By STEPHAN BISAHA

Tat Hidano still gets the usual questions when he’s overseas recruiting international students to Wichita State University. The big one: Where is Wichita?

But lately Hidano has been hearing another question: Will I be safe in the United States?

“The questions about safety in the United States have been dominant,” Hidano said. He says his job has begun to feel less like recruiting and more like diplomacy.

Universities across Kansas saw enrollment by international students — who often pay higher tuition — drop significantly last year, placing a further strain on already tight higher education budgets. At Wichita State, a 10 percent drop in the number of degree-bound international students on campus last fall left a nearly $1 million hole in the university’s budget.

Excluding a brief period after the September 11, 2001, attacks, international enrollment in the U.S. has grown consistently for decades.

The decline is especially pronounced at Midwestern schools that lack the name recognition and appeal of more prestigious coastal institutions.

“I don’t think the NYU’s and the Harvards and the Yales of the world have anything to worry about but it’s other instutions that may not be as globally known,” said Rajika Bhandari, head of research and policy at the Institute of International Education.

New enrollments dropped about 7 percent for fall 2016 and universities reported that drop continued in fall 2017, though Bhandari says it’s too soon to tell if it’s a blip or a trend.

Since the 2016 presidential campaign and the start of the Trump administration, some students appear to be thinking twice about studying abroad in the U.S.

“If you have an administration that is sending signals to immigrants within this country and sending an ‘America first’ message, which can be easily perceived as ‘America only,’ it’s not surprising that students are re-evaluating whether this is the place where they’ll be able to achieve their academic dream,” said Jill Welsh, the deputy executive director of public policy at the non-profit National Association of Foreign Student Advisers.

The fear factor

Pooja Odedra came from India initially intending to study at American University in Washington, D.C., and then transferred to Butler Community College — partly because tuition at the two-year school near Wichita was cheaper, but also because of the harassment she says she experienced just walking down the street in Washington.

Odedra says Kansas has been kinder, but comments like, “you don’t deserve to be here” and “you’ll be sent back soon anyway” have stuck with her.

“It does make me feel insecure and question if I should be here, if some other country would be better,” she said.

Odedra is still interested in working in media in the United States, but she is concerned about whether she would be able to get a work visa.

There are still well over 1 million international students in the United States — many more than any other country.

“Students still see (the United States) as the best choice for themselves in terms of obtaining a world class, top quality higher education,” said Rajika Bhandari with the Institute of International Education.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia and Brazil have have reduced state-sponsored scholarship programs, leading to fewer students coming to the U.S from the two countries. Also, higher education offerings in other countries have become more competitive, giving foreign students looking to go abroad more options and encouraging others to study domestically.

“There’s been a concern for more than a decade about increasing competition from abroad for the best and brightest,” Welsh said.

Fewer visas

The number of F-1 student visas issued by the U.S. State Department has dropped by about 27 percent in fiscal year 2016 and continued to decline during the first year of the Trump administration by another 17 percent.

The State Department doesn’t break down the data, so it’s unclear to what extent that’s due to a drop in applications. But there does appear to be an increase in visa denials.

“For Spring 2018, we had a much larger number of students that were denied visas,” said Vince Altum, the executive director for international education at Wichita State.

Altum says he’s heard from other recruiters and students from places like India and Sri Lanka indicating that the number of visa denials may have doubled.

“It’s kind of depressing,” he said. “You go through all this work to recruit the students that are excited about coming to Wichita and then they go through a three-minute interview in their home country, they’re denied a visa and their dreams are basically shattered at that point.”

Odedra had her visa interview a few days after the 2016 presidential election. She says several friends and acquaintances of hers have since been denied.

“A high school friend of mine was going to come here (to the U.S.) but then he decided to go to Australia because already quite a lot of our friends were rejected,” Odedra said.

Stepping up recruitment

Many American universities tout the benefits of having a more global campus, but there’s also the money from tuition.

The Kansas Legislature did restore some funding to higher education this year. But while public universities in Kansas arehaving to make up for years of dwindling state resources and are struggling to grow enrollment, international student tuition is especially important.

International students pay a lot more than in-state students. At Wichita State, tuition and fees are more than double for international students — about $8,500 a semester compared to $4,000.

Altum and his recruiting team are spending more time visiting community colleges, including Butler Community College, to entice students into continuing their education at the four-year institution. Wichita State recruiters have also visited community colleges out of state, in Dallas and Seattle.

Spending a day at a community college that may have only five or six international students is worth it, says Altum, because those students have already had their visas approved.

“The pie of international students in the U.S. is definitely shrinking,” Altum said. “So in order to maintain our share, we have to work a lot harder to make sure even we get the same number.”

The university recently reduced international tuition by a third for some qualifying international students to draw in more recruits. And the effort has prompted a big spike in the number of applications coming in — Altum is seeing about twice as many applications coming in compared to this time last year.

“These scholarships are giving us a glimmer of hope that we didn’t have last year at all,” Altum said.

