Editor’s note: After this column was published, SIU communications officials reached out to the Daily Egyptian to confirm an additional visa revocation at the university. The officials say that they’ve learned about this revocation via the student themself.
Officials have now additionally confirmed that there have been four total SEVIS terminations at SIU. One PhD student, one undergrad student and one Optional Practical Training student. The university will not confirm how far along the fourth student was in their studies.
These numbers are only what university officials are willing to disclose. SEVIS status, as detailed below, is difficult to keep track of, and only few have access to it.
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The trees on campus are budding with the promise of a new season, and the sun shines down on students preparing for finals and the end of the semester. For the international students on our campus, the end of this semester has brought fear and uncertainty as students around the country face revocations of their visas and the threat of deportation. SIU administration, faculty and students, now is not the time to remain silent.
On March 28, SIU confirmed with the Daily Egyptian that an international student’s visa was revoked. Since then, the university has gone silent. After weeks of reporting, we now know of three students who have had their visa revoked or their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System status terminated.
University communications officials stated that the school would not release any information regarding the revocation of student visas to “respect their privacy in this sensitive situation,” and that silence has rattled campus.
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These revocations are new territory for the university, which only adds fuel to the fire of uncertainty. Jeff Harmon told the DE that it was one visa revocation and two SEVIS terminations, while Provost Sheryl Tucker said it was “multiple” before declining to give an exact number.
All of this, we’ve heard time and time again, is unprecedented. The actions from the federal government — this crackdown on international students — have stunned those involved.
Officials at SIU had hardly even heard the term “SEVIS” before, let alone knew how it worked.
Administrators across the country, including those here in Carbondale, have said they can manually check the SEVIS system to see if a student’s status has been terminated — but that was never a routine practice in years past. Blindsided, they’ve clearly struggled to communicate these issues, not just to the public, but to the very students involved.
Their explanations have contradicted each other. They say they won’t reach out to students unless approached first — yet in the same breath, they suggest they might reach out if they see a SEVIS termination on their end.
What qualifies as “official notification” seems to lie at the heart of the confusion. It appears that, at the hands of the federal government, the university has been thrust into a bureaucratic purgatory — caught between protecting student privacy, complying with unclear regulations and trying to make sense of a system they barely understand themselves.
Many students and faculty have shared their discomfort at public meetings like the Faculty Senate and Undergraduate Student Government. SIU professor and Faculty Senate member Laurel Jean Fredrickson said in a statement that it is crucial that both the state and university be transparent with international students and show students they are protected, and how we must show them that we are protective. SIU professor Cinzia Padovani, who also voiced her concerns at the Faculty Senate meeting, said she can relate to the sense of uncertainty and precarity that international students face because she was an international student herself.
“Students want the upper administration to show support for international students — not just send cautionary notes,” said SIU professor Jyotsna Kapur, referring to an email the director of International Student and Scholar Services sent to students on March 28.
It’s not just students and faculty that long for a campus response, but also the Carbondale community. Hundreds of comments have poured into our social media posts regarding visa revocations, containing words from alumni who hope the university will stand for the students and community members wanting to know more.
While faculty have begun to voice their concerns, international students hesitate to speak out in fear of being next. SIU leaders have warned international students to carry documents with them, exercise discretion at demonstrations and protests, watch the things they say on social media and be wary when traveling. This heavy atmosphere of fear lingers in the classrooms and on the minds of our international students. While our students cannot focus in the classroom, our administration remains silent.
It is heartbreaking. The students we pass on campus or sit next to in class, the ones who have come to America for an education at the same university we are privileged to have just minutes or hours from our home, are fearful they will be targeted next. Nobody should be so distraught over their place on this campus that they cannot focus on their assignments.
Maybe the SIU administration is silent because they have to be, or maybe they are scared themselves. We have no idea how much they know or what the federal government is telling them. We ask them now to be as transparent as possible.
With the lack of information from the administration, the Daily Egyptian has turned to filing requests for records pertaining to visa revocations through the Freedom of Information Act which have been returned with three denials, one agreement to dismiss and one request for extension.
Some of our FOIA requests resulted in overwhelming numbers, like one that returned 13,000 results after we requested any correspondence that contained terms such as visa or deportation. We admit that is an overwhelming number. After each denial, revisions were made to the requests in an attempt to narrow down the information to a reasonable amount. However, we were met with more denials.
SIUC’s FOIA officer, Holly Rick, called a Daily Egyptian reporter on Wednesday, April 16 to express skepticism about the public’s interest in the revocation of student visas, stating that she doesn’t think the public cares for any of this information. Two stories containing information about visa revocations at SIU are in the top three of our most viewed stories in the last year.
Rick told the DE that it seems as though our staff is always looking for something suspicious that the university is doing and that we need to report on more “good news,” which she admitted is subjective.
As an independent newspaper, our job is to report on the news, whether that be positive or negative. Our weekly newspaper cover-to-cover contains a handful of positive stories, such as our coverage of the university’s newly acquired R-1 status or the upcoming boat regatta.
From northern Illinois down south, through all universities in between, schools have been impacted in the same manner. The Daily Egyptian had spoken with other reporters from universities around the state who echo similar sentiments of silence around their campuses. Just up the road, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has had eight international students who have lost their visas. When the DE asked for confirmation on SIUE’s numbers, Catie Sheehan, the SIU System’s executive director of marketing and communications, sent them over within minutes of asking.
With a quick text, we had access to the information that SIU Carbondale will not provide. We are not asking for the students’ names or identifying information – we just want to know how many have been impacted and why.
The nation’s oldest and most wealthy university is leading by example. After Harvard University said the campus would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism, the federal government said it would freeze $2.2 billion in grants, according to the Associated Press.
The New York Times reported on April 17 that the Trump administration threatened to block Harvard from enrolling international students unless the university provides detailed records about the student body. Sarah Kennedy O’Reilly, a Harvard spokeswoman, said to the NYT that Harvard will not relinquish constitutional rights.
Unlike Harvard, we do not have a sea of money at our disposal, but we need to make our best attempt to follow suit in any capacity we can. We are encouraging the voices on this campus who can stand up and take action to do so. Now is not the time to remain silent on the issues that are affecting the lives of international students on this campus.
As we navigate these unforeseen circumstances, what message does this send to the international students who were interested in coming to SIU prior to these circumstances? Will our enrollment numbers dip? Does this lessen the appeal of the Carbondale campus?
If you are an international student who has had or are at risk of their visa being revoked and are interested in talking to the Daily Egyptian on or off the record, you can fill out our Google form here.
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