UNCC students start petition to protect international classmates

CHAROTTE — Students at UNC Charlotte are trying to get more people to sign a petition aimed at protecting their international classmates.

Students are demanding that UNCC creates a single credit class so that international students can stay in the country. As of Thursday morning, the petition had more than 5,600 signatures.

President Donald Trump said if international students attend a college offering only remote learning, they have to leave the country. Many colleges are offering online-only classes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But if students meet in-person at least once a quarter, they could be exempt from the rule.

The university said it has more than 1,000 enrolled international students. In a statement, UNCC said:

“UNC Charlotte plans to offer instruction this fall using a combination of in-person, hybrid and remote learning classes. We have approximately 1,000 enrolled international students and know that fewer than 100 of those may be impacted by the recent modifications to the Student and Exchange Visitor program (SEVP) exemptions issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We plan to reach out directly to our impacted students and expect to be able to offer them in-person and hybrid classes that will enable all international students to maintain their visa status.”

“The reason why I started this is because, along with thousands of other students who go to UNC Charlotte who are international students, we run the risk of being deported,” said Sahithi Meduri, the student who started the petition. “You can either leave by yourself or they can deport you.”

Another concern is that some students may not be allowed to return to their home countries from the United States due to a number of travel restrictions in place because of our COVID-19 cases.

UNCC shooting survivor Drew Pescaro has also come out in strong support of the petition, tweeting out the link urging people to sign it.

In a series of posts, he explained that a fellow shooting survivor would be impacted by the Trump administration’s decision. Pescaro said students could lose important resources if they’re forced to leave, and that many of them could lose scholarships.

UNCC students will have to pay same fees for online courses come fall UNCC students will have to pay same fees for online courses come fall

Cox Media Group