{"id":10422,"date":"2012-07-18T11:03:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T15:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=10422"},"modified":"2012-07-18T12:23:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T16:23:51","slug":"florida-universities-join-effort-to-ease-visa-requirements-for-stem-grads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/07\/18\/florida-universities-join-effort-to-ease-visa-requirements-for-stem-grads\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Universities Join Effort To Ease Visa Requirements For STEM Grads"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10423\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 207px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/07\/18\/florida-universities-join-effort-to-ease-visa-requirements-for-stem-grads\/corporate-and-media-leaders-attend-allen-company-media-and-technology-conf\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10423\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10423\" title=\"Corporate And Media Leaders Attend Allen &amp; Company Media And Technology Conf.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/07\/148165568-207x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/07\/148165568-207x300.jpg 207w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/07\/148165568.jpg 411w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 207px) 100vw, 207px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Kevork Djansezian \/ Getty Images News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading an effort to make it easier for foreign graduates of U.S. universities to get a work visa.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Editors note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Luc Cohen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><\/em>The presidents of more than 100 U.S. research universities signed a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.renewoureconomy.org\/sites\/all\/themes\/pnae\/university-letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a>\u00a0to President Obama and Congressional leaders urging them to make it easier for international students to get jobs in the country after they graduate.<\/p>\n<p>The letter argues that highly skilled workers in STEM fields \u2014 science, technology, engineering and mathematics \u2014 are in high demand in the U.S. work force and necessary for global economic competitiveness.<\/p>\n<p>The university presidents call on Congress to provide students who graduate from American universities with advanced STEM degrees with a \u201cclear path to a green card.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter we have trained and educated these future job creators, our antiquated immigration laws turn them away to work for our competitors in other countries,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n<p>The presidents of the University of Miami, Florida State University, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida all signed the letter.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>University\u00a0of Miami president Donna Shalala said that although UM\u2019s engineering graduate school is not as large as those of the other signatories, she believes keeping these graduates in the U.S. will benefit the economy.<\/p>\n<p>And it can benefit UM too, she said.<\/p>\n<p>She says she would like to be able to recruit foreign nationals with doctorates to teach at UM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe that we\u2019re letting go some highly skilled workers, trained at American universities, and the competing economies around the world are going to grab them,\u201d Shalala said.<\/p>\n<p>No other Florida schools signed the letter, nor did State University System of Florida Chancellor Frank Brogan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know that [Brogan] was invited to [sign it] or provided a copy of the letter,\u201d Florida Board of Governors spokesman Kelly Layman said in an email.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/06\/19\/u-s-students-show-shallow-understanding-on-national-science-exam\/\">U.S. Students Show Shallow Understanding On National Science\u00a0Exam<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/04\/16\/romney-says-gop-needs-its-own-version-of-the-dream-act\/\">Romney Says GOP Needs Its Own Version Of The DREAM\u00a0Act<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/07\/12\/florida-middle-school-students-can-learn-computing-technology-from-microsoft\/\">Florida Middle School Students Can Learn Computing, Technology From Microsoft<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/4290846294_c9483c6494_m-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/topic\/stem\/\">Explaining Florida\u2019s STEM Education\u00a0Plan<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Leaders of university systems in states like California, Missouri, New York and Oregon all signed the letter.<\/p>\n<p>Madeline Baro is assistant director of media relations at Florida International University.<\/p>\n<p>She says FIU\u00a0president Mark Rosenberg supports the campaign and he \u201cis committed to signing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The campaign is a project of an organization called the Partnership for a New American Economy, which was started by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and communications giant Rupert Murdoch to advocate for immigration reform.<\/p>\n<p>According to Bloomberg\u2019s chief policy analyst John Feinblatt, the letter began with ten participating institutions. The leaders of these schools then invited their colleagues at other universities to sign.<\/p>\n<p>Feinblatt said the list of signatories is by no means exclusive, but the group did not actively try to recruit presidents to sign either.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign engineers and scientists who start businesses and receive patents in the U.S. after graduating from an American institution help create jobs and boost the economy, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis country just has to start looking at immigration as an economic issue,\u201d Feinblatt said. \u201cImmigration policy should be central to economic policy.<\/p>\n<p>Should the U.S. ease work visa requirements on international students who graduate from an American university? Do you know someone who has tried to obtain a visa?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editors note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Luc Cohen. The presidents of more than 100 U.S. research universities signed a\u00a0letter\u00a0to President Obama and Congressional leaders urging them to make it easier for international students to get jobs in the country after they graduate. The letter argues that highly skilled workers in STEM fields [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":10423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1023,1034,581,583,1082],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10430,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10422\/revisions\/10430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}