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April 8, 2025
UAF faculty and staff,
Over the last couple of weeks, I have received several questions about the status
of international students, staff and faculty at UAF. I have been asked these questions
because of the outcomes of high-profile cases and the actions taken by Immigration
and Customs Enforcement on university campuses.
What we have been able to gather from these cases is that ICE has been taking action
on specific campuses relating to specific individuals. While I understand that this
can add another level of stress to our faculty, staff, and students, we are not aware
of such activities taking place on our campuses.
With respect to incoming or outgoing international travel, particularly for summer
fieldwork, we are aware that visa-package processing is slower than usual. Please
contact the International Students and Scholar Services office if you have concerns about specific visa applications or travel to different
countries.
Furthermore, we do not have indications that any of the visas hosted at UAF are at
risk. The ISSS office and UA System general counsel are continuously monitoring any
changes to immigration policies. The ISSS office wrote a message to our international students, scholars, faculty, and staff in the Cornerstone yesterday.
I know many of our students take advantage of our study away program. In conversations with the study away program office, we have only had a couple of
students who have been directly affected this semester. They were related to the funded by the Department of State. The funds were received late due to the funding
being frozen. At this time, students are encouraged to continue applying for this scholarship and other federally funded scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic
year. We are working with our partner institutions which are continuing to accept
students from the U.S. into their programs.
On another note, we are continuing our efforts for every student's success. Towards
this end, we continue to fundraise for the Troth Yeddha’ Indigenous Studies Center.
This week, a private fundraising event will be held in Anchorage. This event will
raise additional funds needed for the center. We are very excited and believe that
this event will kick off the next step of funding that will keep this project on track
for groundbreaking in spring 2026!
With all that is going on around us, we are committed to providing a supportive and
welcoming community for all who choose UAF for their college education.
As we continue to monitor the information being received, I will communicate using
the weekly email format as necessary. If there is no new information every week, I
will reduce the frequency of these messages. For now, we will continue weekly reporting.
Thank you for choosing UAF.
Dan White, chancellor
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