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(Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune)
By Raga Justin, The Texas Tribune
When University of Texas at Austin senior Stephanie Flores-Reyes checked her fall course schedule earlier this week, she was shocked to see all five of her classes were slated to only be online. But as an international student from Mexico who spends the school year here on an F-1 student visa, it could suddenly be problematic for Flores-Reyes to be enrolled only in classes that meet online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
<p>On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 visa holders in the United States under the Student Exchange Visitor Program will not be allowed to enter or stay in the country if they are attending American schools that will offer only online classes this fall. Instead, they must either transfer to a school with in-person instruction or "potentially face immigration consequences," according to a release.</p><p>For students attending schools with hybrid plans, the category most Texas universities will fall under as they forge ahead with a mixture of in-person and online classes this fall, colleges must certify to ICE that the students are enrolled in the minimum number of classes required to progress through their degree plans at a normal speed—and that they are "not taking an entirely online course load" this fall.</p><p>Flores-Reyes chose her courses carefully in order to graduate on time next May. She doesn't want to budge from her schedule, which could potentially delay her degree progress, but having all online classes means she can't return to the U.S.</p><p>"It's insane that this is not even up to me," Flores-Reyes said. "I can't make those decisions. If I'd known, obviously I would have chosen in-person classes."</p><p>The new guidance drew heavy criticism from education groups.</p><p>"We urge the administration to rethink its position and offer international students and institutions the flexibility needed to put a new normal into effect and take into account the health and safety of our students in the upcoming academic year," the American Council on Education said in a statement.</p><p>The move also has some higher education experts worried about what will happen if more classes get pushed online, even if a school is designated to be hybrid.</p><p>"The online-only rule is a good one, if it allows international students to enroll, take classes and not have to come to campus," said Michael Olivas, the former director of the University of Houston's Institute for Higher Education Law. "But ... there's a tidal wave of online classes coming our way, to hybrid schools. And if the international students that are here have to return to their home country midway, that's going to be bad."</p><p>Olivas said the hope is that if universities transition to online-only classes midway through the semester, ICE will be flexible and implement special-circumstance rules similar to those that helped the same group of students when the pandemic swept the country earlier this year.</p><p>But Student Exchange Visitor Program documents indicate that may not be the case.</p><p>"If a school changes its operational stance mid-semester, and as a result a nonimmigrant student switches to only online classes, or a nonimmigrant student changes their course selections, and as a result, ends up taking an entirely online course load, schools are reminded that nonimmigrant students ... are not permitted to take a full course of study through online classes," the new guidance reads. "If nonimmigrant students find themselves in this situation, they must leave the country or take alternative steps ... such as transfer to a school with in-person instruction."</p><p>ICE's decision could potentially alter fall plans for thousands of international students in the state. At UT-Austin alone, there are more than 5,000 international students, according to the school's international office. Spokesperson Fiona Mazurenko said in an email that staff members are working to respond to and support students with the limited information they have received, but declined to comment on how situations like Flores-Reyes' would be handled.</p><p>"We continue to advise all F-1 students to enroll in classes designated as in-person or web-enhanced," Mazurenko said in the email.</p><p>The University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas at El Paso also said they would work with each international student to make sure that their course schedule meets federal requirements for F-1 visas. Texas A&M University said it was <a href="http://iss.tamu.edu/Current-Students/Traveling-and-Coronavirus#2-OnlineClasses%2FDistanceEducation" target="_blank">monitoring the situation</a> and would update students as more information became available.</p><p>But some faculty members are considering taking matters into their own hands. David Arditi, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said he would do an independent study course for international students so that they could have the requisite in-person instruction required to stay in the country.</p><p>Arditi said he would not be compensated for the independent study course. He views this as a necessary way to protect international students – an "already vulnerable" group.</p><p>"In normal circumstances, I'm protective of my time," Arditi said. "But this is a horribly repressive system. ... We have to step up and find alternatives."</p><p>Flores-Reyes would prefer to return to Austin, where she rents an apartment still stuffed with her belongings. She hasn't been able to cross the border to retrieve anything since she fled in March to Nuevo Laredo.</p><p>Now she is looking to speak with her international adviser to plan her next steps, all while dealing with an unfamiliar set of constraints.</p><p style="text-align: left;">"I had no idea this was going to happen," Reyes-Flores said. "Now is not the time to be enforcing these rules."</p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/08/texas-international-students-college-classes/" target="_blank">Originally published by The Texas Tribune</a>, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans—and engages with them—about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.</em></p>
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Texas universities move classes online, keep tuition the same. Students are asking if it's worth it.
