It isn’t easy moving off campus when your college essentially shuts down and your home is nearly 7,000 miles away.
Yuanhao Dou, a freshman at Southern Methodist University, has spent most of this month trying to find a way back to his family in China only to be tripped up by canceled flights and travel bans.
“My flights keep getting canceled or I’m denied entry into a country,” he said. “I’ve lost a lot of money in the process. And I also have to deal with school work at the same time because online classes have already started.”
Many colleges across the country have moved the remainder of classes this semester to virtual lessons amid the new coronavirus outbreak. But international students face added complications during the pandemic because they can’t get home easily. Many are stuck in this country, navigating an uncertain future.
The U.S. had about 1 million “nonresident” students from other countries enrolled in postsecondary schools in the fall of 2018, according to the most recent federal data available. Texas had about 67,000.
While universities are asking students to leave residence halls to limit the number of people on campus, many have allowed students with extenuating circumstances — such as international students — to remain.
SMU, for example, has about five dozen students approved to remain in residence halls, most of them international students. At first, Dou planned to be among them.
But what would happen at the end of the semester? Would increased concerns about COVID-19 force the campus to close entirely? How would Dou pay for room and board that’s currently covered by scholarships?
“They’re keeping the campus open until May, but what happens after that and if things get really bad? And what if I actually get the virus?” he asked.
Dou, 18, admits it’s ironic that he’s trying to get back to China, where the new coronavirus originated. But that’s where his family is. And China appears to have gotten a handle on the spread there while new cases in the U.S. are dramatically on the rise.
First Dou booked a flight to Japan, but that was canceled. Then he was set to fly through Taiwan, but that country stopped allowing transfers. An option to fly through Hong Kong also fell through.
Then on Thursday, he had to scrap plans to fly through Moscow after Russia suspended many flights into the country.
He’s spent about $3,000 on travel arrangements, and the refunds he’s expecting from canceled plans haven’t come through yet. He’s trying to move quickly, before even more travel restrictions are in place. On Thursday, China announced that it is temporarily barring foreigners.
So now he’s trying to get to New York on Sunday, which makes him nervous given the widespread outbreak in that state. But it’s his best bet in catching a flight to Ethiopia, from where he can then go on to Beijing.
“It’s depleting the money I have on hand,” he said. “I’m not from an affluent family or anything. It’s just really stressful, and I just want to get home.”
And once he does make it back home, he’ll face a 14-day quarantine because he’s coming from the U.S., where the outbreak is spreading fast.
In Arlington, graduate student Nilav Vaghasiya and fellow classmates from India are struggling to figure out what comes next for them.
Vaghasiya is set to earn his master’s in computer science from the University of Texas at Arlington this May. He had been preparing for an engineering job fair in the next few weeks and already had been in talks with a handful of companies for possible positions. But now those jobs are frozen and nearly all hiring fairs canceled.
Vaghasiya, 23, needs a full-time job after graduation that is related to his major in order to qualify for an “optional practical training” extension that would allow him to remain in the U.S.
Vaghasiya said he planned to work here for a few years before returning home to India. Otherwise, he couldn’t afford to pay back costly student loans.
“There’s a lot of tension related to student visas right now,” Vaghasiya said. “Emotionally, a lot of us are weak right now. I’m just hoping for the best.”
For now, he’s grateful to still have his teaching assistant job, which allows him to work from his on-campus apartment during virtual lessons.
But some of his friends aren’t as lucky.
With most of the school shut down, his roommate no longer has a job at an on-campus restaurant. Strict restrictions on student visas don’t allow for off-campus jobs unless they’re part of practical training related to their major.
“It’s tougher for us to pay rent now,” he said. “He’s having to route money from his family in India, but that’s not easy to do either. It’s just a tough situation for us international students to be in right now, honestly.”
