INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT HARVARD FACE UNCERTAIN ACADEMIC FUTURES

Ending visitor program raises fears of wider damage to US education system

Fangzhou Jiang, a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School, had quite an emotional roller-coaster ride between the Trump administration's barring of all international students from attending Harvard University on Thursday and a court ruling to halt the decision the next day.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered her department to terminate Harvard University's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, claiming that "Harvard's leadership has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment".

The Department of Homeland Security announcement said that "Noem demanded Harvard provide information about the criminality and misconduct of foreign students on its campus" and "Harvard University brazenly refused to provide the required information requested and ignored a follow-up request".