The Trump administration says it will revoke Chinese student visas. How could Long Island colleges be impacted?

With more than 1,500 students from China enrolled at Stony Brook University and other Long Island colleges, school officials said Thursday they are monitoring the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it will “aggressively revoke” visas for certain Chinese students.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the State Department “will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” The agency did not specify which fields it considers critical.

Rubio also said officials will “enhance scrutiny” of future visa applications from China and Hong Kong.

The announcement, which came in a two-sentence statement posted to the State Department website, did not provide a reason for the visa crackdown.

Stony Brook had 885 undergraduate and 593 graduate students from China this fall, out of a total student body of nearly 26,700, state figures show. A university spokeswoman, Kelly Drossel, said in a statement Thursday, "We are closely monitoring this rapidly evolving situation and remain committed to supporting all of our students."

Adelphi University in Garden City has more than 540 international students, about 7% of whom are from China, spokeswoman Taylor Damian said.

International students are "a vital part of the Adelphi community, and we continue to welcome and support our students, faculty and staff from around the world,” Damian said in a statement. “We are reviewing guidance from the federal government and researching options for our current and prospective students.”

New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury has 78 students from China, making up less than 2% of its student body, spokeswoman Elizabeth Sullivan said. 

Cold Spring Harbor National Laboratory has about two dozen students who are from China, about half of whom are students in residence from Stony Brook University, spokeswoman Lisa Cruz said. Cruz said it is not yet clear what the State Department announcement will mean for the students.

Messages left with several organizations that work with international students at local colleges were not returned Thursday. One Stony Brook University graduate who is originally from China declined to comment when reached by phone, saying simply, “This is a tough time.”

Dave Hensen, who volunteers with Stony Brook’s International Friends and Family Program, said he is opposed to the new federal policy.

“I don’t like it,” said Hensen, 68, a veterinarian who hosts Thanksgiving dinners for foreign students at his home in Miller Place. “The Chinese students that we have had in the past are nice people, I enjoy interacting with them and showing them Long Island.”

The students from China, he said, are generally “smart, kind people that are just trying to make a better life for themselves. We’ve become friends with many of them.”

Overall, State University of New York campuses enrolled 3,977 students from China, a decline from nearly 6,600 a decade earlier, SUNY’s most recent report shows.

The State University of New York has five campuses on Long Island: Stony Brook, Farmingdale State College, SUNY Old Westbury and the community colleges in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

International students make up nearly 6% of enrollment at SUNY campuses, SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis said in a statement Thursday.

“These federal actions are a threat to enrollment at SUNY and colleges and universities across the country,” Liapis said. “We are continuing to monitor federal actions and working with our partners in state government to analyze any potential impact on SUNY’s extraordinary students and our groundbreaking researchers.”

Throughout the United States, there were more than 289,500 students from China enrolled in American higher education institutions in 2022-23, the most recent federal statistics show.

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott covers education. Since joining Newsday in 2012, she also has worked on the investigations team and covered real estate and the business of health care.