Well said. Our kid just received their master’s degree (they were a WTM kiddo) from a state university that specializes in engineering. The college attracts students from all over the world. As I sat through our kid’s second commencement from this university, I couldn’t help but think the same thing. It is so late in the year and this really pulls the rug out from under the students. Students can’t simply pivot, especially if they are coming from India or China. I know the school our kid went to already has housing assignments for the fall. (They are landlocked in a city and always have a housing shortage.) Statistics for this college’s enrollment in 2024: Asian American 35%, Anglo American/White 20%, International 20%. A ban at one university will potentially keep international students from all of our colleges, as they won’t want to risk coming here to study if decisions such as this can happen on such short notice. It risks our technology and medical research and development, fields that need a wide pool of innovative minds.

Not to mention that what you said about giving kids a year to plan, apply elsewhere, and prepare is not how it works for international students for whom the process can be much more complicated and prohibiting. I was an international student during my undergraduate and if the rug is being pulled from under traditional students, for the international ones this is devastating.

I'm in a unique situation where I know US students who worked insanely hard to get into places like Harvard. I also uniquely deeply know the US, Australian, UK and South African educational school standards and I assure you that things like college level Calculus 2 and up etc. don't exist outside of the US high school. Yet I know foreign students who got into Harvard ahead of Americans who without a doubt had a far more rigorous school exit result. Those foreigners shouldn't have been put in that place without the same achievements as Americans. Harvard was wrong- you just don't know it.

My friend’s son couldn’t go to class because these students. The fact that he is Jewish has made him move off campus in a secret secluded location. His professors even mistreat this sweet shy kid. I say good bye and good riddance to ungrateful troublemakers ! Who is cruel? The Palestinian troublemakers - that’s who is cruel!

This is the nth attempt to shut critical thinking, dissent snd free speech. We should not even consider the timing. This is madness.

Those of you who think that kids should just launch themselves, I’m just trying to look at it from their perspective. A number of years ago my friend’s son was accepted on scholarship to a university in New Zealand. He was so excited and made plans—what he was going to study,what he was going to do, etc. Anyway, that was the year of Covid and international programs and travel were shut down. He had already pinned his hopes on this school and it was too late to apply to other schools. Plus, everything was up in the air. He never did get that opportunity. I just remember how very disappointed he and his family were. Did he figure things out? Yes, he did. But I can certainly empathize with the kids who are not getting to go and having to change their plans, on very short notice.

Real work in the real world is still available and nothing prepares a student better. While in law school, full merit scholarship, my son was one of only a few who actually worked at the same time. He paid for his books, gas and auto insurance which was always his responsibility from the day he bought a car. The school had security jobs, sit at the front desk and study until 1pm closing, BUT his fellow students, already on student loans, chose more loans for cars etc. rather than work. I have little empathy. Even in undergraduate our son worked while his friends played and took a fifth year to play more.

Totally agree with the you that the WAY they went about this is ridiculous (and may not stick). However, I also think places like Harvard brought some of this on themselves by their behavior and attitude. Of course that is not the fault of these students and so I could not support it.

The cruelty is the point.

Aside from yanking the rug out from under some of the world's most promising young minds, it's distressing to see our country's reputation disintegrate. My child is still young. When she enters college in seven years I fear our country will have lost the respect of our fellow nations and any American diploma will be devalued. This administration's commitment to anti-intellectualism is both telling and crass. As was anticipated.

It's impossible to see this as anything more then a temper tantrum. It had the same amount of thought as a toddler has breaking his own toy.

Buckle up. We're only a few months in. There's plenty more pettiness and cruelty to come. I can't believe we did this. Shame on us, as a people. Shame.

I agree. Nothing about how this is playing out is civil.

Thank you Susan . I completely agree with you. The kids are the ones who are suffering here. This is nonsense.

The idea is to punish "other people" and those who step out of line. Our society is full of real problems that require thought-out solutions. What we're getting is revenge and tantrums. I look forward to a day where we can have actual discussions about these things again. I know we've never had an ideal era, where everyone was level-headed and compassionate, but I know we can be better than this.

I want to know why we are discussing this when our national debt is over $36 trillion putting our economy on the brink of collapse

Maybe a better question is why this topic, these people, at this time? I realize this is your page, and this is what is going on in your life. You are looking for answers just like each of us did when our children faced similar obstacles, perhaps bigger obstacles. There are some issues we encountered that are not my story to tell as children become adults and the apron strings must be cut. I will simply say that what we encountered was bigger than this, and we were pre-pandemic in the college years. Politics is a nasty game that none of us sign up for. I always feel bad for those caught in the cross hairs but I’d be naive to think it was not normal. This conversation feels less about the big picture and more about disliking the current administration despite the contrary assertion. Trying to reach into any situation and protect our kids from the bigger picture, the bigger why, is just more bubble wrap. My heart goes out to you Susan, and to every parent navigating young adulthood. It is just as we were told when they were two years old, “Oh, you think this is a difficult age? Just wait.”

