Higher ed leaders back Harvard-MIT fight against ICE rules
Harvard University wasted no time pushing back against a federal order requiring international students to attend classes in person this fall, a directive that would force those at colleges and universities that will be online to either switch schools or face deportation and bar those planning to enter such institutions from entering the country. Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which are planning to continue to use online instruction, filed a complaint Wednesday in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order against the proposal by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Monday’s surprise announcement by ICE came as institutions of higher education continue to wrestle with decisions about how to go about safely reopening amid a recent record-setting surge of coronavirus infections across the nation. Harvard President Larry Bacow, in an email to the community, called the order a cruel and reckless attempt to pressure the schools to reopen “without...