Ivy League schools Brown and Cornell advised students from some countries, including China, to take precautions and travel early.
Universities in various states are advising international students and staff to consider cutting their semester break short and returning to campus before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.
The institutions say they fear that Trump will immediately enact a travel ban preventing certain foreign nationals from re-entering the United States.
Ahead of the end of the fall semester, Cornell University, Harvard University, Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Massachusetts Amherst communicated travel concerns to students and staff who could be affected by such an order, according to their websites or documents provided to The Epoch Times.
Cornell University, which begins the spring semester on Jan. 21, announced that Trump will “likely” order a travel ban for citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia.
During his first term, Trump imposed a temporary travel ban on countries that were deemed hotspots of terrorism until those countries provided adequate background information to the U.S. government to grant visas.
Cornell’s Nov. 26 advisory said: “New countries could be added to this list, particularly China and India.”
“International students and scholars from outside of these areas of concern are not likely to be affected by a travel ban or targeted visa suspension,” the guidance said.
“People who are not citizens of these countries but are in transit through them to the United States are unlikely to be affected.”
Cornell University’s website notes that the school had 6,745 international students from 130 countries and 1,224 employees representing 93 countries as of the fall 2023 semester.
The list includes at least one person from most of the countries noted in the Nov. 26 advisory, aside from Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Tanzania, and Yemen.
Cornell had 2,922 students and 250 employees from China last year. From India, it had 699 students and 115 employees, according to its website.
Brown University’s guidance, posted on Dec. 2, notes the U.S. Secretary of State’s “watch list” countries—including Algeria, Cuba, China, and Russia—as well as the nations that were on Trump’s 2017 and 2018 travel ban lists.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) posted a more general advisement on its International Students Office webpage on Nov. 12, noting that the change in administration could result in new policies on Jan. 20, 2025, “and new executive orders that may impact travel and visa processing may be implemented on or after that date.”
It said an immigration attorney will be available that week to answer questions.
“MIT will keep its community updated on any official developments. For now, our guidance to students and scholars makes them aware of notable dates and advises them to rely on official sources of information to follow developments,” said Kimberly Allen, the executive director of media relations.
UMass Amherst’s advisory was also brief and did not list which nations it thought could be affected, although it did say the guidance is being issued out of an “abundance of caution.”
Harvard’s guidance does not mention Trump or his prior travel ban; it did advise international students to budget time ahead of the semester start and be aware that accommodations on campus are available on Jan. 17. The spring semester begins on Jan. 20.
The University of Pennsylvania, Wesleyan University, and the University of Southern California reportedly also issued guidance to international students regarding returning to campus before the inauguration, however, the schools did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for verification and additional information.
Scott Walker, former Wisconsin governor and president of Young America’s Foundation, an organization that seeks to provide more conservative views on college campuses, criticized university leadership for their speculation.
“As long as they are following the laws of the United States, students will be fine here in America,” Walker wrote in an email response to The Epoch Times.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.