[ATTW-L] the ICE memo on international students

[Searsmith, Kelly Lin]

Dear ATTW-L,

As an academic professional contributing to technical writing instruction in a college of engineering, I’ve followed this discussion with great interest. I support our international students unequivocally. For me, there can be no question of their value to our campus research, learning, and social communities or of our responsibility to support them and their welfare now and in the future --  they have accepted our invitation to study at our institutions and we hope they will remain lifelong community members as alumni (as well as postdocs, staff, faculty, and more).

In following the many turns of this conversation on the list, I am struck that any teaching of the original ICE memo might benefit from also teaching responses from various stakeholders who oppose the policy, to attend to nuances in locating the debate within different socio-political contexts, (re)framing the debate, establishing common ground, calling out assumptions, and countering them.

To that end, I’m sharing the policy statement released by the American Society for Engineering Education (appears after my email signature). I share some quick, light analysis of this statement to demonstrate the value of including these types of responses in a unit and teaching their rhetorical complexities. Note, for example, how carefully this statement is at the start to frame international students as “non-immigrants,” thus attempting to separate student visitor status from broader immigration policy (which may actually inform the new status guidelines, as Jeffrey has explained). Yet, the statement also provides a unified argument on the value of non-immigrant grad students while attending university and after, should they emigrate to the US, in claiming that they both enhance American competitiveness (raising the questions: Is such a “nationalist” move warranted in mounting a defense? Where does this kind of appeal originate? To whom would that kind of move appeal, and how might that signal the primary intended audience? This could provide an opportunity to discuss, for example, how economic development has become a common fourth mission of public universities, in addition to research, education, and public service/outreach). As another example of how complex rhetorical analysis yields insight into but also complicates writers’ choices, the statement acknowledges that “the majority of engineering and engineering technology graduate students are foreign born,” a fact that has been used in other education policy discussions to express concern over the inadequacies and inequities in US K12 STEM-based education. That is, these discussions sometimes express a tension between support for international students and minoritized domestic students, placing the two vulnerable student populations in competition for resources (raising the questions: Should we accept a neoliberal austerity frame in debates over resourcing educational access and success? Is advocating for marginalized students jointly politically advantageous or disadvantageous in the current political clime? I fret over the latter question often, myself, as an advocate for greater inclusion of and support for neurodiverse students in higher education).

In discussing some of the complexities raised by the ASEE policy statement for those interested in this issue within higher education, I want to suggest that an open and sustained discussion of these matters is worthwhile. Above all, I believe our students benefit when we teach them to discuss politically and emotionally charged matters of public interest with their full rhetorical complexity (beyond the narrow spheres of influence that we each inevitably inhabit in our media-saturated culture), even as we also ask them to do so with a sense of ethical responsibility (personally and pre-professionally) and active citizenship. To engage in such discussions, we must create an atmosphere of safety for all participants, with room to stumble and reconsider as well as to disagree without fear of exclusion or censure.

All the best,
Kelly

_____________

Kelly Searsmith, PhD  (English), Illini Certified Research Administrator (she, her, hers)
Technical Research Writer, Department of Physics, The Grainger College of Engineering
     (research administration, faculty writing services, writing and literacy curriculum and instruction)
Member, National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA)
Instructional Staff (Advanced Composition), Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control (PHYS/GLBL 280<https://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys280/sp2020/course-description.html>)
Ed.M. Candidate, Dept. of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership--Higher Education
     Concentration, College of Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
290Y Loomis Laboratory of Physics, 1110 W Green St., MC 704
Urbana, IL 61801-3003
(217) 300-5336

Physics Illinois<https://physics.illinois.edu/people/directory/profile/kellydm> / LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-searsmith-15112b14/>


ASEE POLICY STATEMENT

The changes announced on June 6, 2020 by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement may have a significant negative impact on many ASEE
individual and institutional members, most notably colleges of engineering and engineering
technology.

In the face of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities across the U.S. are
struggling with whether or how to open for classes this fall, with many choosing either blended or
fully online offerings. The announced change prohibits those non-immigrants pursuing academic
(F-1 visa) and vocational (M-1 visa) coursework from taking a fully online course load and
remaining in the U.S. Given that a fully online course load may be the only option at many
universities, and given the challenges in international travel including visa access, the net
effect of this change would appear to be to force large numbers of non-immigrant students
to disrupt their studies, leave the U.S., and be unable to return for the foreseeable future.

The majority of engineering and engineering technology graduate students are foreign born, as are
a significant number of undergraduates. As we indicated in a previous policy statement, "A
talented engineering workforce is needed to tackle the grand challenges of tomorrow. ASEE
member institutions are greatly enriched by the talent, intelligence, work ethic, and diversity of
thought that international faculty and students bring to their campuses. Many of these students stay
in the U.S. after graduation and contribute to the economy, sometimes starting tech-based
businesses or impacting entire industries." Exclusion of non-immigrant graduate students can be
expected to have a significantly negative impact on US academic engineering research. Loss of
non-immigrant undergraduate students can be expected to have a significant, negative impact on
the global awareness and cultural richness of domestic students seeking to compete in an
increasingly integrated global economy. Moreover, this action-added to previous actions taken
by the current federal administration-continues the creation of a negative atmosphere that impedes
our ability to recruit the best global talent to engineering study, instruction, research, and
practice. In sum, the effect of this change will be to inflict significant long-term damage to the
global competitiveness of the U.S. This is not an action we would have expected from a U.S.
government, nor is it one that we can support.

While ASEE supports every effort to ensure security within our borders, we hope that these efforts
will be carried out in such a way as to minimize disruption to those who teach, practice, conduct
research, and study engineering and engineering technology in the U.S.

While ASEE supports every effort to ensure security within our borders, we hope that these efforts
will be carried out in such a way as to minimize disruption to those who teach, practice, conduct
research, and study engineering and engineering technology in the U.S. At a time when
engineering talent is more critical than ever to our recovery, now is not the time to drive talent
from our shores.



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