Indiana University To Still Accept Students From Banned Countries

A sign at Indiana University\’s info session for students, faculty and staff affected by the executive order on immigration. (Peter Balonon-Rosen/Indiana Public Broadcasting)

Officials with the Indiana University system say President Donald Trump’s immigration and travel executive order won’t change the university’s policies.

The IU system’s eight campuses will continue to accept qualified international students from the seven countries where travel is currently suspended.

“The order itself is not going to keep us from welcoming applications from those countries,” says Chris Viers, associate vice president for international services at IU. “We will continue to review and process those applications and make admissions decisions.”

Viers says about 160 applicants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen have applied to IU campuses across the state.

“The bigger question, obviously, is whether those students will have any interest in coming to the U.S. when, clearly, they’re not feeling very welcome by our government right now,” Viers says.

The university has warned current students, faculty and staff from the affected countries not to leave the U.S. Under the executive order, they may not be let back in.