the air,' said Kavita Khory, a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke and director of the school's center for global initiatives. The women's college admitted 140 international students for the upcoming academic year, but only about 50 of those students have received their visas, Khory said. The majority are in limbo for appointments. 'And even if they have secured appointments, it's not clear that they'll get their visas,' Khory said. Mount Holyoke's situation is true for many colleges and universities. But with few answers, and amid heightened concerns about being critical of the Trump administration's actions, few schools are willing to discuss it. CNN reached out to 50 schools and heard from fewer than 10 about how they are handling this period of uncertainty. The half-dozen university officials who spoke with CNN, representing schools across the country, said it is too soon to assess the financial implications of the State Department directive on their schools. The lack of official answers surrounding the length of the pause has left students seeking guidance that schools are not able to provide. Stett Holbrook, a spokesperson for the University of California president's office, said the school system is 'very concerned' about the State Department's directive. About 9% of the system's 2024 undergraduate enrollees were international students. The timing isn't only problematic for students who are in the middle of their application or visa processes, but also for schools that are in the middle of their annual budget planning for next year. If they can't guarantee the revenue stream that international students will bring, that creates a ripple effect, from how many faculty members they have to how many janitors they keep on. 'Our international students and scholars are vital members of our university community and contribute greatly to our research, teaching, patient care and public service mission,' Holbrook said in a statement. 'It is critical that interviews resume as quickly as possible to ensure that applicants are able to go through the process and receive their visas on time so they can pursue their education.' Another aspect of the uncertainty is the potential for specific countries to be targeted differently. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said the US would 'aggressively' revoke visas for Chinese students. About 1 in 4 international students in the US are Chinese. 'We have followed every rule,' Zilin Ma, a recently graduated Harvard University PhD student from China, said on CNN's 'The Situation Room' on Wednesday. 'We have got our visa, we have passed all of the checks, and we have paid a ton of taxes in federal, state, and sometimes even Social Security that we may never benefit from.' 'We are contributing to the US scientific research, education and economy, and we shouldn't be the one facing uncertainty at this point,' Ma, whose work includes AI research, added. Other officials spoke to CNN on the condition that their name or institution not be published to give a frank assessment of the situation or avoid their school being singled out. 'I think the impact is dependent on how long the pause is,' one official who works in global initiatives at a research university on the East Coast said. 'If it's a few days, universities can withstand that, but this is a time of year when students make these appointments, have been accepted to these institutions and have accepted these institutions' offers.' The directive not only affects new students, but also current students who need to renew their visas, the official noted. 'Time is of the essence for these students,' the official said. 'The uncertainty piece of it is what's making it challenging.' An official at a different leading research university agreed and said: 'The damaging part of some of these policy announcements is how they're being rolled out.' The administration, they said, does 'not provide clarity for actual informed decision-making.' Asked on Friday how long the pause is expected to last, the State Department referred CNN to an earlier press briefing by its spokesperson, Tammy Bruce. During that briefing, Bruce declined to give specifics on a timeline, but said more guidance would be released in the coming days. 'The Trump administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through the visa process specifically,' said Bruce, who added that every visa adjudication is a 'national security decision.' The second university official said that beyond a potential financial hit, which won't be as burdensome at their school because of its size, they fear the policy will impact recruitment and the school's reputation internationally. 'There is sort of a chilling effect,' the official said. The move comes as President Donald Trump has pressured institutions of higher learning into falling in line with the administration's policies and vision for how their schools should be run. The bulk of the administration's recent actions against colleges have focused on elite universities like Harvard, where the administration first moved last month to prevent the school from enrolling international students. Harvard sued to stop the order targeting its international students from taking effect, and a judge temporarily paused the prohibition. That order does not impact the latest State Department directive to US missions to pause visa interviews for students. But the new directive could have wider implications: More than 1.1 million international students lived in the United States during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The group's analysis found that those students contributed nearly $44 billion to the US economy during the 2023-2024 academic year. 'International students already represent the most tracked and vetted category of nonimmigrants in the United States,' the nonprofit's executive director and CEO, Fanta Aw, said in a statement. 'It is a poor use of taxpayer dollars to devote resources to screening students who are already subject to extensive background checks, while business visitors and tourists are not tracked at all.' Trump has suggested that if schools like Harvard accept fewer international students, more domestic students would take their place. But Khory, from Mount Holyoke, said it's not that simple. 