Message to Our Community

April 22, 2025

International students are a vital part of the larger Stony Brook community and the Lichtenstein Center, and we deeply value their contributions to our programs. Recently, eleven international students at SUNY Stony Brook had their visas revoked, with no notice, recourse, or reasons given. These students, like all of our students, are here to study and learn, to access a world-class education that SUNY Stony Brook provides; how can they do so in an unstable environment and how can educators feel free and safe to teach? As teachers and makers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, podcasts, television and films, we at the Lichtenstein Center speak out to condemn this senseless targeting of international students. Attacks on any group of students are violations of our whole community. They must stop.

Universities around the country face threats to their essential mission, the prerequisite for which is the free exchange of ideas, so we at the Lichtenstein Center must redouble our commitment to our students, their right to a safe, welcoming environment, and their right to free expression, including civil disobedience. We stand for an environment that fosters discussion and mutual respect among our students and faculty; that allows for, and sees, the value of disagreement. We stand for a classroom that respects difference, and that appreciates the distinct experiences, orientations, and backgrounds of all of our students. Our classrooms are places of expansiveness and abundance, and a multiplicity of ideas flourish here. We stand against all forms of racism and hatred, including misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab or anti-AAPI xenophobia, ableism, and attacks on the LGTBQ community. In short, we believe in DEI. 

A university is a castle of ideas, of illumination, of a range of thoughts and opinions. In an open and supportive environment, our students can create art that casts light onto every unique corner of this earth. We understand the power of words and images to explore the human condition, and we are proud of how we foster that power. In this difficult time, we want to make it clear that we welcome everyone, and that we are steadfast in our belief that truth and complexity create a more humane world.

These eleven students are experiencing a serious crisis. The SBU Student Emergency Support Fund gives money to Stony Brook undergraduate and graduate students experiencing unexpected hardship, and anyone can donate to it (the Lichtenstein Center certainly has). You will help not only these 11 affected students, but every Stony Brook student struggling to cover critical needs such as housing, food, and other living expenses. For any student in need, apply here. To all our students, thank you for making the Lichtenstein Center the lively, caring community that it is.