Ohio Wesleyan University has undergone radical changes such as moving to remote or hybrid learning, reallocating funds, and creating new policies on travel in order to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. But how have these changes to academic and campus life affected a particularly vulnerable population of Ohio Wesleyan students?
Podcast Transcript
Story: [Take-off Sounds] Laila Vano Ibrahim: “I get this email like, “we're shutting down and you have to figure out a way to go home” or whatever that email was and I went into a state of panic.
Dmitri Ashakih: That was Laila Vano Ibrahim, a junior from Karachi, Pakistan majoring in accounting at Ohio Wesleyan University. Her plans to visit a close friend in London over spring break were cut short when Ohio Wesleyan’s campus closed mid semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sending the majority of its student body scrambling to move out their personal belongings and find off campus housing.
Laila I: “I was like, shoot, I’m sitting halfway between uni and halfway between home. I'm literally in a third country, I can’t overstay my Visa here, I can’t go home and I can’t go back to UNI, what do I do? I was panicking.”
Dmitri A: 1.1 million international students make up 6% of all students pursuing higher education in America. But research on COVID-19’s societal impact often excludes international students who are struggling to navigate financial instability, visa requirements, closing borders, and emotional distress as a result of the pandemic.
Lisa Ho: “So there are a lot of rules around our international students who are here on F-1 visas or on student visas about how long you can be out of the country for or if you can take classes remotely. So that was something early on in the pandemic that we also had to navigate with our international students. When we knew our students were going home for the rest of the semester and going to be taking classes remotely, the question immediately was, how does it impact my status as an international student, and does that keep me in status or do I have to reapply?”
Dmitri A: That was Lisa Ho, an associate Chaplain and Academic Coach who helps facilitate numerous programs and travel-learning experiences related to faith and justice. She continues to work with international students to help meet their needs in an increasingly complicated world.
Laila I: “I think it was really stressful because I'm sitting at home, I'm attending to all my deadlines while in the middle of the pandemic with this whole you know 9 hour time difference, halfway through the semester it becomes 10 hours, all of that and I'm not getting the same attention that the other half of my class is getting because they are sitting in person.”
Dmitri A: But some students, whether by choice or necessity, did not return home. Joy Buraina, a senior from Abidjan in the Ivory Coast majoring in neuroscience and psychology, was part of a small group of students allowed to stay on campus after the shut down.
Joy Buraina: “I was really surprised they let us stay. Because I had heard nationwide that schools were kicking everyone out regardless of whether you are an international student or not, but I was very much scared that at some point, something would happen and they would tell people to leave.”
Lisa H: “There were students who clearly did not have access to go home, whether financially, or their countries weren’t going to let them in, or home wasn’t a safe environment for them to be in and I think that decision was made both domestically and internationally.”
Dmitri A: Poor mental health is also a serious issue facing international students as research from ICEF Monitor has found that more than 70% of international students have suffered from some form of stress and anxiety because of COVID -19.
Joy B: “It got lonely. Thankfully I had friends who were also here but even then, everyone was like, you know, it wasn’t a party everyday. It was definitely isolating, just like, mentally.”
Laila I: “Last semester I came, two months, I was out. I was depressed as hell. It was so bad for me that I actually went back home.”
Lisa H: “So I think about the mental strain that that put on students of just being so far from family members who were getting sick, who were being hospitalized, they were losing people at home and they couldn’t be there to be with their family during those times.”
Dmitri A: According to a study conducted in September, some of the greatests needs voiced by international students were, “enhanced resources for mental health, counseling, housing, nutrition, and healthcare” and “increased focus on campus life integration.” For the first time in seven years, the international college student enrollment rate in the US declined by 11 percent. Some universities claim they predict a promising recovery of these enrollment numbers but without forward thinking policies and resources, American universities may continue to lose a population of invaluable students. I’m Dmitri Ashakih and this is OWU Radio.
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