Waves of panic, fear, sadness, anxiety and feelings of abandonment and loneliness. Punctuated — like the sentences in announcements from administrators or government officials — by brief moments of relief.
International OU students forced to stay in the U.S. over the summer have experienced a roller coaster of emotions and frantic planning as a result of their home countries’ COVID-19 responses, as well as often confusing American policies. And at many points, those students’ abilities to remain in the U.S. at all have been in jeopardy.
In early July, a controversial policy was introduced by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would have prevented nonimmigrant students with F-1 and M-1 visas from taking a fully online course load and remaining in the U.S. this fall. Despite the two groups’ agreement to rescind the policy after pressure from over 180 colleges and universities — including OU — the futures of those students still remain unclear.
The Daily spoke with three international students at various points over the summer — after the ICE policy was announced, after OU joined an amicus brief to fight the policy and after the policy was rescinded — and at each point, the students said their reality residing in Norman is one of fear and uncertainty, and one without a clear end in sight.
‘We are students as well — we are Sooners’
When Amer Begović learned about the ICE policy slated to bar international students from taking all-online classes and staying in the U.S., he said he couldn’t even react to it for a few hours.
“I just saw it,” Begović said. “And I was like, ‘I wonder if other people are going to hear about this. Let me share it with my friends.’ … I don’t think I realized how much of a big deal it was in that moment.”
A couple of hours later, the news was everywhere.
“Everyone was talking about it,” Begović said. “And suddenly, so much anxiety and so much fear came into the human side of me and so many other students, and I remember talking to people — everyone was afraid. And everyone was waiting for something.”
Begović’s summer had already taken several unexpected turns. Upon trying to plan his return to Bosnia, his home country, Begović ran into one critical issue — the country’s airports were closed.
This forced Begović to consider possible workarounds. He could fly to neighboring Croatia and then travel to Bosnia from there, but he would have to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving in Croatia, and then again in Bosnia.
Normally a very prepared person, Begović found all of his preparation for the summer voided by the far-reaching effects of COVID-19.
“The biggest thing was the uncertainty,” Begović, an entrepreneurship and venture management senior, said. “Especially as someone who likes to make endless plans on everything that I’m going to do in life, having that moment where I had no idea what was happening — it was really scary for me.”
Soon, Begović’s cousins in Utah offered him a chance to stay with them. Although creating a new plan was still stressful, Begović acknowledged he has more resources in the U.S. than most international students.
“I’m quite privileged to have had that opportunity because most students either don’t have family here in the U.S. or don’t have family that would actually invite them and host them for three months like my family did, which was such a big gesture from them,” Begović said.
Besides finding a secure place to live, healthcare costs are another stressor for many, as they’re much higher in the U.S. than in most international students’ home countries, Begović said — a stark realization in the middle of a pandemic.
Although, on average, the U.S. spends about twice as much on healthcare as other wealthy countries, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, this doesn’t necessarily translate to more accessible coverage.
While uninsured Americans have lower medical expenses on average than those with insurance, they end up paying a much larger portion of their expenses out of pocket. In 2014, uninsured Americans paid an average of $752 out of pocket for medical services, compared with $658 for patients with private insurance and $236 for those with public insurance.
Begović said his OU student insurance doesn’t cover hospital bills, and like many American families, Begović said his wouldn’t be able to afford the bills associated with a hospital trip.
“There was also that big fear, like you have to pay for all of these different things and also stay safe from the virus just because of the fact that you know you cannot afford the treatment,” Begović said.
Begović, who became International Advisory Council president during the pandemic, said one of the first coronavirus-related things his organization did before he took office was create a COVID-19 emergency fund for international students. The organization has raised more than $5,800, which went to about 45 students.
Begović said the fund was created because he knew many international students were in particularly difficult situations in which they had to pay rent for March, April and May, while also having just lost on-campus jobs and having to support their families.
“It’s important when you are a part of the community to give back and to care for those who belong to your community as well,” Begović said, “and … not just the international community, the whole OU community.”
Before OU joined the amicus brief in protest of the ICE policy, Begović said he was disappointed in OU’s lack of action to support its students.