'It's not the zero-sum game the way the Trump administration has been presenting it, 'If you have fewer international students, you will bring in more domestic students.' That's not how this sort of works,' she said, adding that's particularly true in the near future, when students can't be immediately recruited to replace those who are lost. A former university official described three buckets of anxiety being felt by universities: the revenue impact, the talent impact and the human impact. Small, private universities without large endowments are in the most precarious positions, this former official said, as public schools often have the ability to go to their state to fill revenue shortfalls. On the talent impact, graduate schools will take more of a hit than undergraduate colleges. At the graduate level, foreign students are a critical part of the machinery. They are the teaching assistants, the researchers, the grant writers — and the next generation of professors. 'If those students can't or won't come, some graduate programs could collapse,' the former official said. And regarding the human impact: Students are members of campus communities. Graduate programs can take years — five, six or seven, in some instances — to complete. 'Everyone is anxious for friends and colleagues,' the former official said. There is also the long-term worry about brain drain and competition. 'These universities are not just in competition for talent with other US universities,' the former official said. 'There is a short-sightedness to this that university administrators are really feeling as well: 'Will we be able to be the place for global talent to come if they can't or don't feel comfortable for the US?'' Karen Edwards, dean of international student affairs and exchange visitors at Grinnell College in Iowa, lamented that the political climate in the US may deter prospective international students. That shift, she said, runs contrary to the mission of her 30-year career. 'It really breaks my heart,' Edwards said, 'to think that we wouldn't see the incredible value in enhancing the presence of global learning and international education, international students in our classroom — as opposed to, you know, fighting against it.'
CBS News
2 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Transcript: Michael Roth, Wesleyan University president, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," June 1, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with Michael Roth, Wesleyan University president, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 1, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're turning now to the President of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth, who joins us from Monterey, Massachusetts. Good morning to you. WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT MICHAEL ROTH: Good morning. Good to be with you. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to pick up on something we were just discussing with the congressman, and that is this instruction to have new scrutiny of Chinese students, but also, more broadly, Secretary Rubio said all U.S. embassies should not schedule any new student visa application appointments at this time. About 14% of your students are international. Are you concerned they won't be able to come back to school in September? ROTH: I'm very concerned, not only about Wesleyan, but about higher education in the United States. One of the great things about our system of education is that it attracts people from all over the world who want to come to America to learn. And while they're here learning, they learn about our country, our values, our freedoms. And this is really an act of intimidation to scare schools into toeing the line of the current administration. It really has nothing to do with national security or with anti- antisemitism. This heightened scrutiny is meant to instill fear on college campuses, and I'm afraid it is working. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it is noticeable, sir, that you know, at a time when so many higher education institutions, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, have had federal funding revoked because of their policies, we find heads of universities are fearful of speaking out. Why are you not afraid of speaking critically? ROTH: Oh, I am. I'm afraid too. But I just find it extraordinary that Americans are afraid to speak out, especially people who, you know, run colleges, universities. Why- this is a free country. I've been saying it my whole life. I used to tell my parents that when I didn't want to do something, I would say it's a free country. And this idea that we're supposed to actually conform to the ideologies in the White House, it's not just bad for Harvard or for Wesleyan, it- it's bad for the whole country because journalists are being intimidated, law firms are being intimidated, churches, synagogues and mosques will be next. We have to defend our freedoms. And when we bring international students here, what they experience is what it's like to live in a free country, and we can't let the president change the atmosphere so that people come here and are afraid to speak out. MARGARET BRENNAN: But there are also some specific criticisms being lodged by members of the administration. Do you think that higher education has become too dependent on federal funding, for example, or money from foreign donors, are there legitimate criticisms? ROTH: There are lots of legitimate criticisms of higher education. I don't think overdependence on federal funding is the issue. Most of the federal funding you hear the press talk about are contracts to do specific kinds of research that are really great investments for the country. However, the criticisms of colleges and universities that we have a monoculture, that we don't have enough intellectual diversity, that's a criticism I've been making of my own school and of the rest of higher education for years. I think we can make improvements, but the way we make improvements is not by just