Salisbury University developing plan to help international students return
SALISBURY, Md. – Salisbury University says it’s developing a plan to help its international students be able to return for in-person classes in the fall. “Salisbury University and many other Maryland universities are striving to provide as normal of an instructional experience in the fall as possible for all students. We still have dozens of international students who evacuated the campus back in April,” said assistant provost of international education Brian Stiegler.
The university says it plans on offering about 60 percent of its classes in person or in a hybrid-model involving some online classes. But international students at S.U. still might not be able to come back because of money or travel restrictions. “That student will lose their credentials. They’ll lose their active status, which means that should they want to return in the spring, they’re going to have to reapply to the visa again and pay all the associated fees with that,” said Stiegler.
Stiegler says that students who choose to stay home will face challenges if they return in the spring. “Our students who stay abroad – they’re going to lose their active status and they’ll have to reapply. The students who are here should be okay as long as they take face to face courses unless things get worse,” said Stiegler.
Stiegler tells 47ABC that the university is working on a plan for international students to submit to the Department of Homeland Security. “The question is going to be how are we going to try to build some sort of a safety net to make sure that those students have some course that is appropriate for them – because they’re all different majors, all different parts in their careers,” said Stiegler.
That safety net could possibly include enrolling international students in one common course. Stiegler says that will help make sure that they can keep their active status as students in the U.S. “How do we find a course – a simple course – that we can put them all in that will be face to face or hybrid, so that we can maybe even keep going at least as deep into this as we can,” said Stiegler.