“A lot of people have been focusing on calling us international students and … referring to things that we contribute to the American community and American students,” Begović said. “But it seemed that everyone was failing to realize that we are students as well — we are Sooners.”
While he said he appreciated the statements many student organizations made in support of international students, Begović said he also thought those groups should be more inclusive towards students from other countries.
According to the 2020 OU Factbook, 1,701 international students were enrolled on the Norman campus in fall 2019, making up about 6 percent of all students on that campus.
As the first international student in the Crimson Leadership Association — once called Sooner Freshman Council — Begović said many of the deadlines to join organizations are in the first weeks of school, which makes participation difficult for jet-lagged international students adjusting to a new country.
“I do believe that there is good in … major student organizations that are predominantly American,” Begović said. “I do think they care. I just don’t think they know how to properly express that care in order for it to reach international students, and that’s something that needs to be worked on by listening to international student voices.”
‘There’s this giant, giant cloud of uncertainty above our heads’
When psychology junior Aida Šertović learned of OU’s participation in the amicus brief, she said she started hyperventilating and crying, and chills broke out all over her body. She said it was “the most emotional moment I had the entire year.”
“I did not expect anything like that to happen,” Šertović said. “And when it happened, I was bawling my eyes out. I couldn’t believe it. ... Once again, I have a belief in my university, and they care. I couldn’t believe they actually care about us, not just the dollar bills that we bring here. So it was emotional.”
Šertović had tried to return to Bosnia, where her family lives, but like Begović, she had been stranded when the country closed its airports. She considered traveling to a neighboring country and going to Bosnia from there, but was concerned about risking the health of her immunocompromised grandmother.
Šertović was also having trouble contacting the Bosnian embassy, whose help she needed to renew her visa, but some of her friends suggested that she not return home because of how unsafe traveling is amid the pandemic. For this reason, Šertović said she decided to stay in Norman.
“I was extremely anxious. … I’ve never felt that kind of fear in my entire life,” Šertović said.
In a recent Staff Senate town hall, OU President Joseph Harroz outlined the impact of COVID-19 on university finances, explaining that past budgets have been almost completely funded by Oklahoma’s general education budget. During the pandemic, state education funding has been cut, with the most recent change being a 3.95 percent decrease by the state’s legislature.
OU Director of Media Relations Kesha Keith said in an email that in 2019, OU Housing hosted a summer campaign offering free summer housing for students who signed a housing contract for the school year. That offer has since expired, but instead of charging full prices, administrators opted to offer a 50 percent discounted price.
Keith said Sooners Helping Sooners, a scholarship providing support to “students facing extenuating financial circumstances beyond their control,” has provided further financial support for students in on-campus housing.
Šertović said Sooners Helping Sooners didn’t let her know about the financial aid she was receiving until the second day of spring finals, which also contributed to her feelings of uncertainty and stress. She said during the school year, she’d worked in the Dunham cafeteria, but that job ended, along with most other on-campus student jobs, because of COVID-19.
“And so I had this existential crisis where I didn’t really know if I’m going to have a place to stay, if I’m going to have a job, how am I going to support myself?” Šertović said.
Because of her scholarships, Šertović said she doesn’t have to pay any bills, but the process was still anxiety-inducing because she didn’t know how much money she’d receive from Sooners Helping Sooners for groceries and personal expenses.
The ICE decision that threatened to deport international students wasn’t surprising, Šertović said. When the policy was announced, she said she was on a Zoom call with a few of her friends from other schools, discussing what their schools’ international offices told them and what could happen to them.
She said she got a host of conflicting information from different sources, and when OU’s International Student Services office released an email, it parroted what ICE had already announced.
“I was really disappointed that they didn’t have some sort of a plan B in case something like this happened,” Šertović said. “So I was shocked, terrified and also angry at the same time because the unpreparedness of our international advisors in the international office was absolutely outrageous.”
Šertović was happy, though, to see a strong response from different OU community members and organizations in defense of international students.
“Every time we have some sort of incident on our campus, it just breaks my heart ...” Šertović said, “but at the same time, it also restores the hope in humankind because you always see people like those organizations siding with the victims and people who need help, which is something I could say is probably unique to our university — is that unity that we have.”
