Ski Resorts Struggle to Hire Amid Trump’s Student Visa Ban

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Milagros Sotelo was looking forward to traveling from South America to Tennessee to start a job at Ober Gatlinburg ski resort this winter. The 22-year-old student worked the last two ski seasons in the equipment rental shop at the small resort nestled in the Smoky Mountains and was excited to reconnect with friends, practice her English and take a break from law school in Lima, Peru, where she lives. But on June 22, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring a wide variety of foreign worker visas, including J-1 visas often issued to South American students who come tomore

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Students Miss Milestones, But Learn to Adapt

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Yes, it’s a pandemic, and, yes, it certainly is better to be safe than sorry, but nonetheless, college students are lamenting the loss of major milestones — like starting college, moving on campus, celebrating turning 18 or 21 with friends, and graduation — interrupted by COVID, they say. “I couldn’t move into American University, haven’t moved to a new country, haven’t met my friends,” said Lexi Adler of Toronto, an incoming freshman at American University in Washington, D.C., who is waiting it out at home with her parents in Canada for now.Lexi Adler had hoped to attend American University inmore

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Dutch Students Work Hard To Keep Virus Out of Shared Houses

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This is not the student life Iris Raats had hoped for when she was accepted at Leiden University to study law. With the coronavirus pandemic casting its long shadow over education in the Netherlands and around the world, most of her lectures are online and the vibrant social life in the country’s oldest university city has been reined in to contain the spread of the pandemic. Instead, socializing happens predominantly within the four walls of the house that the 19-year-old shares with 13 other students close to the city’s central railway station. “I’m very glad that I found … amore

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US Colleges Struggle to Salvage Semester Amid Outbreaks

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Colleges across the country are struggling to salvage the fall semester amid skyrocketing coronavirus cases, dorm complexes and frat houses under quarantine, and flaring tensions with local community leaders over the spread of the disease.Many major universities are determined to forge ahead despite warning signs, as evidenced by the expanding slate of college football games occurring Saturday. The football-obsessed Southeastern Conference began its season with fans in stadiums. Several teams in other leagues have had to postpone games because of outbreaks among players and staff.Institutions across the nation saw spikes of thousands of cases days after opening their doors inmore

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Former Exam Administrator Pleads Guilty in College Scam

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A former college entrance exam administrator pleaded guilty Friday of taking bribes to help wealthy parents rig their kids’ test scores as part of a college admissions bribery scheme. Niki Williams, 46, a former employee of the Houston Independent School District, is among about 40 people who have admitted to charges in the case that exposed a scheme to get undeserving teens into college with fake athletic credentials or manipulated test scores.  Prosecutors say Williams, who administered the college entrance exams at the public high school where she worked, took money from Rick Singer, the admissions consultant at the center ofmore

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Proposed US Visa Changes Explained

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The Trump administration has proposed to eliminate “duration of status” on visas for international students, exchange visitors, and those working in international media. Officials are hoping to impose fixed end dates rather than allowing visas to be valid for as long as it takes them to get their degree or finish a research project. Currently, a holder of an F-1 visa can stay in the country until the student finishes a studies program or if the student keeps on meeting program requirements.The 256-page proposed rule released on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would mandate 4-year expiration datesmore

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Trapped in Elevator, Professor Teaches Class Online

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When Jay Van Bavel, a social neuroscience professor at New York University, stepped into his apartment building elevator 10 minutes before his Introduction to Psychology class online, he “breathed a sigh of relief,” thinking he would start his lecture on time.  That is, until the elevator lurched downward before halting to a stop between floors.  “Ok, no need to panic. The door won’t open and the elevator won’t move. But I use the call button to contact the staff from the elevator. They promise to call a repairman from the elevator company to help us escape,” Van Bavel tweeted aboutmore

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Quarantine Ordered for 2,500 Students at Elite Swiss School

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Swiss health authorities have ordered a quarantine for a staggering 2,500 students at a prestigious hospitality management school in the city of Lausanne after “significant outbreaks” of the coronavirus that are a suspected byproduct of off-campus partying.     Authorities in Switzerland’s Vaud canton, or region, said all undergraduates at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, known as the Lausanne Hospitality Management University in English, have been ordered to quarantine both on- and off-campus because the number of COVID-19 outbreaks because targeted closures were not possible.   The World Health Organization, national health authorities and others have cautioned that young people,more

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Virus Clusters at French Universities Give Europe a Lesson

