An international student enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence has had their visa terminated, as confirmed in a public letter to the campus community from RISD President Crystal Williams on Monday, April 7.
The student remains unnamed for their privacy and the school declined to comment further, referring Hyperallergic to Williams’s statement. Per the letter, RISD’s Office of International Students and Scholar Affairs (ISSA) learned that the student’s international status was marked “terminated.” The school has contacted the student to “help identify possible legal resources.”
Williams said RISD has not been informed about the reason for this student’s visa termination, but acknowledged a larger issue of legal status revocations affecting hundreds of international students across the United States.
“Like so many communities of higher education that are affected by changing guidance and policies, we are deeply concerned by these developments and are closely monitoring the situation,” Williams wrote, calling the news of the RISD student’s status “personally and professionally impactful” and “especially heartbreaking.”
The past few weeks have seen international student visa terminations and arrests following the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine activism across college campuses, starting with Columbia University graduate student and Syrian-born Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil.
Last month, RISD issued a school-wide communication advising international students, faculty, staff, and community members who are US visa holders or permanent residents to “seriously consider, revise, or postpone your travel plans that will require re-entry into the U.S.”
It’s not immediately clear whether the RISD student was affiliated with the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (RSJP) chapter, which organized a three-day “de-occupation” of campus building last May to demand that RISD provide financial investment transparency, divest from Israeli interests, and “publicly condemn the Israeli occupation of Gaza as a genocide.” The building takeover dissolved after Williams threatened expulsion.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, Jo, an organizer with RSJP who asked to be identified by first name only, called the new “an attack on our immigrant and international student community.”
“Thirty-three percent of our 2,084 undergraduate student body are international students — that’s approximately 687 people, not including graduate students,” Jo continued. “I don’t know who the student is or why their visa was revoked, but it is clear that the RISD community must resist Trump’s fascist attacks.”
“We are demanding that the RISD administration support our communities and refuse to comply with ICE and Trump’s demands,” Jo said.
Isa Farfan contributed reporting.