US educators: “Now is not the time to be cynical”

“This is not a time to ask ourselves whether we have a Congress that is worth spending time with or not. The answer is yes,” NAFSA CEO Fanta Aw told international education professionals during a March 24 webinar. 

“This is not the time to be cynical. This is the time to act and do your part,” she said.  

Two months since Trump’s inauguration, the sector has faced unprecedented policy blows – with a continued funding freeze for study abroad programs, a travel ban expected imminently, and cases of international students and staff being detained and deported.   

Moreover, Trump’s directive to initiate the closing of the Department of Education sent alarm bells across the US last week, raising major concerns about domestic education, alongside far-reaching implications for STEM research and concerns about US students accessing financial aid.  

Amid such fast-paced changes – many of which are also being challenged in the courts – colleagues were told by Aw: “We cannot be trying to put fire out everywhere all the time. We must be strategic.” 

When we ask you to advocate, take that time and do so, because it really does matter

Fanta Aw, NAFSA

Mark Overmann, executive director at Alliance for International Exchange, echoed Aw’s words, maintaining: “Our engagement with Congress still does matter.”  

“Even if we are frustrated that the usual pathways and channels aren’t happening right now… I do think there are other ways that congressional interest and angst is being channelled, and that is going to start to even out,” he said.  

While we haven’t seen funding restored for study abroad programs, Overmann said that the 25,000 letters sent to Congress urging it to do so “resulted in a lot of noise that still got to the places it needed to get to and is helping in this situation”.  

Despite uncertainty about the future of the Fulbright Program and Gilman Scholarships hit by the State Department’s funding freeze, Aw said that students should “categorically” still be applying for such initiatives.  

“Stay the course on these things. We need to continue to make the case that this is good for the United States. This is good for our institutions and the students. And this is how we remain engaged with the world and not be apart from the world.”  

Amid concerns that the entire student loan system could collapse after widespread job losses in the Education Department, Aw reiterated the vital importance that financial aid continues to function, which, among other things, allows US students to participate in international exchange programs. 

“There’s a lot of interest in study abroad from American students. We need to leverage that,” said Aw. 

“We need to make sure that we continue to encourage American students to go out there in the world and to see the world and to experience the world,” she added.

Alongside NAFSA colleagues, Aw maintained there were “many things” the organisation was doing behind the scenes that she could not share at that moment, urging stakeholders to “remain informed” and advocate when the time is right.  

“Should we be worried? Yes. Is it legitimate to be concerned? Absolutely.  

“However, the way we remain in power is to stay informed, to do our part. And then, when we ask you to advocate, take that time and do so, because it really does matter.”  

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