Chancellor Weighs In On Trump Administration Student Visa Issue

The Chancellor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says so far, the Trump Administration immigration and visa policies have not hurt the university in recruiting students and employees. 

Graduate students and faculty and staff from overseas can come to the country and work on a H1-B visa. The Trump administration has suggested curtailing the H1-B visa offering.

Chancellor Robert Jones says even with changing news out of the White House, the state’s flagship university is still able to recruit overseas students and employees.

"At this juncture it hasn’t have a significant impact on our ability recruit and hire people whether AP’s, faculty or tenure-track faculty," Jones said.

"We only know anecdotally of a few students who went to Canada rather than try to get into this country to do graduate work."

AP stands for Academic Professionals, the administrative and support staff at the university.

Chancellor Jones made his comments at a Council of Academic Professionals meeting on campus Thursday.

There are currently several proposals in congress to reform the overseas student and overseas worker visa program.

Jones says this issue is something that the University continues to closely monitor.