Chancellor Alexander responds to ICE guidance for international students

In a memorandum to faculty and staff, UW-Green Bay Chancellor Mike Alexander responded to an announcement regarding deportation of international students if a university is forced to go entirely online because of the pandemic this fall. See it below:

“Yesterday (July , 2020) the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released new guidance concerning international students studying on F-1 visas.

As we understand the regulations, international students will be able to maintain their immigration status provided that they enroll in at least one face-to-face course this fall. However, if UW-Green Bay is forced to move entirely online for any reason, immigration will require all international students to depart the United States or transfer to other U.S. institutions offering face-to-face classes. Read more here.

To be clear, we value international students and their contributions to our University community. We do not support any policy that prevents any of our students from accessing an education at UW-Green Bay.

Our Office of International Education immediately began reviewing the order and is actively working with individual students on their status and class schedules to ensure their individual education plan is not impeded.”

Later in the day, the UW System posted this response to the ICE:

“Our university system is internationally recognized. There’s a good reason students from all over the world want to attend our universities. We welcome them. These students provide great benefit to our universities and anything that makes it harder for them to attend will raise a host of issues during an already challenging time.”