SACRAMENTO, Calif — Isabel Andrade, 23, is an international student from Ecuador finishing her dual master's program at Stanford University.
Andrade, who lives in the Bay Area, says she and her five international roommates are in limbo as they try to figure out what is going to happen to them.
On Monday, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency set forth new guidelines that force international students out of the country, if college courses go entirely online.
"It's been a response of uncertainty and some fear," says Andrade
Sebastian Fritz, 28, from Germany, is finishing a one-year law program at UC Davis School of Law.
“For me, I couldn’t even leave the country since Europe has a travel ban for the people in the U.S.," Fritz said. "What am I supposed to do?"
Fritz got some relief Tuesday after receiving word from university officials who said they will allow him to continue his studies in Sacramento.
Beth Greenwood, the Dean of the International Program at the UC Davis School of Law, said that in 2019, the school had 82 international students from 20 different countries.
“We are contacting all of the international students to make sure that they have on-campus classes that will allow them to continue on in their F1 status, and we are very confident we can meet that need for every international student,” says Greenwood.
Paul Hofmann the Associate Vice President for International Programs at Sac State says they are planning on having 5% of their courses in an in-person or hybrid format.
“Our best estimate is that about 350 students may be impacted,” says Hofmann.
Sac State is six weeks away from the start of the semester, and Hofmann said they are working on getting international students enrolled in one of those courses.
“The University is committed to providing them with our full support and we are working closely with the chancellor’s office down in Long Beach to receive additional guidance on how to help them,” Hofmann said.
Sac State has 600 international students, 450 of whom are in graduate programs.
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Mayde Gomez.
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