Duke plans to take legal action in support of a lawsuit challenging new restrictions on educational visas, Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, told The Chronicle Wednesday.
The University is planning to join amicus briefs supporting a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Schoenfeld said. The suit seeks to block new U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement rules that would not allow international students studying under F-1 educational visas to come to or remain in the United States if they’re taking only online classes.
“We’re going to be exploring all opportunities to advocate for international students and to support our international students,” Schoenfeld said.
Amicus briefs are filed in court by outside parties who have an interest in the case. In this case, Schoenfeld said Duke will likely join briefs that will be filed by “groups of universities, as well as associations.”
President Vincent Price issued a statement Tuesday criticizing the new rules and calling them “a misguided effort that will only harm talented young people and the colleges and universities that are vital to our society.”
Schoenfeld told The Chronicle Tuesday that Duke had “mobilized our internal teams, our legal and international teams and our academic units to ensure that we can create opportunities for students, and we’ve also expressed our concerns to our members of Congress.”
This is a developing story and will be updated if new information becomes available.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Matthew Griffin was editor-in-chief of The Chronicle's 116th volume.