In May, President Donald Trump announced his decision to bar international students from attending Harvard University, which came after the university refused to comply with policy changes demanded by the president. The order preventing Harvard from enrolling international students marked an escalation in a saga that has pitted the Trump administration against numerous private, elite universities across the country. These attacks are misguided policies that fail to recognize the importance of international students, not only to the universities that they attend, but also to the United States.
As of May 17, all but two Ivy League universities had been threatened with funding cuts. Dartmouth College was one of the two that has escaped the initial targeted blows. However, Dartmouth has been affected by broader changes and cuts to federal funding, particularly in regard to funds for research from the National Institutes of Health. Thus, the questions of greatest import are whether the College can remain relatively untargeted by the Trump administration and whether international students can be protected.
It is promising that the College is supporting Harvard in its legal fight against the Trump administration’s order to eliminate federal funding. Equally, if not more promising, is the decision by a Massachusetts U.S. District Court to indefinitely block the Trump administration’s order to bar international students from attending Harvard. But since this decision did not come down from the U.S. Supreme Court, we cannot be certain of how significant it will be for future precedent, particularly since it is easy to imagine the Supreme Court taking up the issue. Policymakers must realize the importance of international students to the United States and Dartmouth must work hard to ensure international students can continue to attend and complete their studies at the College.
International students are crucial for the cultural makeup of a university. Roughly 16% of the incoming students of the Class of 2028 at Dartmouth are foreign nationals. At other universities, proportions can be even higher. Across all Harvard programs, over 25% of students hail from another country. These students bring with them a variety of cultural, religious and national experiences that serve to make these universities less insular — a key gripe of the Trump administration — and more worldly. After all, would the world not be better served if future leaders of the United States and other great countries knew each other’s worldviews more intimately? I, for one, can say that I have learned a great deal more from my American, British, Nigerian and Vietnamese peers (to name only a small few) than I would have from a cohort of only my nationality, and I am immensely grateful for that. Coming from Canada, I am presented with a rare opportunity to engage deeply with people from one of Canada’s closest allies and trading partners. I am here to learn from and understand the American experience, and the vast majority of international students, in my experience, feel similarly.
Perhaps more importantly, ensuring international students can attend American universities opens up the talent pool to the entire world of future leaders. The Trump administration likes to assert that it is working to make the U.S. dominant and/or to retain (or regain, if you ask some) its status as the world’s leading power. Their focus thus far has been on investing in hard power, and, in my estimation, they have severely undervalued the usefulness of soft power. What better way to strengthen America than to attract the top talent from across the globe? American universities already dominate international scholastic rankings, and with over one million international students today and far more dreaming of attending college in the U.S., there is a persistently strong demand from the global population to study in the United States.
We cannot forget that many international students want to settle down in the U.S., work hard and contribute to the country. It is patently false to paint the average foreign student in the U.S. as an outside agitator aiming to bring down the American system. If anything, they want to contribute to the United States and build it into a better version of itself. International students are not threats but assets.
As I likely need not convince those on the left or center of the political spectrum of the merits of my broader argument, let’s take the entrepreneurial star of the right wing in the U.S. as an example: Elon Musk. Putting aside whatever opinions one has of him and his legacy, what cannot be disputed is how he shows what most international students strive to do at a base level: contribute to building a better United States. Born and raised in South Africa, Musk first ventured abroad to Canada at age 17, enrolling at Queen’s University. However, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania shortly thereafter. Within a few decades, Musk built several global brands and now runs the largest privately owned space exploration company in the world, SpaceX, which is set to send Americans to the moon by 2027. All of this started because he was an international student.
Retention of students should not be the only goal of American universities. Of course, not all students stay. Indeed, as of June 2024, around 41% of internationals who studied in the U.S. remained in the country. But that shouldn’t necessarily be a bad result. Assuming the students’ experiences in the U.S. were positive, they will relay their observations to their friends and families back home. In a sense, they will act as ambassadors for the U.S. in the country to which they return, providing greater opportunities for future collaboration and, at a broader level, a more positive view of the U.S. in a time when public perceptions are declining. There is no downside to providing others around the globe with a positive perspective of the U.S. In fact, it may encourage more international students to remain in the U.S. long term.
If the Trump administration truly wants to secure the U.S. position as the world’s leading power, it should not be dissuading international students from attending American universities but persuading the top talent from around the world to come study, stay and contribute. If this isn’t realized, Dartmouth must extend its support of litigation to cases regarding international students — the most vulnerable people enrolled at American schools. Remember, modern America was built by those who braved the oceans, those who waited in the long lines and stuffy rooms of Ellis Island, those who gambled on their futures and careers, and those who left all they knew behind to build a better life in the U.S. Today, it is much the same story that is taking place in the libraries and dorms of universities across the country. Why end an experiment that has worked for so long?
Luke Montalbano is a member of the Class of 2027 and an international student from Canada. Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
