Read on Twitter
Before jumping the gun, let's understand what is happening: When the COVID-19 crisis first erupted, USCIS issued an exemption to students on visa to allow them to take online classes while staying in the US. This was never allowed before COVID-19. (1)
Online classes were also not as common pre-COVID. As universities started embracing online classrooms in the past few months, states nationwide have begun preparations to reopen. Reopening for a university means having in-person classes again. (2)
Imagine if you were a university dean, who runs a College of Sociology that charged an international student $15,000 per semester for tuition (on the low end), and is still charging that amount to students now, even though most classes are basically online (3)
And the students are not even using any of the amenities they are paying for: housing, gyms, fancy lecture halls, and labs... When the state comes knocking, asking you to reopen and resume in-person classes, what will you do, dean? It's a tough decision folks. (4)
Luckily, USCIS is here to weigh in. Remember the exemption they issued in March? Maybe let's just tweak it a little bit. International students (who pay for a large portion of the aforementioned dean's $500k salary (imaginary but not exaggerated, see Joan Gabel) will ... (5)
.. no longer be able to take online classes entirely while maintaining legal status here in the US. However, they may continue to do so outside of the US. Remember, even that last sentence was not legal pre-COVID. A small tweak, but with major consequences to colleges. (6)
Universities now face the responsibility to either make their premises safe for students to return for in-person classes come fall, or they will lose the lucrative out-of-state international tuition from well-off internationals. That is what I believe the rationale of memo to be.
Basically, USCIS way of delivering the stick, not the carrot, to higher institutions in the US. I hope this thread cleared some things up for people, and is more clear than some of the partisan rhetoric I have seen from both ends of the spectrum.
