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MCC Daily Tribune

Chancellor Malatras Issues Letter Strongly Opposing Proposed Changes to Student Visa Rules

Proposed Stipulation Reducing Visa Term Would Jeopardize the Futures of More than 20,000 SUNY Students, Risk More than $400 Million in Tuition and Associated Revenue Losses, and Damage Local Economies

Chancellor Malatras: "SUNY opposes in the strongest possible terms the Department's arbitrary and capricious effort to disenfranchise international students and exchange visitors."

Yesterday, State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras issued a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Regulatory Chief Sharon Hageman strongly opposing a proposed rule change that would impact more than 20,000 international students across SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. The new rule would stipulate that student visas can be granted for a maximum of four years, creating unnecessary, potentially destructive roadblocks to higher education for countless students studying at colleges and universities across the country.

The full text of the letter is available online.

About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, the state's only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. As of Fall 2019, more than 415,500 students were enrolled in a degree-granting program at a SUNY campus. In total, SUNY serves about 1.3 million students in credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide exceeded $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2019, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit suny.edu.

Rosanna Yule
Government and Community Relations
10/29/2020