Texas Tech revealed Monday that one of its international scholars was held up by an executive order from President Donald Trump.
The name of the scholar was not yet released. Tech did reveal that scholar is a citizen of Iran – one of seven countries specifically named by the executive order.
The order stops citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States for the next 90 days.
“The number of students we have from those seven countries combined is not that large,” said Tibor Nagy, Texas Tech’s Vice Provost for International Affairs “It’s 149.”
“We have one international scholar, again from Iran, who was in transit coming to Texas Tech,” Nagy said. “So, that person has been obviously stopped and cannot continue the journey for probably 90 days.”
The scholar made it as far as Cypress on her way back to Texas Tech.
Scholar in this case does not mean student. In this case scholar means a faculty researcher.
“The largest impact I would say would be psychological,” Nagy said.
“International students are good for the security of the United States of America,” Nagy said. They spend billions of dollars for higher education in the U.S. according to Nagy.
“If you get the sense that international students are not welcome, that can have a chilling effect because then they would be welcome in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom,” Nagy said.
He also said that so far, the United States has been the premier destination for the brightest students in the world.