Šertović said her mind still isn’t at ease about the fall, though. Asked before the ICE decision was rescinded about her thoughts on the upcoming semester, Šertović said much is still undecided for international students.
“There’s this giant, giant cloud of uncertainty above our heads,” Šertović said. “And I don’t see that being resolved until the very first day of classes, so I am still skeptical.”
Because she hasn’t been able to renew her visa, Šertović said being forced to leave the country could mean a permanent end to her studies in the U.S.
“No matter from how many miles and kilometers … I (came) from, I found home here,” Šertović said. “This is my home now.”
‘Not something that they will just forget and move on’
When industrial and systems engineering junior Fanni Váradi found out about the ICE policy being rescinded, she said her first thoughts were “Why did they need to do this in the first place?”
“I was just like, ‘Why did you need to create this massive stress for a couple (of) days?” Váradi asked. “Like what was the whole point?’ But then, of course, I was happy because like, ‘Cool, so I don’t have to worry about all that stuff,’ although by that time, I’d already worked a lot on arranging everything.”
And she had worked tirelessly on arranging plans for the summer after her original plan to return to Hungary, her home country, was upended by COVID-19.
Váradi said there were no flights to Hungary, and when flights became available again, they were about $300 more than a roundtrip was normally. Discussing her options, she and her mom decided it would be easier to figure out a way for her to stay in Norman for the summer instead of trying to fly across the world.
Her original plan was to stay on the OU campus and work for the university athletics department, but her plan was upended once again when most on-campus student jobs were ended. Unable to work, Váradi said even with emails from several university offices, she didn’t know where she’d live for the summer, as housing on campus was expensive.
“I was literally taking finals not even knowing if I will have a space to stay,” Váradi said, “so I was constantly worried about what’s going to happen. And then over the summer, once things got figured out, I was just constantly feeling alone here because literally everybody left and ever since then, I’ve just got used to it. So at this point, I’m just like, ‘Whatever happens, happens.’”
A couple of weeks later, Váradi said she worked out a plan with her athletics department manager in which she could work online and still maintain that source of income. She said she applied for many scholarships and received aid from Sooners Helping Sooners, which offered to pay for half of her housing costs, still leaving her to pay about $400 a month.
After the announcement of the ICE policy, Váradi said she was very concerned because there wasn’t much information on what its impact would be for schools with both online and in-person classes, like OU.
“I felt like we didn’t get any help with it for two days, which doesn’t seem to be too much,” Váradi said. “But when you have to continuously think about, ‘How am I going to get home? How am I going to pay for a ticket? What am I going to do with all my stuff here?’ Then it’s pretty stressful.”
Váradi said she felt the ICE decision violated an agreement international students had made with the university, because when classes were moved online in March, administrators said the shift wouldn’t affect students’ visas.
“I kind of felt super unwelcome here because I was like, ‘I got accepted to this institution,’" Váradi said. “I haven’t done anything against the country or against the law. … I literally just study and work and pay taxes, and I’m like, ‘Why is it a problem if I would like to stay where I am studying?’”
When school first shifted online, Váradi said administrators did send international students several emails with resources and waived their fees for counseling. She said though the university made a host of mistakes in their COVID-19 response, the support they offered was comforting.
In an emailed statement, OU College of International Studies Dean Scott Fritzen outlined other resources college administrators offered:
The College of International Studies has helped to coordinate assistance to international students through the pandemic, in what is really a campuswide effort. Addressing problems identified from two different surveys of needs, several fundraising initiatives across many units and student groups have helped to provide emergency grants. This was particularly important because the government’s CARES Act money could not, by design, be used to assist international students. A food bank has remained open and adapted delivery options during the pandemic. And counseling services have remained available, with special telecounseling targeted to international students. An updated list of all resources and relevant information can be found at https://www.ou.edu/cis/iss/coronavirus-information.
Still, though, Váradi said she doesn’t think this is the end to international students’ struggle to stay in the U.S. during the pandemic. She said she thinks ICE might make a similar decision threatening to deport her and other students, but under a different guise.
“I think if things don’t get better by November, they will tell us to go home for the winter and stay there, which to me, is not an option,” Váradi said. “So I’m a little concerned — this is definitely going to be stressing a lot of people out. It’s not something that they will just forget and move on."
