President Decatur shared the following message with Kenyon students and employees via email on Wednesday, July 8.
Dear members of the Kenyon College community,
On Monday, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which authorizes U.S. schools to enroll international students, released preliminary guidance regarding the fall 2020 term. Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, has called this guidance “horrifying,” providing “confusion and complexity rather than certainty and clarity.” I strongly agree with this assessment; at a moment when colleges and universities are striving to find solutions to serve all of their students effectively in the face of an unprecedented global public health crisis, the guidance is both callous to the difficult position of international students and indifferent to the need for institutional flexibility at this moment of uncertainty.
We currently are assessing the impact these regulations may have on Kenyon students in the coming year — and we are committed to doing all we can to allow Kenyon students to continue their studies no matter their country of origin. Diversity and inclusion are core principles for Kenyon, and we deeply value the perspectives and contributions of our international community. In such difficult and uncertain times, we regret that international students have the additional burden of unclear or restrictive government policies.
Sincerely,
Sean Decatur
President