2 international Harvard students lay out their choice: Stay or go?

Five years into his PhD program, Sudipta Saha, a Harvard student from Canada, looked with disbelief at the Trump administration’s notice for foreign students at the university to transfer or leave the country.  

Transferring the last year before his program ended is a nearly impossible option, and Harvard, though it is fighting the administration's efforts in court, has offered little guidance, Saha says.

This nightmare turned reality could just be beginning for more than a quarter of Harvard's student body, even with a court striking down the Trump directive, as many international students fear the president will not give up so easily. 

"The idea that I could [...] not be able to finish my PhD after putting in so much work, including, not just research work, but as graduate students we also do teaching, tutoring and research assistant work as well. The prospect that they could all go to waste was pretty depressing," Saha told The Hill.  

President Trump has aggressively sought to punish Harvard after it publicly refused several of his administration's demands, with the White House targeting the school's federal funding and launching a slew of investigations.

But none of its moves have had a more dramatic immediate impact than the Department of Homeland Security seeking to block Harvard's ability to enroll foreign-born students — and ordering those currently there to either transfer or lose their visa.

“I'm in such a late stage of my PhD, transferring would be quite difficult,” said Saha, who is studying social epidemiology and infectious diseases in the Department of Social and Behavioral Science.

While transferring as an undergraduate may entail little more than moving credits, when in a PhD, program a student has to find a new advisor, fulfill new teaching requirements and secure funding for the research.  

“I actually have no idea if I would be able to transfer in a way that would allow me to complete my PhD,” Saha said.  

After Harvard sued over the foreign student ban, school President Alan Garber released a statement to the community, saying the university "condemn[s] this unlawful and unwarranted action."

The government's actions are due to Harvard's “refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty and our student body," Garber wrote.

And safety at another university could be a fleeting dream for would-be transfers as the Trump administration has made it clear other schools could face similar moves.

Thousands of students had already lost their status earlier this year after the federal government targeted the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which maintains information and status of foreign students.  

Another international PhD student at Harvard, this one a European who asked for anonymity, said, "If my visa is revoked, even if I'm allowed to remain enrolled at Harvard, which is a possibility that has not even been confirmed by the school, I would either have to transfer to another university, where my status might still be at risk, or I would need to complete my PhD from my home country."

Both students say Harvard should do more to make international scholars feel safe on campus, pointing out that some of those involved have gotten crucial information from the media or court filings instead of from administration communication.

Saha said students were shocked to see an allegation in a Harvard court filing that the university has heard individuals with visas linked to Harvard were undergoing extra screening at airports.  

“I do have plans to go visit my family for a short holiday at some point in July," said the student from a European country. "But when I booked ... I did take exchangeable and refundable ones, because I was like, ‘I'm not sure what's going to happen. I might have to cancel this trip for now.'" I haven't canceled it, but I definitely will cancel it depending on how things unfold.” 

"If there's any doubt that I cannot come back into the country, then I'll definitely cancel,” they added. 

There has also been a lack of communication, according to the students, regarding the different avenues the Trump administration has taken to attack foreign students and what could happen if the federal government succeeds in its efforts. 

“Just like talking to various levels of administrators at the university, we've been asking, ‘What is the plan for international students if this happens?’ And there haven't been any clear answers. So, there's a lot of uncertainty for me, and more broadly speaking, for others as well as to what are the different pathways this case could go to, and then how would the university responds in each of those eventualities,” Saha said. 

Reached for comment, Harvard says it has two websites it has been updating to keep international students in the loop about developments from the Trump administration. 

The website shows updates regarding the school's actions to keep international students safe but does not answer the hypotheticals keeping students up at night, such as what happens if the Trump administration were to win in court or what could come next.

“There's been some suggestions that the Trump administration would ... even though this order has been blocked by the court, they might use other powers to scrutinize international students at Harvard. So, there's fears around that as well,” Saha said.