Policing Classrooms

In an increasingly interconnected world, the boundary between national security and academic freedom is becoming more blurred than ever.

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The recent tightening of US student visa procedures signals not just a policy shift, but a deeper transformation in the way America views the global exchange of talent, ideas, and youth.

At the heart of this development is a broadening suspicion of foreign students — once welcomed as contributors to innovation and economic strength, now viewed with caution as potential ideological or security risks. The new demand that all student visa applicants make their social media accounts public for vetting is both revealing and unsettling. It suggests that the private digital lives of young scholars are no longer immune from official scrutiny. What one posts — or chooses not to post — could well determine their academic future in the United States.