As a professor of political science, my courses often approach current events. I look at controversial subjects by providing my professional -based professional prospects. Last week, I mentioned Rumeysa Ozturk, the Turkish graduate student of Toft University who was arrested by masked ice agents. After lessons, a student asked me if I could speak for a minute. Once we had a little privacy, this international student asked me if they were also afraid of the deportation. He is an excellent student, in good standing with the university and with all the appropriate documentation to study in UNI as an international student. Until recently, it would have been an absurd question, but the government has arbitrarily revoked student visas for hundreds of international students in recent weeks. The government does not claim to have committed crimes, or that they had no appropriate documentation. They did nothing illegal and none of them have been tried or criminal charges. They are simply detained in detention establishments or expelled in the middle of the semester.
I told this student that I thought it was not likely, but it is a real possibility. I encouraged them to pay attention to what they say or write – whether online, in private communications or in class. It was shocking and nauseating to have to say that, but it was the most sincere advice I could give to ensure the safety of this student. I then realized that this student had already started to self-censorship. Although talkative and a precious contributor to the class discussion at the start of the semester, I realized that they had not raised my hand for weeks.
I have lived and traveled in countries where people live in the fear of being arrested and imprisoned for something they said, but I never imagined that this would happen in the United States. My mind flashed with historical images of concentration camps, forced disappearances and scenes from the classic novel by Orwell, 1984.
This is why it is important. 1) If we want to consider ourselves as democratic, human and meritocratic, then we must make speech. By the way, meritocracy is Trump’s explanation to kill Dei’s initiatives across the country. 2) International students pay higher tuition fees than resident students, who now include Iowa and all its neighboring states. In fact, the rate of tuition fees for non-residents is 250% of residents’ tuition fees. The non-residents subsidize the education of residents. 3) International students provide prospects on the campus that simply cannot be reproduced in another way. 4) Foreign nationals who are educated in the United States are more likely to think and act as Americans. This strengthens democratic norms in the world, capitalism, human rights protections and much more – which benefit in the United States.
For a university that bottles and jostles each year to recruit students, it seems that the higher administration should do everything possible to ensure nearly 200 international students on the campus that the university is doing its best for them. But this is not the case. As far as I know, or any other staff and professor to whom I have spoken, the university does nothing.
To be fair, there are risks involved, given what we have seen at Columbia University, or toft, or dozens of others. But the abandonment of students in the threat of financing cuts is short -sighted, loose and contrary to ethics. The work of the president of the university is to protect the interests of the university and to make difficult decisions. It is not an easy job, but that is why President Nook is paid $ 372,000 per year. In a recent interview with Iowa PBS, Nook said that his goal was to make sure that “we could support each student … and make sure they have what they need to succeed”.
It is time to intensify, President Nook. Uni cannot afford to lose our international students, but unless you do something, many of them will not come back in the fall. More importantly, your reluctance to protect these students will be part of the Uni brand. This is not a brand with which many of us on campus want to be associated.