SAIC joins Illinois Attorney General in a multi-state legal opposition and will join an amicus brief in support of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s suit challenging the policy
CHICAGO—The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) joined Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Yale University, and others in supporting legal challenges to policy modifications announced by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE reversed its guidance issued on March 13 that recognized the COVID-19 public health emergency, provided flexibility for schools, and allowed international students with F-1 and M-1 visas to take classes online for the duration of the emergency. On July 6, ICE announced that international students can no longer live in the US and take all of their classes online during the pandemic.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined a coalition of 18 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the rule from going into effect. The lawsuit included declarations from 40 institutions of higher education, including SAIC.
In addition to this declaration, SAIC, along with its peers in the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD), will join an amicus brief in support of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s suit challenging the new federal rule. The brief SAIC joined as part of AICAD was organized by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a group, of which SAIC is a member, dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact our students, campuses, and communities.
“As an international campus that believes the learning environment is enriched by a diversity of thought, perspective, and personal experience, we challenge the proposed changes to student visa status because they diminish the global exchange of knowledge, threaten opportunities for fellowship, and are unfair to international students,” said SAIC President Elissa Tenny. “If adopted, this unethical change in guidance for international students would undermine the academic climate at colleges and universities throughout the United States, including SAIC.”
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked No. 2 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons, and LeRoy Neiman.