06 July
(Allie Goulding/The Texas Tribune)
By Raga Justin and Reese Oxner, The Texas Tribune
Sarah Ramos has spent her summer anxiously awaiting a fall return to Texas A&M's campus at College Station. She is hoping for some normalcy after she and her classmates were abruptly forced off campus last semester and into Zoom-based classes for the remainder of the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.
<p>But as Texas scrambles to address a <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/02/texas-hospital-capacity-coronavirus/" target="_blank">soaring number of COVID-19 cases</a>, Ramos is worried her upcoming course load could once again be moved online. That's just not the college experience she's looking for. So now, Ramos says she's considering withdrawing from A&M for the fall and delaying her upcoming graduation.</p><p>"I do want to return to school, but the likelihood of that is teetering right now," said Ramos, who's working at a grocery store over the summer to save up for tuition. "I want the best education possible, and I really don't think that I can get that online. I can't get that from a screen."</p><p>Texas universities are <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/03/texas-ut-austin-fall-online/" target="_blank">finalizing their fall reopening plans</a> as August approaches. The state's major public universities are generally all offering some in-person classes, though most schools have moved sizable portions of the fall course schedule online or are offering classes in a hybrid format. A&M is planning on conducting at least 50% of classes online-only, while UT will move almost one-third of its 11,000 courses online.</p><p>These plans also paint a picture of significantly-altered campus life, with spaced out dining halls, capacity caps on classrooms and <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/08/ut-austin-masks-reopening-fall-furloughs/" target="_blank">mask mandates</a> for students and faculty in some schools.</p><p>But while school will look different, the tuition rates for many of Texas' largest universities, including UT-Austin, University of Houston, University of North Texas and Texas Tech, will stay the same.</p><p>Now Ramos, and many other students across Texas who are weighing their plans for the fall semester, are asking themselves: will it still be worth it?</p><p>This summer, nearly all Texas universities went <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/04/texas-summer-school-coronavirus/" target="_blank">completely online</a> and schools including UT-Austin and Baylor offered reduced tuition while several others waived fees for campus services like parking.</p><p>These plans also paint a picture of significantly-altered campus life, with spaced out dining halls, capacity caps on classrooms and <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/08/ut-austin-masks-reopening-fall-furloughs/" target="_blank">mask mandates</a> for students and faculty in some schools.</p><p>Like many others, the school can't afford to discount classes, because instructors are paid the same regardless. Schovanec said more than 65% of the university's expenses are directly related to compensating faculty and other personnel.</p><p>"There's a misunderstanding that online classes are cheaper," Schovanec said. "When people write to me and say 'Hey, I'm not getting face to face instruction, give me a tuition reduction,' it's inconsistent with the reality of our budget."</p><h2><strong>Lawsuits</strong></h2><p>The question of student value in the fall is poised to become a legal battle. Already more than 150 lawsuits have been filed across the country from students seeking reimbursement for tuition and fees from last spring.</p><p>When the pandemic forced universities to vacate their campuses in March, students lost access to campus labs, technology, transportation, athletics, library services, dining halls and more.</p><p><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/14/coronavirus-spurs-texas-baylor-university-cut-its-budget-80-million/" target="_blank">Baylor University</a> was no exception. After it closed its doors, some students who lost access to those student-funded services wanted refunds for their steep tuition rates and campus fees.</p><p>Baylor, which received around $10.7 million in <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/16/texas-universities-coronavirus/" target="_blank">federal funding to offset emergency aid</a> and refunds for students, promised students credits for unused meal plans and dining dollars, but insisted online learning did not necessitate refunds on tuition and campus fees.</p><p>But that wasn't enough for students like Allison King, a rising sophomore at Baylor, who filed a class-action lawsuit in early June seeking prorated refunds for tuition and fees like a $90 payment for mandatory chapel sessions. Another Baylor student, Nabor Camarena, filed a similar lawsuit at the same time.