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Hello, I’m Karin Fischer, and I cover international education. Here’s the news I’m following this week:

CDC Warns Colleges to ‘Consider’ Canceling Study-Abroad Trips

A vaguely worded directive from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting that colleges “should consider postponing or canceling” study-abroad trips and other international exchanges. As the coronavirus spreads globally, it has left many in higher education uncertain of how to proceed. The guidance stops short of ordering colleges to cut trips short and bring students home. It also does not specify regions of the world that students ought to avoid but rather appears global in scope. In a joint statement, two international-education groups, the Forum on Education Abroad and Pulse: Higher Education International Health and Safety Professionals, noted that the CDC has never before issued guidance on student travel and encouraged colleges to consider it as part of broader decision making on college travel. Already, many colleges have pulled students back from study-abroad destinations that have been hard-hit by the coronavirus, including China, Italy, and South Korea, and have canceled spring-break trips amid coronavirus fears.

The Chronicle will be maintaining a page with regular updates on the latest Covid-19 developments. How is your campus handling the coronavirus and its impact on overseas travel, international enrollments, and campus life? Do you see an angle we should be covering? Send me your ideas at karin.fischer@chronicle.com.

When an International-Enrollment Bet Goes Bad

Over the past dozen years, the number of overseas students coming to study in America has soared to more than 1 million. And colleges across the United States have embraced international recruitment as a way to increase revenues, rebrand their institutions, or raise their academic profiles. But with international enrollments softening because of the travel ban, shifting visa policy, and now the coronavirus, what once looked like a smart strategy now seems like less of a sure thing. Read my feature in this week’s Chronicle about how colleges that went all in on international are having to recalibrate their strategies.

Grad-Assistant Strikes Could Hit International Students Hard

The University of California at Santa Cruz has fired 54 graduate assistants for striking. The students’ decision to withhold winter-term grades to demand a cost-of-living adjustment for the expensive California city has attracted widespread attention, with the strike spreading to the university system’s Davis and Santa Barbara campuses. But the incident has a critical international-education component — some of the striking students are from overseas, and their visas could be at risk if their studies or on-campus employment are disrupted. Student discipline or arrest can also affect students’ current visa status or future visa applications. Follow my colleague Vimal Patel’s on-the-ground coverage of the strikes.

Another Researcher Arrested Over China Ties

Another researcher has been arrested for failing to disclose his ties to China. Anming Hu, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, has been charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements. The indictment alleges that Hu accepted funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration while concealing his affiliation with Beijing University of Technology. Under federal law, NASA is prohibited from using appropriated funds on projects in collaboration with China or Chinese universities. If convicted, Hu faces up to 20 years in federal prison. His arrest is part of heightened government scrutiny of contracts, grants, and gifts American colleges accept from overseas, and, in particular, their connections with China. For ongoing coverage, check out my weekly global-education newsletter, latitude(s).

Employers Lament Lack of Foreign-Language Skills

One in four U.S. employers said they lost or were unable to pursue a business opportunity because their workers lacked foreign-language skills, according to a survey by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. A majority of employers report that their need for foreign languages has increased over the past five years and project that it will continue to grow. One third said they are highly dependent on language skills other than English. Yet colleges have been offering fewer foreign-language courses — between 2013 and 2016, 650 foreign-language programs were shut down, according to the Modern Language Association.

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