President Martha E. Pollack sent the following message to the Cornell community July 8:

On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released guidelines prohibiting international students from remaining on campus if classes are held online. This was wholly unexpected, and it is a senseless and unfair policy that runs counter to all that we stand for as a global academic community.

I write today to express our unqualified support for our international students, who enrich our community in so many ways. Cornell has, since its founding, welcomed students from around the globe to study here; simply put, we would not be Cornell without them.

While it appears that Cornell’s international students will largely not be negatively affected by this ruling because of our recent decision to use hybrid teaching (both in person and online) this fall, we nonetheless stand in the strongest opposition to this recent policy decision. We are actively working with our elected representatives in Washington, D.C., and with our peers and professional associations to change ICE’s stance. In addition, we are joining an amicus brief with our peer institutions in support of litigation filed by Harvard and MIT in the U.S. District Court in Boston to prohibit enforcement of the order.

Our international students contribute daily to the diversity, excellence and global engagement of our university. To each of our international students, I want to say directly: You belong here, and we will fight for you to be here. We stand with you and with all of our international faculty, staff and the more than 28,000 international Cornell alumni around the world.