Author: TheConversation

By David L. Di Maria, Associate Vice Provost for International Education, University of Maryland, Baltimore County U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, made a decision on July 6 regarding international students in the U.S. that will affect far more than just the roughly 970,000 international students themselves. Based on what I know about the power and influence of higher education in the U.S., this decision could increase the tuition American students pay, cost thousands of jobs throughout the nation and erode America’s stature in the world. Under this new rule, international students may stay in the country only...

By Phillip I. Lieberman, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University Faced with a range of serious patient reactions to the COVID-19 disease, doctors and nurses have sometimes struggled to find viable treatment options. But when we examine faith-based responses to the virus, spiritual guidance has proved even more elusive. Guidelines for faith leaders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourage groups to clean surfaces and limit meetings or gatherings. But they do not address the emotional effects that COVID-19 victims, and those of us who live in fear of contracting it, might experience. Religious figures such as Pope Francis...

By Adrian Bardon, Professor of Philosophy, Wake Forest University Americans increasingly exist in highly polarized, informationally insulated ideological communities occupying their own information universes. Within segments of the political blogosphere, global warming is dismissed as either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online communities, the science of vaccine safety, fluoridated drinking water and genetically modified foods is distorted or ignored. There is a marked gap in expressed concern over the coronavirus depending on political party affiliation, apparently based in part on partisan disagreements over factual issues like the effectiveness of...

By Melissa Hawkins, Professor of Public Health, Director of Public Health Scholars Program, American University After sustained declines in the number of COVID-19 cases over recent months, restrictions are starting to ease across the United States. Numbers of new cases are falling or stable at low numbers in some states, but they are surging in many others. Overall, the U.S. is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of new cases a day, and by late June, had surpassed the peak rate of spread in early April. When seeing these increasing case numbers, it is reasonable to wonder if...