LEILA FADEL, HOST:
International students are arriving on American college campuses.
DARIA TOFAN: Hi. I'm Daria (ph). I'm a first-year international student, and I'm from Romania.
PRIYOTA NADH: Priyota Nadh (ph), and I'm from Bangladesh.
FRANCOIS HUMPHRIES: My name's Francois Humphries (ph). I'm from South Africa.
SHIVIKA SINGH: My name is Shivika (ph), and I'm from India.
FADEL: Those students made it to school in Buffalo, New York, after a rocky summer, when the Trump administration temporarily paused and then revamped student visa interviews. NPR's Elissa Nadworny reports from Buffalo.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Welcome. We're so excited that you're here on campus.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: At orientation at the University at Buffalo, a public research university in western New York, newly arrived international students are getting their campus IDs...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: So just smile. I'm going to take it on three. One, two, three.
NADWORNY: ...And feeling relieved they made it to campus.
TOFAN: At least we're here. For me, the main thing is that I got here.
NADWORNY: Daria Tofan (ph) from Romania didn't get her student visa until a week before orientation.
TOFAN: To get scheduled for classes, you need to provide the immigration documents. So if you don't have the visa stamp, you're basically behind everything.
NADWORNY: Over the last six months, the Trump administration has clamped down on international student visas. That's created lots of delays and anxiety for accepted students.
SINGH: I only had one goal from the beginning. It was to go to college here. So if I didn't reach that goal, it would've been very painful.
NADWORNY: Shivika Singh (ph) is from New Delhi, starting as a freshman at UB to study psychology. When she first got accepted to Buffalo, she joined a group chat of other students from India. Many of them couldn't get a visa appointment in time.
SINGH: Most of them are now transferring to U.K. because of the visa situation, but some are still waiting for the spring semester.
SCOTT WEBER: Clearly, this year we're having more deferrals. They haven't been able to get appointments for the most part.
NADWORNY: Scott Weber is the provost at the University at Buffalo. The university is expecting a decline of about 750 international students this fall, many in graduate programs, especially in the STEM fields.
FANTA AW: The loss of international students will lead to really a significant downturn in innovation.
NADWORNY: Fanta Aw leads the Association of International Educators. She says universities all over the country are expecting similar drops. Last year, more than a million international students studied in the U.S. But Aw's organization estimates a decline of about 15% overall this fall.
AW: This will affect communities large and small.
NADWORNY: Other countries like Canada, the U.K. and South Korea have stepped up to fill the gap. President Trump has said he wants to keep campuses safe, citing threats of academic espionage, support for terrorist groups in Gaza and criminal behavior - all without much evidence. He's also accused international students of taking university spots that could go to American citizens. Provost Scott Weber says there's room for everyone at his university.
WEBER: I would assure you that our international students do not take spots, you know, for other students who are qualified to attend and would be successful here.
NADWORNY: Enrollment is actually up at the university overall, and there are still about 4,000 international students on campus this year.
WEBER: What they bring to the university is this incredibly rich, diverse cultural experience for students who may not have ever been outside of New York state.
NADWORNY: For the lucky ones, like Shivika Singh from New Delhi, now it's time to focus on being a college student.
What's the most exciting thing you bought for your dorm?
SINGH: I bought a pink "Lilo & Stitch" soft toy (laughter).
NADWORNY: A toy?
SINGH: (Laughter) Yeah.
NADWORNY: To sleep with?
SINGH: Yeah. There are, like, three soft toys on my bed.
NADWORNY: She says those stuffed animals are the key to warding off home sickness that comes from being 7,000 miles from home.
Elissa Nadworny, NPR News, Buffalo, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
