memorandums<\/a> from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Course Credit CPT allows international students to pursue internships or other work experience in exchange for academic credit.<\/p>\n\u201cWe got into the same school. We go to the same classes. We take the same tests, but we don\u2019t get the same opportunities and it\u2019s unfair,\u201d the international student said.<\/p>\n
Since UCDC requires all students to complete an internship, she believed her CPT application would count as Degree Requirement CPT, which is not subject to campus\u2019 CPT suspension. She said she was told by a BIO representative that \u201cno one has ever had an issue getting their CPT approved\u201d for UCDC.<\/p>\n
After the BIO representative double-checked with her supervisor, BIO informed the student that she would not be receiving a CPT work authorization, according to the student. She said a UCDC staffer asked her if she wanted to return to UC Berkeley instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had different people from Berkeley International Office tell me different things, so it ended up just being very confusing,\u201d the international student said. \u201cI wasn’t even sure who to trust or whose guidance I should work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
UC Berkeley School of Law lecturer Stephen Rosenbaum characterized BIO\u2019s decision to indefinitely suspend Course Credit CPT as \u201cobeying in advance.\u201d He argued that the ICE memos are \u201cat best guidelines\u201d and do not have legal or regulatory force.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Rosenbaum pointed out that the memo contains a \u201csinister\u201d reporting email which allows individuals to contact ICE about suspected fraud and a reminder that universities could lose their ability to enroll international students if they improperly authorize CPT.<\/p>\n
He called the memo a \u201cstrong warning\u201d to universities. \u201cThat kind of threat alone can be enough of a disincentive to keep programs from doing the right thing or from acting more courageously,\u201d Rosenbaum said.<\/p>\n
Rosenbaum and Graduate Assembly President Chrissy Shively agreed that campus should have considered strategies to expand work experience requirements in degree programs to make more CPT available to international students amid the ICE threats.<\/p>\n
Rosenbaum noted the memos further clarify the term \u201cintegral\u201d in other existing CPT regulations, but ultimately leave it up to universities to decide what kind of work experience is essential to the completion of degrees for international students.<\/p>\n
He said campus could have consulted international student associations \u2014 the ASUC, the Academic Senate and the Graduate Assembly \u2014 before indefinitely suspending Course Credit CPT application processing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are saddened that the administration seemingly gave up the fight without first exploring all possible solutions,\u201d wrote Shively in an email.<\/p>\n
UCDC students from UC Berkeley receive 9 units of academic credit for their internships. Without an internship, the international student is continuing a summer Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program project and will volunteer as an unpaid tutor for a youth detention facility nonprofit to make up the credits.<\/p>\n
She had to find and seek approval from BIO for these activities on her own, and described communicating with BIO as \u201cfrustrating\u201d and \u201cstressful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s very little, to be honest, that they could help us with,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of the activities that I\u2019m currently engaged with, I have to find them and search for them and ask for permission for them by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being accepted to the University of California Washington Program, or UCDC, a UC Berkeley student spent her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3206,67003,32158,9419,176356,173163,187909,35798,2778,143,145,144,187910,181189],"class_list":["post-479031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-academic-senate","tag-associated-students-of-the-university-of-california","tag-berkeley-international-office","tag-berkeley-law","tag-chrissy-shively","tag-course-credit-curricular-practical-training","tag-degree-requirement-cpt","tag-graduate-assembly","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-stephen-rosenbaum","tag-university-of-california-washington-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}