“Dehumanising”: Harvard Crisis Students Speak To Foreign Media
Shreya Mishra Reddys parents were "ecstatic" when she was accepted into Harvard University. Like numerous other Indians, Reddy explained that it is "the ultimate school that anybody in India wants to get into"
Massachusetts:
Shreya Mishra Reddy’s parents were “ecstatic“ when they found out that she had been accepted at Harvard University. It is “the ultimate school that anybody in India wants to get into“, Reddy told the BBC.
She would graduate in a matter of weeks, but now she must inform her parents that she will no longer be graduating in July from the executive leadership programme because the Trump Administration has halted Harvard from admitting international students, “as a result of their failure to comply with the law.“.
She added that she and her family have found it extremely hard to hear this and they still are in the process of trying to understand it. “You have so much to learn from other cultures, from people of other backgrounds. And everyone really cherished that,” Reddy said.
There are 6,800 foreign students in Harvard who constitute approximately 27% of Harvard’s enrollments this year. Approximately one-third of its foreign students are Chinese and 700 are Indians.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday stated that the Ivy League University had been purportedly “fostering violence” and “antisemitism”.
The Harvard row has left students in limbo at every level– those prospective students waiting to enroll, those half-way through college and those waiting for graduation. The latter are in a worse situation as even their employment opportunities are subject to their student visa.
The students at Harvard will need to take admission in another American university to stay in the US and keep their visas. The international students had been a major source of income for Harvard.
“I hope Harvard will stand by us and some solution can be worked out,” Ms Reddy says.
It has stated that it is being “fully committed to preserving [its] capacity to welcome our international students and scholars, who come from over 140 countries and enrich the University – and this country – beyond measure.“ this.
The step is another whiplash by the Trump administration on institutions of higher learning particularly those that have witnessed pro-Palestinian demonstrations on their campuses. Dozens of such universities are under investigation as the administration attempts to alter the manner in which they operate.
The row escalated after the White House threatened Harvard with excluding foreign students in April, following its refusal to modify its hiring, admissions and teaching procedures. Federal grants worth $3 billion were also frozen.
Chinese student studying in STEM field Kat Xie said that she is “in shock“. “I had quite forgotten about [the previous threat of a ban] and then Thursday’s announcement suddenly came“, she continued.
She also said that she spent the past weeks trying to get professional advice on how to remain in the United States, but the choices are “all very troublesome and expensive,“ she said.
The Trump administration has accused Harvard of “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”, to which Beijing replied that this is nothing but “politicisation” of education and the step would “only damage the image and international reputation of the United States”, calling for withdrawal of the ban “as soon as possible”.
The only thing the university can do to regain its capacity to admit these students is by adhering to an ultimatum of demands within “72 hours“.
“It’s nothing that we’ve signed up for,” a 20 year old Pakistani student – Abdullah Shahid Sial, a highly outspoken student activist, put across. According to him, the situation he is caught up in is “ridiculous and dehumanising”.
“We may have to depart right away but individuals have their lives here – apartments, leases, classes and community. These are not things you abandon overnight“, stated Jiang Fangzhou, a student at Harvard Kennedy School doing public administration.