Susan Wise Bauer Wouldn’t it be nice if life always gave us a timeline? A short story. I was a homeschooling mom of 11 children. Husband pastor of a small church. I homeschooled for over 20 years. One day God says “Put the children in school”. My husband and I had been presidents of Southwest Alabama Home Educators. We were the Editors of Chef of Alabama newsletter insert in the Teaching Home Magazine. I was highly involved in the movement. Spoke at large Conferences back in the 90s. I had been homeschooling since 1984. But God knew what was coming. And I was listening to his voice. Suddenly November 2004- a heart attack took my husband. There was no life insurance. Eight of my children were still minor age. We lost our home to foreclosure. We moved in a friend’s 1960s trailer while I went back to college. I had not finished college in the ‘70s . I held 3 jobs while going to school full time in my late 40s with eight minor age kids living at home. I graduated in 2008 at almost 52 years old, summa cum Laude. I taught in the public school system for 14 years- Retired- then taught in a Classical Hybrid Christian School for 2 years- and now I tutor children with dyslexia at 69 years old. The baby who was 3 when his daddy died is now 24. (Yes- I had my last child at 45), And I have 12 grandchildren. So - I can assure you - for these students - where there is a will- there is a way. And oh…. There is also a GOD who knows the plans he has for each of us. BTW- I was able to buy another home - not as big - but it has a roof. Financed it for 15 years. Sacrificed to Pay $100 extra each month. Just paid it off in January. What life throws at us or I’ll say “What the Devil throws at me” cannot hinder Gods plans unless we let it. I didn’t. I know who I believe in… and am persuaded that HE IS ABLE to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him! Hallelujah! My plans for my life were COMPLETELY knocked out from under me. I planned to be a stay at home homeschooling mother - active in the movement - possibly writing books. But God had something else in mind and I spent my 50s and 60s in the Classroom to feed my family and pay the bills. Thank goodness God planned ahead for the children to already be in school when their daddy was taken so it wouldn’t be a double whammy on them! HE is faithful

I had to block some people on here. My goodness - vicious! I think Debate should be a required subject- because LOTS of people sure can’t seem to discuss civilly. It’s sad when people resort to personal attacks and name calling.

This is exactly my feelings on most of the actions President Trump has been taking. Many of the programs and agencies he has been going after probably did need adjustments and possibly overhauling, but the way it is being done is unfair and wrong, pulling back money that had already been promised and groups had already budgeted for, jobs being taken away with no warning and so on. This is not a way to run a country or a business...

When you listen to people like Kristi Noem and others speak about these situations, the lengths that they go to dehumanize those affected is bananas. Calling the international students aliens over and over again in her letter. Does she even have a family and children herself? I'm so tired of those who want to continue to spew rhetoric and talk about their version of the big picture. It all boils down to individual humans being harmed, sometimes irreparably. We all can agree that change needs to happen, but on this blitzkrieg scale makes it impossible for me to get behind.

One of my sons has a little over a year to finish his PhD in Physics. He knows people who are in graduate school here who are not planning to stay here to finish their degrees. They already have plans to go back to their own countries. Things here are too unpredictable, and graduating from a U.S. university is not feeling like something to be proud of. My son is an NSF Fellow. They had already cut way back on admissions to the PhD programs. Now there will be half as many Fellowships. Many fewer TAs for the undergraduate students. Fewer people going to med school, fewer doctors in a state with a shortage of doctors. Many of our doctors came her from other countries. Students here don’t want to study medicine for multiple reasons. It’s a calculus based major, university debt, expensive insurance, low pay in high rent areas, 15 minute appointments, patients on assembly lines. The university in our county was eliminating programs even before things got bad. The U.S. is finding more ways to embarrass us daily. Local schools are shutting down. Partly because people can’t afford to have children, or childcare, or a place to live. Things have been on fire for awhile. The two headed snake has been robbing the poor to pay the wealthy for far too long. For most of my life. The fire didn’t start this year, but the orange one threw more gas on it and handed muskrat and his minions torches. No money for for those in need, but plenty to help Israel commit genocide.

Trump is wielding control and cruel, nothing new here. More power to the universities and people that can stand up against the support of violence as the way in Gaza.

Nailed it: Trump has absolutely no compassion or common sense.

The cruelty is the point.

Ah! Disregard my question on Insta! 😄

Thank you!

Conveying my gratitude for your homily this morning. It resonated at many levels.

Thank you for sharing. 🙏❤️ Great reminders.