STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some American colleges are preparing for President-elect Trump's second term.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
And here's one of the ways they're doing that. Several universities, including USC, Penn and Cornell are giving advice to international students. If they're going home for the holidays, the university suggests returning before Inauguration Day, January 20, to avoid any trouble at the border.
INSKEEP: Kirk Carapezza is covering this. He follows higher education from member station GBH in Boston. Kirk, good morning.
KIRK CARAPEZZA, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What exactly are colleges saying?
CARAPEZZA: Well, most colleges aren't saying much, but there are some. The ones you mentioned and a handful of schools here in New England - UMass Amherst, MIT and Wesleyan - have all reached out to international students urging them to return to the U.S. before January 20. Harvard also contacted its international students this week.
INSKEEP: OK, so I guess we can imagine why they would make this suggestion, but let's try to get the facts out. What is driving this?
CARAPEZZA: Well, I think many administrators are revisiting Trump's track record. You know, in his first term, new foreign student enrollment dropped by 12 percentage points. You'll remember there was the travel ban targeting several majority Muslim countries, heightened visa scrutiny, and then in 2020, the mandate for all international students to attend classes in person even during the pandemic. Now, this time around, Trump is promising even stricter policies. At a rally in New Jersey this summer, he warned foreign students involved in campus protests.
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DONALD TRUMP: If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You'll be out of that school.
INSKEEP: OK, so he said that, but there's an if at the beginning of that. Is it entirely clear what specifically the new president will do regarding international students?
CARAPEZZA: No. There are no concrete proposals at this point from Trump or his transition team. But, you know, these colleges are trying to make sure their students don't get stuck out of the country when the new semester begins.
INSKEEP: What do you hear when you reach out to administrators as well as students?
CARAPEZZA: They're really anxious. You know, behind closed doors, they tell me they're worried. Ted Mitchell is president of the American Council on Education. And he calls the potential decline of international students a tragedy because he says these students create a global atmosphere that's critical to American campuses.
TED MITCHELL: It's kind of a brain sweep in which American institutions help bring the best and the brightest from other countries to our shores. And I think that the rhetoric of the campaign suggested that, you know, immigrants were the opposite of that.
CARAPEZZA: And, Steve, you know, some faculty members I talked to, they tell me their students are genuinely afraid. Here's professor Gerardo Blanco. Blanco runs Boston College's Center for International Higher Education, and he says there's a real disconnect on campus between students and administrators.
GERARDO BLANCO: Having talked with colleagues, they feel like there is no evidence of a change in policy, and this is not a time to panic.
CARAPEZZA: But Blanco says many students are already very concerned. And these colleges are taking precautions to protect them and ease their anxiety.
INSKEEP: Yeah. Although, fair point, policy hasn't changed yet. We don't really know what's going to happen. Kirk, thanks so much.
CARAPEZZA: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: Kirk Carapezza covers higher education for GBH in Boston.
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