As president of Dickinson College, John E. Jones III prides himself in the growing international flavor of the school’s student body.
As of this spring semester, the private liberal arts college in Carlisle boasts students from about 52 different countries, representing roughly 12-13% of student enrollment. By the fall, Jones expects the number of foreign students to top 230 – about 14% of its 2,200 students.
“They’re the most dedicated and marvelous students,” Jones said. “Typically, I have to say, they embrace the opportunity with enthusiasm. They’re a joy…I think they add a richness and a fabric to residential college life.”
Last week, Jones, like many other higher education leaders, was blindsided by a Trump administration directive suspending all visa appointments for foreign students.
Officials from the State Department are weighing expanded guidelines for screening applicants’ social media accounts, The Washington Post reported.
Jones expressed concern about the potential damage to higher education in the U.S.
“The American system of higher education has long been a beacon of excellence, regarded worldwide, and I would never want to see anything that discouraged foreign students, international students, from pursuing an education in the United States,” he said. “I think that cuts against the philosophy that we’ve long held in higher education, which is that we want to allow access for as broad a cross-section, including international students, as we can.”
The suspension of foreign student visas by the Trump administration is the latest salvo in an escalating assault on colleges for not aligning with the policies of the White House.
The order has left heads of schools like Jones in the dark.
“We don’t know what the suspension of the visa program is going to do in terms of how it affects our incoming international students,” Jones said. “So we’re being vigilant. We’re watching it. We don’t exactly know what it means that there’s increased scrutiny of social media. That’s fairly amorphous. We don’t want to overreact, but it is of concern to us, obviously.”
About 16% of the student body at Penn State Harrisburg, for instance, are foreign students — a vast majority of them from China.
Chinese students studying in the U.S. are scrambling to figure out their futures after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that some students would have their visas revoked.
Rubio said the students included those studying in “critical fields,” and “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party,” the Associated Press reported.
China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States, behind only India. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 270,000 international students came from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the U.S.
Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster, has emerged as a powerhouse school for international students. It boasts an International Student Advisory Board that counts among its members students from Nepal, Turkey, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Kosovo, Greece and Nigeria.
F&M officials declined to comment for this article.
Officials from Pennsylvania’s public university system last week indicated that the Trump administration order would have minimal impact across its campuses, including Millersville and Shippensburg universities.
In an email to PennLive, PASSHE officials said that nearly 90% of its 82,500 students come from within the Commonwealth; and most of the remaining students come from neighboring states.
“Our international student enrollment is small,” the email read. “To date, we are aware that 8 students across the system have had their visa status changed by the federal government, which does not provide universities with a reason.”
An official from Dickinson College said the suspension of scheduling new student-visa appointments is not expected to affect students who already have appointments, nor students who need renewals.
The order is expected to affect new F-1 (matriculating) and J-1 (exchange) students.
“We are hearing from and working with incoming students directly as they have reached out to us,” said Connie McNamara, a spokeswoman for the college. “And we are working on communication to all of our incoming international students.”
The Trump administration’s attempts to restrict immigration services to foreign students have amounted to a fast-moving target that seems to change by the hour.
In the wake of the visa suspension order last week, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction for an indefinite period, stopping the administration from barring international students at Harvard University.
Among their arguments, Harvard lawyers expressed concerns about the ability of foreign students to get visas.
Trump has cited a fight against antisemitism as reason for his retribution against Harvard, which includes the withdrawal of billions in federal funding. The White House has demanded the university give up control over its academic affairs and hand over private information about its international students.
“We’re all staying tuned to see how this evolves, and hopefully it doesn’t last long,” Jones said.
He noted a particularly poignant foreign student cohort at Dickinson, which also stands to be affected by the new order: the school’s Ukrainian students.
“To a person, those Ukrainian students who I’ve come to know well, have indicated that they want to take their Dickinson education and go back to their country and help rebuild it, assuming that this war ends at some point,” Jones said.
The Ukrainian students have benefited from a four-year full scholarship, sponsored by alumnus Sam Rose and the Rose International Scholars Program.
“They are so grateful to have the opportunity to study in America,” Jones said. “And in a way, I think of them as exports. Not that they were born here, but hopefully we’re imbuing them with some optimism and some tools that will help them in the noble cause of bringing a country back.”
Dickinson College indicated that its international students, fearing reprisal from the Trump administration, are staying out of the limelight and media coverage.
According to a Washington Post analysis, more than one million international students attend college in the United States.
International students generate billions of dollars for the American economy and bolster the nation’s science and technology sectors.
International students contributed nearly $44 billion to the U.S. economy last year, according to the National Association of International Educators. That bottom line included tuition, room and board, transportation, clothes and food.
Stuart Anderson, executive director of the nonpartisan think tank National Foundation for American Policy, told The Washington Post the visa policy could mean fewer international students coming to the U.S.
“People like to have some certainty when they’re making plans,” he said, “particularly something so vital to their future as where they will study and maybe have a career.”