Syrians instead of Americans are receiving life-changing scholarships

According to at least 60 colleges around the country who are involved in tagging Syrians to receive the millions of dollars in free education and boarding, it was pressure from the students that made them do it.

When one thinks of most college students these days, you don’t envision many with a grasp on world affairs, rather what comes to mind are the “people on the street” interviews which reveal this group to have a lack of understanding of simple things like, “Who is our vice-president, or What war did we fight for our independence?”

But, supposedly graduate students, student governments, and regular run-of-the-mill students are reported to have pushed for the colleges and universities to give scholarships to Syrian refugees. I’m not buying that.

What makes more sense is the involvement of a non-profit group called the IIE Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis who is pushing a campaign called the “No Lost Generation.”

According to their website the Syrian project was started in 2012 at the Clinton Global Initiative. Its original partners are,

“Institute for International Education (IIE), Jusoor, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and the U.S. Department of State joined by the Global Platform for Syrian Students, Kaplan Test Prep International, and the University of California, Davis.”

It goes on further,

“The Consortium provides emergency support to Syrian university students and professors, as they will be so urgently needed to help rebuild Syria.”

It is highly unlikely these students will return to their country of Syria after receiving post-graduate, masters and doctorate degrees from our most prestigious universities. Instead they will inhabit the few high-paying jobs that are available in Obama’s economy and will have essentially killed the aspirations of some other truly deserving American who has studied all of his/her life in order to attempt to live the ever dwindling American dream.

According to Elizabeth Graddy who is the vice provost of academic and faculty affairs at The University of Southern California,

“A university with the stature and profile of USC must ensure that students and scholars of all backgrounds are afforded the opportunity to be part of a culture of academic excellence,”

She continued,

“Our participation in the IIE Syria Consortium speaks to our commitment to the public good and to our status as a global university by assisting those whose educations have been hindered by turmoil and warfare.”

Since when do American Universities carry the responsibility to educate students “globally”? I wonder if the parents of the American USC students even consider the fact they fork out the big bucks for their children to go to this school, only to turn around and have it award scholarships to non-Americans who will take careers right out from under their kids in the future.

I guess this kind of multicultural, open-borders talk isn’t surprising coming from someone in a leading academic role of one of our higher institutions for learning, but is there any possibility these schools could actually help Americans achieve their dreams?

Not all colleges are bending to the pressure from their students. According to The Spokesman Review,

“At least one college, though, questions whether it’s legal to earmark financial aid for Syrian students. The University of Colorado Boulder rejected a petition asking to create scholarships for Syrian students, saying it would violate a federal law banning discrimination based on national origin. The school says it already offers other financial aid to help international students, including Syrians.”

The article goes on further to explain how the colleges who are offering the scholarships are being more lax on their English language requirements and are moving from a standardized test to an online interview, often allowing the foreign student to scan copies of their transcripts when the original can’t be found.

This seems to expedite the means of getting the Syrian student onto American soil, and sounds very much like our Department of Homeland Security’s vetting system, a simple interview.

If its one thing Obama has definitely done in his tenure, it would be making sure Americans are the last in line. This includes our veterans, tax-paying citizens, our needy and impoverished, and now college students. Maybe the parents who are funding these institutions should start demanding things of their own and start putting pressure on the academic leaders to supply Americans with opportunities first.

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