Sunday, January 29, 2017

Oh, the Places You Won't Go: Our Students and Trump's Ban




The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Trump’s Travel Ban Leaves Students Stranded — and Colleges Scrambling to Help
excerpt:
Stay calm, you’re safe here. That’s the message American colleges have been trying to send to international students in the wake of an executive order, signed Friday night by President Trump, that imposes a travel ban on visitors — including students and other people with valid visas — from seven largely Muslim countries.
Administrators at colleges across the country spent the weekend trying to reassure students from the affected nations— Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — that they can continue their studies uninterrupted. In the meantime, officials advised students not to travel abroad during the 90-day ban.
But the soothing words belie deeper concerns. Since the presidential election, educators had been bracing for a "Trump effect" on international students. In a survey of prospective foreign students released last spring, when few gave the Republican businessman strong odds of winning the presidency, 60 percent said they would be less likely to study in the United States under a President Trump.
Los Angeles Times: 
UC urges students, faculty covered by Trump travel restrictions to stay in U.S. for now

excerpt:
The University of California on Saturday advised university community members covered by President Trump’s executive order banning travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries to stay in this country for now.
“We continue to analyze the executive order and its impact on our students, faculty, scholars, employees and other community members,” the UC said in a message to faculty, staff and students. “At this time, we recommend that UC community members from these seven countries who hold a visa to enter the United States or who are lawful permanent residents do not travel outside of the United States.”
In a statement released Saturday, UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman expressed “deep concern for our students, scholars and others who will be personally affected by this order. I am also concerned about the order’s impact on the ability of universities to pursue our mission.”
ABC News: 
Some Colleges Warning Foreign Students on Travel After Trump's Immigration Order

excerpt:
Some colleges are advising foreign students and scholars who might be affected by President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration to defer travel outside of the U.S. at least until there is more clarity on how the order may affect them.
Princeton University, Stanford University's center for international students and the Rochester Institute of Technology have each issued advice against immediate travel out of the country by members of their college communities.

the past, the present


A ship full of refugees fleeing the Nazis once begged the U.S. for entry. They were turned back. (Washington Post)
     Nine hundred thirty-seven.
     That was the number of passengers aboard the SS St. Louis, a German ocean liner that set off from Hamburg on May 13, 1939. Almost all of those sailing were Jewish people, desperate to escape the Third Reich. The destination was Havana, more than two weeks away by ship.
. . .
     “Sailing so close to Florida that they could see the lights of Miami, some passengers on the St. Louis cabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for refuge,” the Holocaust museum noted. “Roosevelt never responded.”
     A State Department telegram stated, simply, that passengers must “await their turns on the waiting list and qualify for and obtain immigration visas before they may be admissible into the United States.”
     Finally, the St. Louis returned to Europe. After more than a month at sea, the passengers disembarked in Antwerp, Belgium, where they were divided between four countries that had agreed to take them: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
     By the end of the Holocaust, 254 of them would be dead....


"It’s working out very nicely."
Wallace: Bannon's remarks "offensive"

Latest 'Hate Map' shows 30 groups in Southern California (OC Reg, Jan 29);
check out Irvine/Newport Beach

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...