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Can mandatory masks offer enough protection in lecture halls so packed that late arrivals have to sit on the floor?  That’s what worries many students at the centuries-old Sorbonne University in Paris as the coronavirus is on the rebound across France.  At least a dozen COVID-19 clusters have emerged since French campuses and classrooms opened this month. The clutches of cases are a warning sign for countries elsewhere in Europe, where most universities are readying to resume teaching and research in coming weeks.  “We go back to university in conditions that are a bit extreme, and we fear we mightmore

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Infection Rates Soar in College Towns as Students Return

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Just two weeks after students started returning to Ball State University last month, the surrounding county had become Indiana’s coronavirus epicenter. Out of nearly 600 students tested for the virus, more than half have been positive. Dozens of infections have been blamed on off-campus parties, prompting university officials to admonish students. University President Geoffrey Mearns wrote that the cases apparently were tied not to classrooms or dormitories but to “poor personal choices some students are making, primarily off campus.”   “The actions of these students are putting our planned on-campus instruction and activities at risk,” he said. Similar examples aboundmore

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Issues Important to Young Voters  

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“My name is Natalie Bergeron. I’m 20 years old.” “My name is Daniel Hendrick. I’m 19 years old.”  “Nelson Quezada, 22 years old.” “Michael Rotstein, age 20. I go to Stetson University.” Daniel Hendrick “I am a sophomore at Stetson University.” Natalie Bergeron “And I go to Stetson University.”   Nelson Quezada  “I attend Stetson University.” Daniel Hendrick “So, for me, as a queer-identifying man, like, this election is super important.” Nelson Quezada  “So, immigration reform is really important to me.” Natalie Bergeron “Environmental issues that are smaller scale than just saying a blanket statement about climate change.”   Michael Rotstein “I’m very pro-Second Amendment; I like my gun.” Natalie Bergeron “So,more

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Major US College Football Conference Will Attempt to Play in October

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In a reversal of its decision to cancel its 2020 U.S. college football schedule due the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Ten Athletic Conference on Wednesday announced plans to resume play in October. In a statement posted on its website, the conference said its Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to resume the football season starting the weekend of Oct. 23, 2020. Last month, the collection of colleges and universities voted 11-3 to postpone the season, with The Ohio State University, University of Iowa and University of Nebraska voting against. The conference said the emergence of daily rapid-response COVID-19 testing, not availablemore

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Father Springsteen Advises Students During COVID

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At the start an otherwise dreary academic year for many college freshmen because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston College — a Jesuit Catholic university — treated incoming freshmen to a pep talk from one of the biggest stars in American music. “If you completed your assignment and read my book, you will know I got into rock ‘n’ roll for the sex, the drugs and the sex,” drawled Bruce Springsteen, winner of numerous awards, seller of a gazillion downloads, and the father of Boston College graduate Evan Springsteen, Class of 2012.“Oh wait, that’s the wrong speech. Let’s start again.”Springsteen, 70, deliveredmore

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A Fatherly Springsteen Advises Students During COVID

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At the start an otherwise dreary academic year for many college freshmen because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston College — a Jesuit Catholic university — treated incoming freshmen to a pep talk from one of the biggest stars in American music. “If you completed your assignment and read my book, you will know I got into rock ‘n’ roll for the sex, the drugs and the sex,” drawled Bruce Springsteen, winner of numerous awards, seller of a gazillion downloads, and the father of Boston College graduate Evan Springsteen, Class of 2012.“Oh wait, that’s the wrong speech. Let’s start again.”Springsteen, 70, deliveredmore

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19 Years On, Does a Post-9/11 Generation Remember the Attacks?

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The morning of September 11, 2001, is one of Aidan Thayer’s first memories.He was just 3 years old when the terrorist group al-Qaida launched a series of four coordinated attacks against the United States using four hijacked passenger airplanes. Two of the planes crashed into the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center, while a third was flown into the Pentagon, the Department of Defense headquarters, near Washington. Passengers on the fourth plane, likely bound for the White House, retook control of the aircraft and crashed it into a field in Pennsylvania.Thayer’s mother picked him up from preschoolmore

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Study: Asian Americans Don’t Suffer From Admissions Rejection

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A new study concludes that Asian American students do not face negative consequences in college when rejected from their first-choice colleges and universities.The study — published in FILE – Students walk on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, Feb. 26, 2015.’Small differences’Seven researchers at the University of Denver and the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) looked at student outcomes of Asian American college students based on their admissions and enrollment decisions.Researchers analyzed data from two national surveys of 1,023 students who identified as Asian American: the 2012 Freshman Survey and 2016 College Senior Survey, both administered by the Higher Educationmore

