An Illinois Wesleyan University physics professor says the Trump administration’s effort to choke off the supply of international students at U.S. universities is unwise. The administration is taking a hard line on visa approvals for international students, particularly those from China.
“One of my students from China just finished his PhD on quantum computing at Yale, and he has a wonderful job lined up, which I think will serve us very well. This state stands to earn a lot of money from the industrial investment in this area, and students are worried — is it okay? Is it going to work out for me?” said IWU professor Gabe Spalding.
Spalding said there aren’t enough Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEP) students in the U.S. now, and many of the jobs for STEM graduates in this country go to the 90% of international students in STEM who stay in the U.S.
“Without that cohort, we just will not be able to fill those positions and as a consequence we’ll lose huge economic opportunities and opportunities to fill societal needs,” said Spalding.
And sometimes international students provide synergy.
“When we bring students from around the world into our classroom, everybody wins,” he said. “Our domestic students win when you bring together people with productive differences in their backgrounds. Students from China have been trained in the Russian School of Mathematics, very formal, very rigorous. It is very different from what we teach here. There isn’t a right way, but when we have these differences, it helps everyone to learn from one another.”
Illinois is number four in the nation in manufacturing and a lot of that strength hangs on creative applications of technology. At Ferrero candy, in Bloomington, for instance, just one production line makes 9 million Nestle Crunch bars per day, said Spalding.
“And it’s going by so quickly that when I’m standing right above them, I can’t see where one candy bar is ending and the next is beginning. It’s done with machine vision, with lasers monitoring things and when there’s a problem, sending things off the line. Then humans come in and figure out what’s going on. Our students work on machine vision, on these kinds of next generation things, that play a role in even small manufacturers, like Beer Nuts here in town,” he said.
Another example is from a bigger manufacturer, Rivian. Spalding said the skateboard of its vehicles that holds the battery pack requires 8,000 perfect welds.
“One of my students from Illinois, Wesleyan Brian Simons, who’s a domestic student, he didn’t really have all the support that he needed. He had to work more than 40 hours a week while he was going to college, and there was a cost to that. He needed other people to support him, and the international students were very helpful to him in getting through,” said Spalding. “He’s one of the world’s leading experts in laser welding, which is what they’re using at Rivian, in particular.”
Without the help of international students and a federally funded post-graduation internship Spalding found for Simons, he might not have had the resources to continue.
“Both of those are at risk. The internship that I got him … right now, we’re seeing these are being shut down,” said Spalding. “It’s called the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program, REU, and this is something where we really ought to be increasing it ten-fold, and in particular, adding more experiences for students like Brian before they go to grad school.”
In the past, that and other programs that boost science and technology workforce and research had broad bipartisan support because many of the country’s challenges are larger than can be solved at the local level, said Spalding, adding,
“We need to have big investments, because we have big problems.”
He said there is a national crisis in certified teachers in STEM. There’s an undergraduate scholarship program to address it. There’s also a problem with persistence of STEM students at the undergraduate level. And there are programs that address student retention, success, and pipeline supply.
“Unfortunately, the plug has been pulled on those programs. I’m the president of the American Association of Physics Teachers. For the past five weeks, every week, it seems we’ve been amongst the 1,700-plus grants who have been told stop by end of day, you can charge no more to your grant. But these are exactly the programs to do the kind of good that we’re talking about.
“We’re expecting huge numbers of jobs cannot be filled at that level, and if we’re not able to fill them in the U.S. with those graduates, many other jobs that do not require the graduate the undergraduate degree will also not be there. This is an interconnecting system,” said Spalding. “Let’s suppose that Brian Simons had not been able to develop his laser-welding system. Then Rivian has a problem, and a lot of people working the line might not have their jobs. There are a lot of knock-on effects.”
It’s not just the future at risk. The unsettled climate of the U.S. scientific enterprise also is affecting workers, researchers, and faculty of the present, said Spalding.
“These steps back on visas impact people who are not just grad students,” he said. “It’s also impacting people that are early career, post docs and just starting, depending upon the visa type, it has a broader impact. Those are people, often who are right at the cusp of the next developments that we need and want for our economy.”
The rejection of the value of scientific inquiry embodied by the Trump administration, Spalding said, also affects faculty. He cited a poll done by the widely read journal Nature.
“Seventy-five percent of U.S. scientists said they are considering leaving the country. At the post-doctoral level, the number was 85%,” said Spalding. “Europe is making a major push to try and take some of this talent. We are expecting significant brain drain.”
Spalding said he has been approached by foreign recruiters, and he is at an undergraduate teaching institution. He said nearly all his colleagues at research institutions get pitches to become ex pats.
“You’ve said to a number of students at critical stages, no! So, those creative people will head in other directions. They will take care of themselves. They won’t be taking care of our needs that they could be taking care of,” said Spalding.
Federal investment in graduate education for STEM students is a bargain, he said, adding it has big returns and the modest amounts paid for 75% of grad students to live on only supplement the cost of living — they do not cover it all.
“We’re not giving people a lot of money, and we’re now saying no to that, to our best, who could go on and make a difference in our lives. That does not seem wise,” said Spalding.
He said there are things people in the community can do, whether it’s supporting students by forming a chess club, or by calling elected representatives or funding a college internship.
“Now is the time to do them,” said Spalding.
Become a WGLT sponsor
