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If the Trump administration follows through on its vow to “aggressively revoke” the visas of many Chinese students, it could be a serious blow for some Rochester-area universities.
Chinese students are the second-largest international student group enrolled at academic institutions nationwide. According to OpenDoors Data, a portal sponsored by the State Department, in the 2023-2024 academic year there were 277,000 Chinese students studying in the United States.
The State Department announced the new policy on May 28, saying it would “put America first, not China.” In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”.
For decades, Rochester has been a prime option for international students. Chinese students made up the second-largest group of international students at Rochester Institute of Technology for the 2024-2025 academic year, with 227 students. The largest international group is students from India, with 979 for the same year.
This month, RIT said it was taking action to address financial challenges, including an expected drop in international student enrollment of 200 or more from prior years, a roughly 10 percent reduction.
The University of Rochester is among the top 20 national universities in the country ranked by percentage of international students, according to U.S. News & World Report. Using the same metric, the New York Times last month ranked the university 10th among the top U.S. institutions. The Times said 33 percent of UR’s undergraduate and graduate students in fall 2023 were international, more than top-tier schools such as Harvard University (28 percent) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (30 percent).
“I get students calling me from time to time who want to adjust their status,” says Anthony Guidice, an immigration attorney. “But I haven’t had anything on (revoked visas) yet; it is still pretty new.”
Guidice says the State Department has “absolute authority” on entry to the U.S. If Chinese students have already gone home for the summer, he adds, it could be difficult for them to return.
“I know that the U of R has a lot of Chinese students,” Guidice says. “(The university) might say, ‘OK, you are clear to come, you are accepted, you’ve got the money, you are good to come for the semester,’ and then the (U.S.) consulate denies them.
“Unless they have to leave, stay in summer school and don’t leave the country because you won’t come back in,” he advises.
Many local institutions were reluctant to provide detailed comments to the Beacon.
“In talking to our International Student Services division, it is too early for us to share any effect,” says Carl Langsenkamp, RIT spokesperson. “I can tell you no matter how this plays out in the coming weeks, our international student office will continue to support our international students, meet with them, and explore their specific situations and options as this ban develops.”
Sara Miller, a spokesperson at UR, echoed Langsenkamp: “The university’s International Services Office has been closely monitoring federal developments and changes and providing timely updates and guidance to members of our international community.”
Miller says 3,500 international students were enrolled at UR in 2024. Her office did not provide the number of Chinese students.
Monroe Community College spokesperson Veronica Chiesi says her institution will most likely avoid the attention that she expects larger institutions to face.
“We have a very small number of students from China enrolled that we will ensure are cared for by our campus,” she says, “but we do not see this policy as exceptionally impactful to MCC from an enrollment standpoint, as other schools with large numbers of Chinese students would.”
Julie Long of Nazareth University says it does not currently enroll any Chinese students and declines to comment on the matter.
Roberts Wesleyan University declined to comment, and St. John Fisher University did not respond to the Beacon’s request for comment.
Guidice says university officials’ likely are reluctant to comment because they don’t want to draw the attention of the Trump administration.
“Universities and colleges make an awful lot of money off foreign students, and they don’t want to lose it,” he says. “If Trump targets Nazareth (saying,) ‘We’re not going to give you any more grants, we’re not going to process any more foreign nationals as students,’ that’s not good.”
Fighting a revoked visa can be difficult, Guidice says, and cases can stretch out for months.
“By the time you even make a case, it might take three months before you even get an answer to a question you pose to them,” he says. “So it’s pretty grim, pretty bleak.”
Malak Kassem is a graduate of St. John’s University and a member of the Oasis Project’s second cohort.
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