For many Colby students, the two months of remote learning following the school’s decision in mid-March to end in-person classes was an almost unbearable experience. That’s why many immediately relished the opportunity to come back for an on-campus fall semester following the announcement from President Greene on June 12. For most students, the return may only entail a plane ride or drive, but for Colby’s international student body, their homecoming back to Mayflower Hill would prove to be difficult or even impossible.
According to the College’s 2020 admissions viewbook, international students make up more than 10% of the student body at Colby and hail from over 65 countries. The international students at Colby bring a diversity of culture and viewpoints to American classrooms and greatly enrich the learning experience for all students. However, many have faced challenges traveling back to the United States as the entire world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Colby, within the international student body, about a third of the students come from China. For these Chinese students, their situation has been further complicated by the travel ban imposed by President Trump on February 2 which prohibited any non-U.S. citizens, other than immediate family or permanent residents who have been in China in the past two weeks from entering the country. While imposed over eight months ago, travel restrictions still stand as of the latest update from the CDC’s website on September 14. However, at the time of President Greene’s email, many Chinese international students were still hopeful to return to Maine for school.
Ellen Pan `22, a French and English double major from Beijing, China was one of those students.
“Around July and June, most of us, at least me, wanted to come back. We were expecting that COVID-19 could get better and the travel ban be lifted. But I knew traveling was a big challenge. Plane tickets were super expensive and airlines were canceling flights.”
In order to bypass the travel restriction, Pan said students coming from China would have to take a flight to a third country and quarantine for two weeks before departing on another flight to the U.S. Although she considered the plan, around early August, she made the decision to take classes remotely for the fall semester. Pan says a key factor in her decision was also Colby’s decision to start classes two weeks earlier than scheduled which would have meant that she needed to leave China around August 10.
Sophomores Victor Pan `23 and Youyu Li `23 share similar frustrations in a phone call to The Colby Echo from Suzhou, China.
“I personally wanted to come back for the campus life, but I did not think it was realistic because I was unsure of the direction of the pandemic. If there was a virus breakout on campus, then it would’ve been a pain to find a way to get back to China. Where would I go if I was infected?” asked Pan.
Youyu added “My parents thought the U.S. was dangerous and that I would be safer in China.”
Both Pan and Li are also taking remote classes this semester. They’ve shared that their biggest challenge is not only taking all online courses but the time zone as well. China is twelve hours ahead of the United States from the Eastern Standard Time. All three mentioned that their classes are a mix between pre-recorded lectures and live.
“Most are recorded lectures I can watch during the day. I feel comfortable watching the recorded video classes. If I don’t understand one part I can go back and watch it again,” Li added.
However, when classes aren’t recorded, they join the Zoom call real time. For Ellen Pan, that means starting her classes sometime at 8 pm and ending around 2:30 am.
“It’s been very tiring, but I try to think that the students on campus are also tired at 8 am in the morning,” she said with a chuckle.
Victor Pan shared he has it slightly better with a 9 pm to 11 pm schedule but has found that making time for TA hours for his computer science class has been difficult. Both say that the nocturnal lifestyle has taken a toll on their health.
Ellen Pan shared that over the summer, she alongside two other classmates helped organize a plan to allow Chinese international students to cross-register classes at Fudan University in Shanghai, China for credit. They were inspired after seeing Wesleyan University and other liberal arts colleges give their Chinese students that option. This would’ve allowed students to potentially take in-person class albeit not Colby classes. They drafted a letter to President Greene and the program was approved by the Office of Off-Campus Study. While Pan decided against it because the courses offered didn’t fit her major, to her knowledge, there are Colby students taking advantage of the program.
In the meantime, all three are counting down the days to the end of the semester and the end of online classes. Surprisingly enough, their fate also rests on the upcoming U.S. Presidential election which could determine the continuation of the travel restriction. However, all three hope to be back on campus for the spring semester come 2021.
