Harvard president Lawrence Bacow has urged President Joe Biden’s cohort to make it permanently easier for foreign scholars to enroll in colleges in the United States.
Bacow, who clashed with the Trump administration over a rule change on international students amid the pandemic, directed his plea to Tracy Renaud, acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and asked the government body to “ease the return to campus” for students who reside outside of the country. The university president also urged Renaud to allow international students to apply for work authorizations more quickly.
“I hope you will consider, on a permanent basis, providing new flexibility for colleges and universities to offer international students opportunities to engage education programs that are low residency or hybrid, which would allow us to extend the reach of our programs to more students,” he wrote in an April 19 letter, obtained by Washington Examiner.
The school president also took the time to criticize former President Donald Trump’s administration for creating a backlog due to “hurdles.”
“Yet, in the last administration, executive orders and presidential proclamations barred entry to many, with others beset by processing delays, backlogs, and administrative hurdles designed to frustrate access to opportunities in this country,” he wrote. “As a result, a shadow of uncertainty has been cast over immigrants and non immigrants alike—and it has taken a toll in higher education.”
HARVARD AND MIT SUE OVER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PLAN FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT VISAS
In July 2020, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration after top brass in the federal government planned to disallow foreign students from residing in the country if their course load was entirely online, as was the case for many during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The order came down without notice—its cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness,” Bacow wrote at the time. “It appears that it was designed purposefully to place pressure on colleges and universities to open their on-campus classrooms for in-person instruction this fall, without regard to concerns for the health and safety of students, instructors, and others.”
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The guidance, which was first announced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was later rescinded by top officials.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
