Statement from UCLA, International Studies Department and My Opinion On the Counter Productivity of Kicking out International Students

I received this from my alma matter and thought I would share it. International Studies also known as International Development Studies or Global Studies is a major that looks into the world's biggest problems and analyzes who to help the least fortunate in the world from a holistic perspective. We take economics, history, political science, geography and classes related to major global development institutions. Though the majority of undergrads are US based, many students come from all over the world to UCLA to learn about how to help the world. Now they are being pushed to either risk the health of students by having in person classes or see many of their students lives get torn upside down with visas revoked. The department has a unique perspective on our global world as well as the importance of international students.

I also want to mention that pushing away international students is one of the dumbest things that Trump can do, eliminating an advantage that the US has had for decades at the detriment of other countries: brain drain. For years the best of the best have left their country to chase educational opportunities in the US. They graduate and often stay in the US and help make an impact on a variety of fields. How strong is a country that attracts the smartest people in the world to join its working ranks? How week is a country that loses its smartest people?

I attended a public high school and then went to University of Pennsylvania before transferring to UCLA. I studied mechanical engineering at UPENN and later at UCLA before switching to International Studies to broaden my perspective on the world. UPENN like other colleges gave financial aid (grants, loans and work study jobs) as needed to students...unless they were international. I got aid but my roommate didnt. My freshman year international roommate spent A LOT of money, especially in his currency, to come to Wharton. That was direct investment he was making in the institution. Also, he was very smart and knowledgeable. Though he was a business major I went to him with Calculus questions and it was clear that his schooling in high school was superior to my AP level public school education.

So the US has a global advantage in attracting the best students in the world and having them pay full price to study here. And these are the people Trump is trying to deport or make sure future students instead apply to study at a more affordable rate in England or Canada and skip top universities in the US? Besides being cold-hearted and ruining the lives of 19 year olds, its just a bad strategic move for US interests.

FROM UCLA International Studies:

July 14, 2020

Recent visa decisions by the U.S. administration have temporarily halted the immigration of skilled workers to our country and threaten to deport foreign students enrolled solely in online courses that universities have put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In response to these decisions, we affirm the essential and invaluable contributions of international scholars, students and researchers to U.S. higher education, and of immigrant workers to U.S. society.

U.S. institutions of higher education are the envy of the world because they attract the best and the brightest minds from across the globe. Talented individuals are drawn to study and work here by the academic freedoms of our campuses and the opportunities to work with equally gifted peers to conduct research, push the boundaries of innovation and train future generations.

International scholars, researchers and students are essential to a 21st-century education. They bring unique perspectives and experience to our classrooms, widen our students’ worldview and prepare them for careers in an interconnected world where success requires the ability to work well with people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. The challenges that threaten the world today — pandemics, climate change, structural inequities, systemic racism, xenophobia, human rights violations, global economic shocks — can only be overcome through international collaboration, and a sincere and humble desire to learn from others.

Universities must be central participants and facilitators in this collaboration if it is to be successful. Whether our students study history, art, biology, law, business, medicine or other subjects, they benefit from being taught and doing research alongside top experts in their field, many of whom come from countries around the world. This reality is not detrimental to the United States and its citizens, it is the United States, it is a driving force of our entrepreneurship and it gives U.S. universities a competitive edge in a global economy. There is no “us” and “them,” there is only us — all of us, made stronger, wiser and more informed by working together.

C. Cindy Fan

Vice Provost for International Studies and Global Engagement

Professor, Department of Geography

Professor, Department of Asian American Studies

Christopher L. Erickson

Senior Associate Vice Provost and Director of International Institute

Professor, Anderson School of Management

Robin Lauren Derby

Equity Advisor, International Institute

Faculty Director, International Education Office (IEO)

Associate Professor, Department of History

Hitoshi Abe

Director of Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese studies

Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Design

Terasaki Chair for Contemporary Japanese Study

Victor Agadjanian

Professor, International Institute

Professor, Department of Sociology

Andrew Apter

Professor, Departments of History and Anthropology

Interim Director, James S. Coleman African Studies Center

Ali Behdad

Director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies

Professor and John Charles Hillis Chair in Literature, Department of English

Michael Berry

Director of the Center for Chinese Studies

Professor, Department of Asian Languages & Cultures

Professor, Department of Film, Television & Digital Media

Robert Buswell

Director of the Center for Buddhist Studies

Distinguished Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

Jennifer Jihye Chun

Faculty Advisory Committee Member, International Institute

Associate Professor, International Institute

Associate Professor, Asian American Studies

Jason Cong

Distinguished Chancellor’s Professor, Computer Science Department

Co-Director, Peking University-UCLA Joint Research Institute in Science and Engineering

Verónica Cortínez 

Director of the Center for Southern Cone Studies

Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese 

George Dutton

Director, UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Professor, UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

Akhil Gupta

Director, Center for India and South Asia (CISA)

Professor, Department of Anthropology

Kevan Harris

Assistant Professor, International Institute

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology

Laurie Kain Hart

Director, Center for European and Russian Studies

Professor, Global Studies, International Institute 

Professor, Department of Anthropology

Rubén Hernández-León

Director of the Center for Mexican Studies

Professor, Dept. of Sociology

Patrick Heuveline

Professor, Dept. of Sociology and International Institute,

Associate Director, California Center for Population Research (CCPR)

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Ann R. Karagozian, Ph.D.

Director, UCLA Promise Armenian Institute

Distinguished Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Namhee Lee

Director, Center for Korean Studies

Associate Professor, Asian Languages & Cultures

Seiji Lippit

Associate Director, Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies

Professor and Chair, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

Michael Lofchie

Professor, Department of Political Science

Chair, International Development Studies

Glen MacDonald, FRSC

Director of the Canadian Studies Program

Distinguished Professor and John Muir Memorial Chair, Department of Geography

William Marotti

Chair, East Asian Studies MA IDP

Associate Professor, Department of History

Jorge Marturano

Director, Program on Caribbean Studies

Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Adam Moore

Associate Professor, International Institute

Associate Professor, Department of Geography

Marjorie Faulstich Orellana

Professor of Education

Associate Director, Center for the Study of International Migration

José Luiz Passos

Director of the Center for Brazilian Studies

Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Margaret Peters

Associate Professor, International Institute

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

Daniel N. Posner

James S. Coleman Professor of International Development

Department of Political Science

Shaina Potts

Assistant Professor, International Institute

Assistant Professor, Department of Geography

Kal Raustiala

Director, Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations

Promise Institute Professor of Comparative and International Law, UCLA School of Law

Professor, UCLA International Institute

Michael A. Rodriguez, MD, MPH

Chair, UCLA Global Health Minor

Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Faculty-in-Residence, UCLA Residential Life

Michael L. Ross

Professor, International Institute

Professor, Department of Political Science

Professor, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Steven L. Spiegel

Director, Center for Middle East Development

Research Professor, Political Science

Bonnie Taub

Associate Director, Latin American Institute

Co-Chair, Latin American Studies MA Program

Michael F. Thies

Chair, Global Studies Interdepartmental Program

Chair, International & Area Studies Interdepartmental Program

Associate Professor, Dep’t of Political Science

Maarten van Delden

Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Roger Waldinger

Director, Center for the Study of International Migration

Distinguished Professor of Sociology

Dov Waxman

Director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies

Professor, International Institute and Social Sciences

Alden Young

Assistant Professor of African American Studies and member of the International Institute

Teaching faculty in the International Development Studies program

Min Zhou

Director of the Asia Pacific Center

Walter and Shirley Wang Chair in U.S.-China Relations & Communications

Professor, Department of Sociology, Department of Asian American Studies