[INDOLOGY] Overseas students and online teaching (US)

Tue Jul 7 03:57:40 UTC 2020

Overseas students have never been able to get a student visa to live in the
US for online only education. So this ruling should not impact universities
that are already online-only.

However, this could impact tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of overseas
students already in the US. It threatens to force students already living
in the worst-hit by covid country in the world to leave everything behind
(I can only imagine the headache of rents and roommates and belongings and
etc.) and potentially risk the health of everyone they come across on the
journey "home" (assuming everyone has a safe home to return to) while
simultaneously risking the health of everyone who works in higher education
across the country by forcing them to return to closed spaces.

It also takes the decision-making away from universities and puts those
decisions in the hands of the US' Immigration and Customs Enforcement and
Department of Homeland Security, which are entirely separate from the US
Citizenship and Immigration Services.

On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 9:04 PM Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> There is also the question of how this affects universities like The
> University of the People <https://www.uopeople.edu/> that are ground-up
> online.
>
> I know nothing about the UoP beyond their website and a quite plausible
> talk on the BBC by one of their heads; it sounds a bit like the UK's Open
> University, but restricted to business and computing.  I've been finding
> some of the UoP material on how they teach online quite helpful, as I have
> to learn these online techniques for next semester.  NB: "Students learn in
> small online classes of approximately 25 students to make sure professors
> can focus on each student’s needs."  Hah! Tell that to our administrators.
> Our Dean just said that small class teaching was bad because, "it denied
> the students the experience of being part of a substantial cohort."  Pah
> <spits on the floor>.
>
>
> --
> Professor Dominik Wujastyk
> <https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/wujastyk>
> ,
>
> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
> ,
>
> Department of History and Classics
> <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>
> ,
> University of Alberta, Canada
> .
>
>
> South Asia at the U of A:
>
> sas.ualberta.ca
>
>
> On Mon, 6 Jul 2020 at 16:33, Dan Lusthaus via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> The new ICE regulation is aimed at schools that will be *entirely*
>> online with no in-class instruction.
>>
>> “1. Nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating
>> entirely online may *not* take a full online course load and remain in
>> the United States.”
>>
>> “3. Nonimmigrant F-1 students attending schools adopting a hybrid
>> model—that is, a mixture of online and in person classes—will be allowed to
>> take more than one class or three credit hours online. These schools must
>> certify to SEVP, through the Form I-20, “Certificate of Eligibility for
>> Nonimmigrant Student Status,” certifying that the program is not entirely
>> online, that the student is not taking an entirely online course load this
>> semester, and that the student is taking the minimum number of online
>> classes required to make normal progress in their degree program. The above
>> exemptions do not apply to F-1 students in English language training
>> programs or M-1 students pursing vocational degrees, who are not permitted
>> to enroll in any online courses.”
>>
>> A list of what 800+ schools are currently planning for the Fall is
>> compiled and avaiable on the Chronicle of Higher Education website.
>> https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-a-List-of-Colleges-/248626?cid=cp275 (click
>> the arrow to move to the next page - the list, not the top text, changes).
>> Schools that plan to go completely online include the Cal State schools,
>> but most schools seem to be considering a hybrid semester or quarter.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>> On Jul 6, 2020, at 6:19 PM, Rosane Rocher via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>> I tend to believe that the intent is to force universities to re-open in
>> spite of the continuing Covid crisis, which Trump claims has been
>> palliated.
>>
>> Rosane
>> On 7/6/20 6:05 PM, Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY wrote:
>>
>> From what I have seen, I assume this is Trumpian, and related to the
>> restrictions to H1B visas (which most foreign academics come in on):
>>
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/us/politics/trump-h1b-work-visas.html
>>
>> There was debate at one point that non-commercial organisations such as
>> universities would be excluded from this ban; but they are now in it, as
>> far as I know.
>>
>> A step leading up to those restrictions was that the government got rid
>> of expedited processing for H1Bs (for a fee, a reply within a period of a
>> few weeks was guaranteed - which often was the only way to get a foreign
>> academic into the US in time for them to start their work on time/at the
>> beginning of the semester).
>>
>> Not a good time, neither for people nor institutions.
>>
>> --Antonia
>>
>> On Mon, 6 Jul 2020 at 23:53, Jeffery Long via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> Thank you for alerting us to this, Patricia. Do you have a sense of
>>> whether this is COVID-19-related, or just more Trumpian BS?
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>> Jeff
>>>
>>> Dr. Jeffery D. Long
>>> Professor of Religion & Asian Studies
>>> Elizabethtown College
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>>> <https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/?.src=iOS>
>>>
>>> On Monday, July 6, 2020, 5:26 PM, Rosane Rocher via INDOLOGY <
>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>> This is insane.
>>>
>>> Rosane Rocher
>>> On 7/6/20 3:28 PM, Patricia Sauthoff via INDOLOGY wrote:
>>>
>>> I wanted to bring this to the attention of anyone teaching in the US
>>> this autumn.
>>>
>>> The US government has made changes to its overseas student visa rules.
>>> Overseas students may now no longer remain in the US if their universities
>>> operate entirely online. They either must leave the country or transfer to
>>> a school with in-person instruction.
>>> https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/sevp-modifies-temporary-exemptions-nonimmigrant-students-taking-online-courses-during
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>>
>>> Patricia
>>>
>>> --
>>> Patricia Sauthoff
>>> (she/her/they/them)
>>> Postdoctoral Fellow
>>> AyurYog.org <http://ayuryog.org/>
>>> Department of History and Classics
>>> University of Alberta
>>> Edmonton, Canada
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Dr Antonia Ruppel
>> cambridge-sanskrit.org
>> allthingssanskrit.com
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Patricia Sauthoff
(she/her/they/them)
Postdoctoral Fellow
AyurYog.org
Department of History and Classics
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada

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