International graduate assistants (GAs) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) are expressing concerns both about their financial situation at the university, animosity towards foreigners and feeling especially vulnerable under the Trump administration about their overall situation.
B who only wanted to give one initial for this article is an international GA from Europe. He works as both a research assistant and teaching assistant on campus and enjoys the research project he is doing.
Kaashifah, another international GA, is a PhD student from the College of Education and Human Development. She is from Vijayawada, a small city in India and is currently working as a research assistant doing data analysis for the Dean’s Future Scholars program.
She enjoys her department and job, calling her advisor, Donald Easton-Brooks, a “sweetheart.”
With their visas, B and Kaashifah are only allowed to work on campus, limiting their opportunities for jobs and higher pay. While students elsewhere are having their stays in the United States gone under sudden upheaval, for a myriad of reasons, from the political to the trivial, their own predicament feels increasingly precarious.
They both have jobs as GAs, but with the increasingly high cost of living in northern Nevada, they say the money is not enough.
B says his stipend covers rent, groceries and other essentials leaving him with about $200 at the end of the month. With his $200 left over, B cannot afford to own a car and he struggles to get groceries without one.
For Kaashifah, her $2,000 a month stipend is “enough to pay the bills” with little to no money left over. She pays for rent, groceries and any other personal expenses she has.
As international students, both of them face higher costs in tuition than U.S. students. Many international students are likely to pay higher taxes compared to domestic students, as well, as international students do not get the standard deduction from their income on their taxes.
Some international students are taxed at least 10% on their income for federal taxes, while some may have exemptions depending on where they are from.
GAs at the university are contracted for no more than 20 hours a week, though many have said they regularly work more than that, including international GAs. B says that when he is doing research instead of teaching he is working on average 30 hours a week.
Kaashifah says that she works the 20 hours a week she is scheduled for and not more than that. Though she says that is typical of her department and not of other departments, especially the sciences.
“I’ve been lucky,” Kaashifah said.
Amid grant cuts and prevailing funding uncertainties, international GAs, in particular, are vulnerable at UNR as their assistantship pays for their tuition. If the assistantship were to lose funding, then international GAs could suddenly be paying almost $30,000 in tuition for one year of schooling.
They could also lose their visa status as international students are required to show proof that they can pay for school. Part of this proof can include the salary they make as a GA.
B specifically mentioned fears over his position disappearing. “The uncertainty of not knowing if your position … [could] disappear like that,” he said.
Markus Kemmelmeier, the dean of the graduate school, acknowledges the vulnerable position of international GAs.
“And once you lose your assistantship you lose your funding, and funding is actually the precondition for you to have your visa,” Kemmelmeier said while discussing the uncertainties GAs face semester to semester.
At the university, GAs have been attempting to form a union to help gain more workplace protections and higher wages. Recently, though international GAs have felt the need to step back from organizing, feeling participating in any type of protest is a dangerous proposition for their precarious situation.
The union even though it has not yet been formally recognized by the university, with state level legislative efforts still ongoing, it does currently have protections in place for international GAs such as a hotline to give international GAs access to legal resources. They also recently hosted a Know Your Rights training for international student rights in conjunction with the ACLU of Nevada.
Sadmira Ramic, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Nevada, ran a majority of the training and went over the protections that international students have. Those protections include not having to speak to law enforcement, the right to an attorney and interpreter and no unreasonable search and seizure.
B and Kaashifah are in support of the union and Kaashifah originally helped recruit multiple international GAs to sign their union cards.
She stepped back from the organizing effort after the election of Donald Trump.
“I am generally scared about it,” B said of of his own visa. “I’m fairly certain that everything is going to be alright, but I’m scared and that is definitely a source of stress.”
“Every day we wake up and there’s something new,” Kaashifah said about the current political climate, and decisions coming from the White House, with some stalled by the court system.
She mentioned the potential removal of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) status option for recent graduates. OPT, which allows international students to get further work experience within their field of study while in the United States after graduation, is currently being discussed as on the cutting block in the U.S. Congress.
OPT is the main route of post-graduation employment for international students as about 72% of international student graduates use OPT. These employment opportunities can last for one to three years depending on the work and the student’s field of study.
Finances and work are not the only areas that Kaashifah says she struggles in. Kaashifah mentioned facing what she called “microaggressions” while attending UNR.
“People look at me and say ‘oh you don’t look Indian, your skin is not brown,’” Kaashifah said.
In another instance, Kaashifah says she was denied from a front desk position on campus due to her English not being good enough. All international graduate assistants whose educational history is from a non-English speaking country have to pass an English fluency test to attend the university.
In an email sent out by Kemmelmeier to graduate program directors, he recently mentioned international students’ fears about getting their visas revoked, as well as encouraging faculty members to support their international graduate students.
For both B and Kaashifah, they are excited about the work that they are pursuing and want to continue in their U.S, experience without fear, but are finding it increasingly difficult to do so.