Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

Yesterday President Trump issued an edict that required international students to take at least some of their classes in person, banning the issuance of new visas to students at schools or programs that are entirely online, and disallowing international students from taking all their classes online should a university or college offer a hybrid program.

This will clearly hurt two groups that the President core voters detest: immigrants and colleges. The harm to foreign students is self-evident: they will either need to leave the country or register at a college where it will be possible for them to take part of their coursework on campus. As noted on several occasions in this blog, colleges rely on foreign students to buoy enrollments and help them balance their budget because they pay full rate for tuitions.

And this edict will underscore the President’s desire to fully open campuses in the Fall, the pandemic notwithstanding, and his intent to bar any and all immigrants from the country. These two wrongheaded ideas will inflame the anti-intellectual and xenophobic elements of his base, do nothing to stem the spread of COVID-19, do harm to the colleges and the economy. By playing to the worst intentions of our voters the President is moving our country further and further away from the intentions of the founders and further eroding any moral compass that remains intact despite three+ years of his leadership.