Written by Vinay Ranganathan, Photo Courtesy of Victoria Canas Chen
International students have been faced with many hurdles since COVID-19 hit the U.S. last year. In the summer of 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), under the Trump administration, instituted a plan to revoke visas of students in schools across the U.S. who weren’t attending on-ground classes in the fall. By July, ICE rescinded its policy and students were allowed on ground, however while the policy was in place SCAD offered an on ground course called PRO 540 to allow international students to stay and take the class if they chose to.
Many international students opted to stay home, one of whom is Gargi Pant, a second-year UI/UX major living in Dubai, UAE. For Pant, time zones were a big issue “I’m not a big fan of staying up late for classes, I miss not having classes to 1:30 a.m.,” Pant said.
Despite the difficulties, Pant was able to find a silver lining in her virtual learning experience. “In a way it’s kind of good because there’s such a big [time] difference, I don’t have to worry about getting something in at like 11:59 p.m., since midnight Savannah time is already the next day for me,” Pant said.
Second-year animation and former SCAD Hong Kong student Victoria Canas Chen lives in Costa Rica. She echoed these sentiments too. “I have a few friends who are doing online classes and they’re doing it in their time zones at 3 a.m. and I’m like how are you living like a vampire,” Chen said.
Another hurdle many students at SCAD doing remote learning have to deal with is materials and tools. “One thing I struggle with the most being remote, is my computer is pretty old so I can’t really use a lot of software. I was in animation and I’m having to postpone most of my classes and wait. I’m pushing those classes to September so that I can maybe do them then,” Chen said.
Pant faced a similar difficulty with a lack of necessary resources for her classes. “Where I’m from there aren’t that many art stores for supplies and stuff and if I ordered from amazon it would take about two weeks to get here,” Pant said.
Although there are many obstacles international students have to overcome they note there are benefits too. Both Chen and Pant expressed that their professors have been very helpful and forgiving during the transition to virtual classes.
Pant plans to return to Savannah in the fall, and Chen is hoping to fulfil her original plan of getting an apartment there. “I hope [we can return to campus] in the fall because I was looking with some of my friends for apartments and stuff like that. I was about to go to Savannah last fall and things started going [downhill],” Chen said.
Before they come back though, they hope to feel safe on campus and voiced some of the policies that would help them feel like it when going back on campus “[I’m hoping by fall] people are vaccinated, everyone has been wearing their masks properly and making sure things are sanitary,” Pant said.
SCAD has been slowly implementing more on-ground options for its course offerings as we move into spring quarter. International and domestic students alike are hoping to transition back to fully on-ground classes as soon as possible.
