Regarding the International Community at UChicago

Dear Members of the University Community,

One of the most remarkable characteristics of our University of Chicago community is the evident joy and rigor we bring to our pursuits of knowledge and truth-seeking. Today, I write to acknowledge the thousands of people who join this community from across the world, who make us better every day through their contributions to our rich intellectual culture, and who now face uncertainty about their status in this country.

Of course, it is the United States government that controls visas and immigration status for all of our global students, faculty, instructors, and staff. That is their role as elected stewards of the nation's interests. For our part, when this university admits students, we do so based on their academic excellence; when we sponsor visas for scholars, we do so with serious care. We are proud of this responsibility and approach it with a spirit of service to American society.

This responsibility is indeed a solemn one. It is more than our campus community that benefits from the brilliance and insights of our global colleagues. In so many ways, America flourishes from the gifts of knowledge and discovery made possible by the international scholarly community we foster. These gifts often grow deeper when people stay for longer, becoming citizens and building lives of purpose and extraordinary impact here in this country. 

This is quite personal to me, as it is to so many of you. My own father was a refugee. Driven out of Greece by the civil war that followed World War II, he first sought to come to the United States, but was not granted a visa on the grounds that he might carry an infectious disease. He was fortunate to find an opportunity at McGill University in Canada before eventually obtaining a visa to become a postdoc at Rockefeller University in New York. That opened the door to a faculty position in the Chicago area, and after many years, culminated in the extraordinary moment of his becoming a U.S. citizen. His journey across cultures was both difficult and deeply worthwhile. The life he forged here opened whole new vistas of possibility for himself and the communities he served with gratitude as a physician scientist. I like to think that he contributed to the betterment of America.

Countless such stories abound here on our campus, many far harder, and they teach us over and over again that knowledge knows no boundaries. Brilliant people are to be found everywhere. Our openness to talent from around the world is a critical commitment we uphold. It is one borne as an act of hope and conviction that the best and the brightest individuals from every corner of the globe are drawn to this university—to learn, to teach, and to promote the growth of knowledge so that humanity may flourish, here in America and beyond. 

To the international members of our community: I am grateful you have made the journey here. You enrich our university; you bring brilliance and innovation to our classrooms and deeper understanding to every corner of inquiry. You are vital to this university. This has been our historical view–and it will remain so–because it is such a deep part of what makes our university great.

All the best,
Paul

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Paul Alivisatos
President

P.S. Please stay attuned to messages from the Office of International Affairs; they will be providing detailed information and support on an ongoing basis.