</p><p>"In any other business, if you get paid all the money and then cut the services you're providing, we would call that profiting from a pandemic," said Roy Willey, the attorney representing King. "The sacrifice here is on the part of the students that are paying for this."</p><p>Baylor is the first in Texas to be sued for tuition-related grievances following the pandemic.</p><p>The university said in a statement that it stands by its decisions made in an "unprecedented time for our country and all of higher education."</p><p>Other universities have <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/16/texas-universities-coronavirus/" target="_blank">already shelled out millions</a> in refunds for unused services like meal plans and campus housing from last spring. While some of these losses were offset by federal funding designated by the CARES Act, much of it had to be covered by the institutions' own budgets, leaving universities under financial strain as they worked to refund hundreds of students and award emergency aid.</p><h2><strong>Living expenses</strong></h2><p>The partial shift to online also has more students and parents worried about paying for college housing.</p><p>Ann Marie Hicks, who lives in Austin, will have two daughters in college this fall. With a combination of online and in-person courses, Hicks' eldest daughter Allison, a rising senior at the University of North Texas, will only have to be in Denton for 26 days out of the entire semester.</p><p>While minimizing contact with campus is a relief in some ways, setting up living arrangements in a different city is a financial headache, Hicks said. The house Allison is planning on moving into with her partner to avoid crowded student apartments will be more than $900 in rent per month, plus additional utilities and maintenance fees. Hicks is having a hard time rationalizing the cost.</p><p>"It's frustrating," Hicks said. "And I'm mindful that there are many families under more constraints than we are."</p><p>The same goes for Gaby Alvarez, a rising junior studying journalism at UT-Austin. She's worried about contracting COVID-19 on campus – but she's also worried about getting stuck with her lease, which she signed back in October.</p><p>As of now, Alvarez said she only has one in-person class, which isn't a compelling enough reason to justify the $880 monthly rent she pays for an apartment near campus. Originally from Ganado, where she's been quarantining with her elderly grandparents, she said she'd prefer to stay home if she could get out of her lease and move to all online classes.</p><p>"This is such a hard situation with a lot of moving parts," Alvarez said. "And going back (to school) is not worth it to me, financially and health-wise."</p><p>But the promise of the campus experience, however diluted, is a major draw for some students.</p><p>Hicks' younger daughter Annabelle, an incoming freshman at Trinity University in San Antonio, is a theater major and is trying to take as many in-person classes as she can. Annabelle also deals with learning impediments like dyslexia, which she said makes online learning harder and in-person instruction valuable.</p><p>I think that's one of the things that pisses people off the most," he said. "We're getting charged for fees that we're not actually going to take advantage of."</p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/" target="_blank">The Texas Tribune</a> is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.</em></p>
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(REUTERS/Graeme Sloan)
By Shannon Najmabadi, The Texas Tribune
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Louisiana law that would have curtailed access to abortions in the state, and that was nearly identical to a measure the court overturned in Texas in 2016.
<p>
The ruling is a win for advocates of abortion access, who feared the case could pave the way for states to impose greater restrictions on the procedure. And it could have had far-reaching effects in Texas where there are more than 6 million reproductive age women. More than 53,800 abortions were performed in Texas in 2017, including 1,1,74 for out-of-state residents, according to government data. The GOP-controlled Legislature routinely introduces regulations restricting abortion access, and the state's Republican attorney general recently fought to enforce a near-total ban during the coronavirus outbreak.
</p><p>
Monday's decision was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the liberal justices to strike down the Louisiana law. He had dissented in the 2016 decision that found Texas' restrictions placed an undue burden on a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
</p><p>
"The result in this case is controlled by our decision four years ago invalidating a nearly identical Texas law," Roberts wrote.