For many Colby students, the two months of remote learning following the College’s decision in mid-March to end in-person classes was an almost unbearable experience. That’s why many immediately relished the opportunity to come back for an on-campus fall semester following the announcement from President Greene on June 12 that in-person classes and residential life would resume.
For most students, the return may only have entailed a plane ride or drive up, but for Colby’s international student body, their homecoming back to Mayflower Hill would prove to be difficult or even impossible.
According to the College’s 2020 admissions viewbook, international students make up more than 10% of the student body at Colby and hail from over 65 countries. The international students at Colby bring a diversity of culture and viewpoints to American classrooms and greatly enrich the learning experience for all students.
However, many of these students have faced challenges traveling back to the United States as the entire world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Within the international student body at Colby, about a third of the students come from China. For these Chinese students, their situation has been further complicated by the travel ban imposed by President Trump on Feb. 2 which prohibited any non-U.S. citizens who had been in China in the past two weeks from entering the country, other than immediate family or permanent residents.
While imposed over eight months ago, these travel restrictions still stand as of the latest update from the CDC’s website on Sep. 14. However, at the time of President Greene’s email, many Chinese international students were still hopeful to return to Maine for school.
Ellen Pan `22, a French and English double major from Beijing, China was one of those students.
“Around July and June, most of us, at least me, wanted to come back. We were expecting that COVID-19 could get better and the travel ban be lifted. But I knew traveling was a big challenge. Plane tickets were super expensive, and airlines were canceling flights.”
In order to bypass the travel restriction, Pan said students coming from China would have to take a flight to a third country and quarantine for two weeks before departing on another flight to the U.S.
Although she considered the plan, around early August, she made the decision to take classes remotely for the fall semester. Pan says a key factor in her decision was also Colby’s decision to start classes two weeks earlier than scheduled which would have meant that she needed to leave China around Aug. 10.
Sophomores Victor Pan `23 and Youyu Li `23 share similar frustrations in a phone call to The Colby Echo from Suzhou, China.
“I personally wanted to come back for the campus life, but I did not think it was realistic because I was unsure of the direction of the pandemic. If there was a virus breakout on campus, then it would’ve been a pain to find a way to get back to China. Where would I go if I was infected?” asked Pan.
Youyu added “My parents thought the U.S. was dangerous and that I would be safer in China.”
Both Pan and Li are also taking remote classes this semester. They shared that their biggest challenge is not only taking all online courses but the time difference as well. China is twelve hours ahead of the United States’ Eastern Standard Time.
All three students mentioned that their classes are a mix between pre-recorded lectures and live.
“Most are recorded lectures I can watch during the day. I feel comfortable watching the recorded video classes. If I don’t understand one part I can go back and watch it again,” Li added.
However, when classes aren’t recorded, they join the Zoom call real time. For Ellen Pan, that means starting her classes sometime at 8 pm and ending around 2:30 am.
“It’s been very tiring, but I try to think that the students on campus are also tired at 8 am in the morning,” she said with a chuckle.
Victor Pan shared he has it slightly better with a 9 pm to 11 pm schedule but has found that making time for Teaching Assistant hours for his computer science class has been difficult. Both say that the nocturnal lifestyle has taken a toll on their health.
Ellen Pan shared that over the summer, she alongside two other classmates helped organize a plan to allow Chinese international students to cross-register classes at Fudan University in Shanghai, China for credit. They were inspired after seeing Wesleyan University and other liberal arts colleges give their Chinese students that option. This would have allowed students to potentially take in-person class albeit not Colby classes.
They drafted a letter to President Greene and the program was approved by the Office of Off-Campus Study. While Pan decided against it because the courses offered did not fit her major, to her knowledge, there are Colby students taking advantage of the program.
In the meantime, all three are counting down the days to the end of the semester and the end of online classes. Surprisingly enough, their fate also rests on the upcoming U.S. Presidential election which could determine the continuation of the travel restriction. However, all three hope to be back on campus for the spring semester come 2021.
~Fiona Huo `23
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