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US Revokes Visas of 1,000 Chinese Students Considered ‘High Risk’

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The U.S. says it has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese citizens considered “high risk” to U.S. security because of alleged ties with the Chinese military. A statement issued Wednesday by the State Department said the revocation of the visas was authorized by a proclamation signed by President Donald Trump on May 29.  The proclamation was aimed at students who had previously studied at colleges and universities in China that have ties to the People’s Liberation Army. The Trump administration has charged that Chinese students have come to the United States to steal intellectual property to advance China’s economic andmore

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COVID, Bad Economy Push Soaring Numbers of Young Americans Back Home, Study Finds

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The number of adult children who have had to move back home with their parents is at a level not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s, according to a new study.A majority of 18- to 29-year-olds have moved home because of the coronavirus pandemic, subsequent shutdowns and quarantines, and job losses, a Pew Research Center study found.“Young adults have been particularly hard-hit by this year’s pandemic and economic downturn, and have been more likely to move than other age groups,” study authors Richard Fry, Jeffrey Passel and D’Vera Cohn wrote Friday.The number tipped into the majority in July,more

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US Revokes Visas of 1,000 Chinese Students 

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The U.S. says it has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese citizens considered “high risk” to U.S. security because of alleged ties with the Chinese military. A statement issued Wednesday by the State Department said the revocation of the visas was authorized by a proclamation signed by President Donald Trump on May 29.  The proclamation was aimed at students who had previously studied at colleges and universities in China that have ties to the People’s Liberation Army. The Trump administration has charged that Chinese students have come to the United States to steal intellectual property to advance China’s economic andmore

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Study: COVID, Economy Push Soaring Numbers of Young US Adults Back Home

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The number of adult children who have had to move back home with their parents is at a level not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s, according to a new study.A majority of 18- to 29-year-olds have moved home because of the coronavirus pandemic, subsequent shutdowns and quarantines, and job losses, a Pew Research Center study found.“Young adults have been particularly hard-hit by this year’s pandemic and economic downturn, and have been more likely to move than other age groups,” study authors Richard Fry, Jeffrey Passel and D’Vera Cohn wrote Friday.The number tipped into the majority in July,more

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Millennials Connect Via Social Media Challenges During COVID-19

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Bingo is back, this time among millennials and Gen Zers. To stave off boredom caused by the coronavirus quarantine and connect with others, millions of global millennials and Gen Zers are issuing challenges to each other on social media.  Challenges have gotten so popular that social media giant Instagram added a “challenge” story sticker to make it easier for users to create their own or nominate others.  Challenges and tags flooding social media range from drawing random oranges and tagging friends, to perfecting 15-second dances on TikTok to keep people busy, connected and entertained.  Here are some of the biggest social media trends and challenges that have gone viral.Bingo  People are makingmore

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Young Muslims Challenge Traditional Stereotypes 

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Young Muslims like Humaira Akram are using social media to show the Islamic culture’s younger side.   “Gen Z Muslims have changed or progressed Muslim culture in today’s society by being more vocal, using their social media platforms to advocate for justice and being open-minded,” said Akram, a student at Brooklyn College in New York. Akram and others say they think many non-Muslims see violence and sexism as stereotypes. But younger Muslims are eager to move beyond that, she said.  Sabina Hanan answers comments and questions about Islam and the Muslim culture on social media. This photo is from her Instagram account.“Theymore

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Big Drop Reported in Vaping by US Teenagers

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Vaping by U.S. teenagers fell dramatically this year, especially among middle schoolers, according to a federal report released Wednesday.Experts think last year’s outbreak of vaping-related illnesses and deaths may have scared off some kids, but they believe other factors contributed to the drop, including higher age limits and flavor bans.In a national survey, just under 20% of high school students and 5% of middle school students said they were recent users of electronic cigarettes and other vaping products. That’s down from a similar survey last year that found about 28% of high school students and 11% of middle school studentsmore

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UW-Madison Restricts Student Movement Amid Coronavirus Spike

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The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Monday canceled all in-person social events and ordered undergraduate students to restrict their movements for the next two weeks in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.  The order from Chancellor Rebecca Blank comes as the number of coronavirus cases among students has continued to rise. Among the restrictions, from now through Sept. 21, all student gyms and recreational facilities will be closed, dining halls will offer carry-out only and visitors will not be allowed in dorms.  Blank also warned that the campus might shut down if the situation gets worse. “We’vemore

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