lining up behind a president, whoever that happens to be. We make improvements by convincing our faculty and students to broaden our perspectives, to welcome more political and cultural views, not to line up and conform to the ideology of those in power. But yes, we have work to do to clean up our own houses, and we ought to get to it. But to do it under the- under this- the gun of an aggressive authoritarian administration that- that will lead to a bad outcome. MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you define some of the protests that even Wesleyan had on its campus that were, you know, critical of the State of Israel, for example, regarding the war against Hamas in Gaza, do you consider them to be xenophobic by definition, antisemitic or anti-Jewish? ROTH: Oh no, certainly not by definition. There are lots of examples of antisemitism around the country, some of them are on college campuses. They're reprehensible. When Jewish students are intimidated or afraid to practice their religion on campus, or are yelled at or- it's horrible. But at Wesleyan and in many schools, the percentage of Jews protesting for Palestinians was roughly the same as the percentage of Jews on the campus generally. The idea that you are attacking antisemitism by attacking universities, I think, is a complete charade. It's just an excuse for getting the universities to conform. We need to stamp out antisemitism. Those two young people just murdered because they were Jewish in Washington, that's a great example of how violence breeds violence. But the- the attack on universities is not an- is not an attempt to defend Jews. On the contrary, I think more Jews will be hurt by these attacks than helped. MARGARET BRENNAN: President Roth, thank you for your time this morning. We'll be back in a moment.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong can benefit from Donald Trump's crackdown on foreign students
The fallout of the dispute between US President Donald Trump and Harvard University is increasingly felt across the world, with students from mainland China, Hong Kong and elsewhere struggling to secure visas to further their studies. While it is regrettable that foreign students have become the collateral damage of yet another misguided Trump policy, there is a silver lining for the city as it strives to tap global talents with its 'Study in Hong Kong' brand. Advertisement The US restrictions on foreign students have escalated into a diplomatic row. Having earlier urged Washington to safeguard the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of international students, China has hit out at what it described as unreasonable cancellation of visas for Chinese students 'under the pretext of ideology and national security', adding that it had lodged representations with the US. Beijing's strong response came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department would work with the Department of Homeland Security to 'aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Communist Party or studying in critical fields'. The US would also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future applications from mainland China and Hong Kong, he added. The row began with Trump pressuring America's oldest university over its funding and admissions following protests on campus over the Israel-Gaza war. The crackdown is also seen as revenge as the elite universities are perceived as a base against Trump's leadership. It also stems from the misguided idea that these top universities, by accepting a significant number of Chinese and foreign students, are helping other nations enhance their competitiveness. While it is true that hundreds of thousands of students leave China for study in the US every year, a considerable number also stay behind and contribute to the development of science and technology as well as the American economy. As the Trump administration closes the door for these foreign talents who are potential assets to the country's economy and development, others are bound to swing theirs wide open. The uncertainties and hostility facing foreign students will only backfire and further alienate the US from the world. Advertisement The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is among the first to welcome affected Harvard students. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has pledged to provide 'the best assistance' to Chinese students facing 'unfair treatment' in the US and urged different sectors to capitalise on the opportunity together. With five local universities ranked among the world's top 100, the 'Study in Hong Kong' brand surely has its appeal.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Trump's attempt to calm foreign students adds to US visa confusion for Chinese
President Donald Trump's comment that international students in the US would be 'fine' has only added to the confusion about his administration's stance, following controversy over an earlier announcement that it would 'aggressively' cancel Chinese student visas. Advertisement Asked on Friday about what message he would send to foreign students in the country, Trump said: 'Well, they're going to be OK. It's going to work out fine.' 'We just want to check out the individual students we have. And that's true with all colleges,' he told reporters at the White House. This came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on social media late on Wednesday that the US would 'aggressively revoke' visas for Chinese students, particularly 'those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields'. He said the US Department of State would also revise 'visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications' from mainland China and Hong Kong. Advertisement But the scope of the visa crackdown remains unclear, with Rubio's department refusing to specify the criteria for visa revocation or clarify what constitutes 'critical fields' and how ties to China's ruling party would be defined. Beijing lodged formal protests and condemned the move as 'politically motivated and discriminatory' on Thursday, amid signs of renewed tensions despite a 90-day tariff truce between the two countries.