</p><p>
The case is seen as a harbinger of how a reconstituted U.S. Supreme Court may rule on abortion issues going forward. Since the Texas case was decided in 2016, the Court's ideological center has shifted to the right with the addition of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — both appointed by President Donald Trump, who pledged to appoint pro-life justices who would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
</p><p>
At issue in Monday's decision is a Louisiana law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. It's strikingly similar to a Texas law the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2016
<a href="https://casetext.com/case/whole-womans-health-v-hellerstedt">saying</a> there was no proof the requirement better protected women's health. At the same time, “<a href="https://casetext.com/case/whole-womans-health-v-hellerstedt">sufficient evidence</a>" showed the admitting-privileges requirement shut down about half the abortion clinics in the state — more than quadrupling the number of reproductive age women living more than 150 miles away from one.
</p><p>
While the requirement was in effect in Texas, the number of abortions performed in the state declined from around 63,000 in 2013 to 54,000 the next year, according to government data.
</p><p>
In neighboring Louisiana, where some 10,000 women seek abortions each year, one clinic and one doctor would be left to perform the procedure if the admitting privileges requirement went into effect, the law's challengers said.
</p><p>
State officials say admitting-privileges are meant to protect women's health and ensure doctors are qualified. But advocates of abortion access say it is medically unnecessary because the procedure rarely results in hospitalization. When complications do arise, they often occur after the woman has left the clinic, critics of the law say. And admitting privileges are denied for reasons unrelated to the doctors' abilities; abortion providers, for example, can face difficulties qualifying for them because their patients are transferred to the hospital so infrequently, those critics
<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-1323/86620/20190201115254159_Reply%20ISO%20Emergency%20Application%20for%20Stay%20Pending%20Cert%20Final.pdf">said</a>.
</p><p>
In the case decided Monday, lawyers challenging the Louisiana law
<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2019/18-1323_d18e.pdf">argued</a> it is a carbon copy of the Texas requirement, which was <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2016/06/27/us-supreme-court-rules-texas-abortion-case/">struck down</a> for imposing an undue burden on women seeking abortions. The state's lawyers <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2019/18-1323_d18e.pdf">said</a> the facts in Louisiana are different, and that clinics and doctors lack the legal standing to challenge the law for their patients.
</p><p>
Advocates of abortion access celebrated the ruling, but expressed worry about future fights over the procedure.
</p><p>
“We're relieved that the Louisiana law has been blocked today but we're concerned about tomorrow," said Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a nonprofit that represented the Louisiana abortion providers. “Unfortunately, the Court's ruling today will not stop those hell-bent on banning abortion."
</p><p>
<em>This <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/29/supreme-court-abortion-louisiana/." target="_blank">article</a> originally appeared in <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/">The Texas Tribune</a>.</em>
</p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/" target="_blank">The Texas Tribune</a> is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.</em></p><script crossorigin="anonymous" data-tt-canonical="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/29/supreme-court-abortion-louisiana/" integrity="sha384-kWHbWWrJHsBy04/FLYpSF8whX7iznTaWu7KCwxjA7qmPD3La29VFha61MJDfKQ+e" src="https://dot.texastribune.org/static/dist/dot.min.55eef7d282ec435600d1.js"></script><div class="content">
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The Texas Tribune reports that leaders at Texas Tech, A&M and the University of Texas have now said that they expect students to be back on campus in the fall:
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">"On Thursday, Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp told all 11 university presidents in the system that they will reopen their campuses this fall and be ready to play sports, a university system official confirmed to The Texas Tribune. Texas Tech University has also announced that it plans to resume on-campus classes in the fall. Both schools said they are drawing up precautions to keep students safe while bringing them back to campus.<br/></p><p style="margin-left: 40px;">Meanwhile, University of Texas System Chancellor James B. Milliken told the Tribune during a live event Thursday that 'it's pretty clear we will be open in the fall.'"</p><p>Milliken declined to comment on football, saying, "Sports are maybe the only thing above the chancellor's pay grade."</p>
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