Uncertainty, fear grip international graduate students at University of Kentucky
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
In the wake of last week’s stock market turmoil, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, “Will the Last Investor to Leave America Please Turn Out the Lights?” The author, James Mackintosh, argues that the stock market’s wild gyrations — and, in particular, the instability in the valuation of Treasury notes and the U.S. dollar — indicate nothing less than a loss of faith in America. The previously unthinkable possibility of a default is looming on the horizon. The period of American economic exceptionalism is over.
What a sad and pathetic outcome after only three months of an administration that came to power on a promise to “Make America Great Again.” But the leader of that movement — I didn’t say its führer — does not understand soft power. The only language he appears to be able to speak is crude and violent. It involves threats, fear and the denigration of opponents both at home and abroad. Did I say “opponents”? Our president and his team take pleasure in insulting allies and friends.
But this piece is not devoted to foreign policy or the economy, areas in which I cannot claim greater expertise than any reasonably well-informed citizen. I am writing about conditions at the University of Kentucky, where I teach and conduct my scholarly work.
The chaotic and incompetent policies of our current national administration are producing the same effects in academe that James Mackintosh of the Wall Street Journal has diagnosed in the economic sphere: loss of faith in America.
The Kentucky Lantern recently reported on the revocation of visas held by international graduate students at the University of Kentucky. We have not learned how many visas were revoked, apart from the fact that the number was said to be “small.” Neither have we learned anything about the grounds on which the visas were canceled.
Were the affected graduate students guilty of illegal acts: theft, sexual assault, rioting? It would be easy to see why visas would be withdrawn in such circumstances. But perhaps they were just citizens of the “wrong” countries or made comments critical of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza. Perhaps they even criticized our Great Leader!
I suspect that there is a system behind the uncertainty: the goal is to instill fear. In this goal, the administration has certainly succeeded. Many of our international graduate students are afraid that they could be arrested — in broad daylight, by masked immigration agents — and whisked away to some deportation center, where they would be on their own, isolated from colleagues and friends.
Their transgression could be as trivial as having authored an opinion piece in a student newspaper. What a terrible, terrible betrayal of the young scholars, scientists, and artists who came to America looking forward to a great education.
What a betrayal of the ideals of American higher education, renowned worldwide for its high standards, professionalism and academic freedom. Even the vast majority of international graduate students who will not be affected by the current purge will lose some — much, perhaps all — of their respect and admiration for our country. We are facing a loss of cultural influence, “soft power,” in the educational arena that is tragic and was altogether avoidable.
I myself came to the United States in 1997 to take up my first tenure-track position. I never regretted my decision. In 2011, I became a proud citizen. More recently, I returned to America after a disappointing few years of teaching in Europe, whose universities I found infected, suffocated even by clichés of progressive group-thinking.
So, yes, I am a conservative, a Republican — and totally shocked that our Republican members of Congress are letting all this happen.
“All this” refers to the abandonment of the rule of law that is behind the current chaos and dysfunction. Just as international graduate students and undocumented immigrants are removed from the country without due process, so the tariffs that have led to last week’s market collapse have been imposed on the basis of highly questionable emergency powers. A group of Democratic senators — joined by Rand Paul, Republican from Kentucky, along with several other Republican senators — have introduced bipartisan legislation to curb the president’s falsely claimed authority to impose tariffs.
So there is yet hope — hope that there will be enough honorable Republicans who, along with their Democratic colleagues, are going to restore the rule of law in this country. If this happens soon, perhaps the damage inflicted by the Trump presidency can still be contained.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: [email protected]. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter. Kentucky Lantern stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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