# Director's Message: Supporting International Students, Protecting our Mission May 23, 2025 - [ New Stories ](/news-categories/new-stories) ![Director's Desk](/sites/g/files/omnuum9081/files/2025-07/cas_news_banners-2-2.png) Dear CAS colleagues and friends, I’m writing to share information with you about two recent actions taken by the US federal government that gravely threaten Harvard’s academic mission and directly affect the Center for African Studies (CAS). Even for those following along, the news has difficult to keep pace with. - Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s ability to sponsor J- and F- student and academic exchange visas, threatening the status of all international students and fellows, and jeopardizing our ability to welcome next year’s brilliant new admits. Harvard filed a[ legal complaint](https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/category/documents/) and, this afternoon, a federal judge issued a[ temporary restraining order](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/us/harvard-sues-trump-international-students-garber.html) blocking the federal edict. Experts across the University are racing to get guidance and advice prepared for the many questions this raises for international students, all of whom have unique individual circumstances. I encourage you to read President Alan Garber’s unambiguous[ message of support](https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/supporting-our-international-students-and-scholars/) for Harvard’s international students and scholars and to look to the[ Harvard International Office](https://www.hio.harvard.edu/) for the most current updates. As President Garber wrote, “we know more and understand more, and our country and our world are more enlightened and more resilient” because of the presence of international students and scholars at Harvard. I have personally benefited from the transformative power of international education, not just here, but abroad. Before coming to Harvard, I spent most of my adult life learning and working as an immigrant outside the US, with the privilege of studying on student and work visas in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Sierra Leone, France, and Scotland. As someone whose life story has been directly shaped by opportunities to live and learn internationally, I am deeply troubled by actions that threaten Harvard’s ability to offer similar opportunities to scholars from around the world. Our vision at CAS – *deepening knowledge and understanding of Africa through global connections and communities of learning* – cannot be achieved without the presence and full participation of students and scholars from Africa and around the world. We stand with and proudly celebrate all our undergraduate and graduate students, including more than 400 students from African countries, and our research fellows hailing from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. We will be unwavering in using every tool and creative solution at our disposal to support and continue to invest in knowledge-creation, learning, and research that crosses borders and builds a global intellectual community. - Adding to the troubling news, last week the Department of Education terminated CAS’s Title VI grants, which have supported our work as a National Resource Center and in delivering Foreign Language and Area Studies training to top graduate students. Through these grants, Harvard has delivered simultaneously on its mission for creating knowledge, teaching, and research that will benefit society, and the US government’s interest in strengthening international and regional studies and foreign language training. CAS and the African Language Program have been instrumental in delivering undergraduate and graduate language training for up to 40 African languages, strengthening knowledge about Africa at Harvard, and ensuring that knowledge is made available to broader publics through our education and outreach work. These grants have supported annual student-led conferences in African business, public health, and development, and have enabled us to uplift the educational impact and inclusive community-building of nearly 30 undergraduate and graduate student organizations. This year alone, we have funded 45 student research and internship experiences across Africa, providing opportunities that change students’ lives and studies. In the coming weeks, we will complete a reporting cycle that captures some of the depth and breadth of learning and impact facilitated by our federal grants. For now, I want to acknowledge the profound loss that will be experienced, not just at Harvard, but also across the centers we’ve worked with, the broader African Studies community, and among our students, faculty, and collaborators in the US and abroad as a result of these punitive award terminations. I am grateful that our university’s leadership is at every level proactively supporting our ongoing work as an international Harvard-wide center. In the face of adversity and uncertainty, CAS is committed to remaining the premier space for convening knowledge about African issues and issues affecting African societies, scholars, and stakeholders. We remain devoted to our faculty, students, and collaborators around the world. And we continue to see in this tumultuous period opportunities to rethink and re-envision our ability to get knowledge into the hands of those who can use it best. The African century is approaching - and there is no more important time to roll up our sleeves and stand united in our commitment to Harvard, to one another, and to Africa. Semper veritas, Zoe \-- Dr. Zoe Marks Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies, Harvard University Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Dean of Pforzheimer House, Harvard College Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)