Normally at this time, universities would be moving on from fall admissions and shifting to the next recruitment cycle. But Wichita State has extended its recruitment season for fall 2018 in an effort to keep international enrollment from sliding further.

“At this point I’m hoping to at least maintain the students that we have,” Altum said.

Stephan Bisaha is an education reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha.

JEFFERSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a murder and now have three suspects in custody three

Just before 10a.m. Wednesday, The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a Douglas County Detective advising he had received a call from a subject stating they witnessed a murder Tuesday night at Perry Lake, according to Sheriff Jeffrey Herrig.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the reported area at Perry Lake.  They found the body of an unidentified man with apparent gunshot wounds. The victim was later identified as 22-year-old Taylor Sawyer.

Following an investigation, deputies made an arrest in Lawrence.

They booked Jonathan Blevins, 22, Topeka, Kansas into the Jefferson County Jail Wednesday afternoon on requested charges of Intentional 2nd Degree Murder.

On Friday night, deputies arrested 18-year-old Ashlyn Hemmerling on a requested charge of first degree murder, according to the sheriff’s office booking report.  They also booked 37-year-old Sarah Hemmerling on a requested charge of Obstructing apprehension of prosecution; Committed or charged with felony. Both are being held on a $100,000 Bond, according to the sheriff’s department.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A former Kansas postal worker was sentenced Tuesday to five years on federal probation for smuggling marijuana through the mail, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Terrell Dewayne Shears, 25, Overland Park, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

In his plea, he admitted he gave addresses on his route to marijuana traffickers in Arizona. The traffickers mailed parcels containing marijuana to addresses on his route and Shears intercepted the packages. Shears dropped the packages off at an apartment building where he had been instructed to leave them and texted a recipient he knew only as “John” to pick them up.

Investigators seized more than 40 pounds of marijuana from his postal vehicle.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan and triggered a search that left some of his comrades severely wounded, was spared a prison sentence by a military judge Friday in what President Donald Trump blasted as a “complete and total disgrace.”

The judge gave no explanation of how he arrived at his decision, but he reviewed evidence that included the five years Bergdahl was held captive by the Taliban and the wounds suffered by troops who searched for him, including one who now uses a wheelchair and cannot speak.

The case was politically divisive. President Barack Obama traded Taliban prisoners to bring Bergdahl back, drawing sharp Republican criticism. As a presidential candidate, Trump called for the soldier to face stiff punishment. He could have received up to life in prison.

 

The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

 

The judge also gave the 31-year-old a dishonorable discharge, reduced his rank from sergeant to private and ordered him to forfeit pay equal to $1,000 per month for 10 months.

In court, Bergdahl appeared tense, grimaced and clenched his jaw. His attorneys put their arms around him and one patted him on the back. One defense attorney cried after the sentence was announced.

Defense lawyer Eugene Fidell told reporters that his client had “looked forward to today for a long time.”

Bergdahl “is grateful to everyone who searched for him,” especially those who “heroically sustained injuries,” Fidell added.

Trump’s statement came in a tweet about 90 minutes after the sentencing. “The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military,” the president wrote.

Bergdahl pleaded guilty last month to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The judge had wide leeway in deciding the sentence because Bergdahl made no deal with prosecutors to limit his punishment.

Prosecutors had sought a stiff penalty because of wounds suffered by service members who searched for Bergdahl after he disappeared in 2009.

The defense sought to counter that evidence with testimony about Bergdahl’s suffering as a captive, his contributions to military intelligence and survival training and his mental health problems. The argument for leniency also cited Trump’s harsh campaign-trail criticism.

The dishonorable discharge threatens to deprive Bergdahl of most or all his veterans’ benefits, but it also triggers an automatic appeal to a higher military court. Before that, a general who can reduce, but not increase, the sentence will also review it.

Fidell told reporters that he looks forward to the appeals court review of Trump’s campaign statements, which the president appeared to reaffirm on the day Bergdahl pleaded guilty last month.

As a candidate, Trump “made really extraordinary reprehensible comments targeted directly at our client,” Fidell told reporters Friday, calling the situation “one of the most preposterous states of affairs” in American legal history. He said the defense team sees “an extremely strong basis for dismissal of the case.”

During the multiday sentencing hearing, Bergdahl testified that he was sorry for the wounds suffered by searchers. He also described brutal beatings by his captors, illness brought on by squalid conditions and maddening periods of isolation.

A psychiatrist testified that his decision to leave his post was influenced by a schizophrenia-like condition called schizotypal personality disorder that made it hard to understand the consequences of his actions, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder brought on partly by a difficult childhood.

Prosecutors, who had asked for a sentence of 14 years in prison, did not speak to reporters. But one of them, Maj. Justin Oshana, said during closing arguments Thursday that Bergdahl “does not have a monopoly on suffering as a result of his choices.”

Scores of troops joined in an all-out search for Bergdahl in the weeks after he abandoned his remote post near the Afghan town of Mest.

Prosecutors cited two missions that resulted in wounds, including a soldier whose hand was shattered by a rocket-propelled grenade and another who suffered a head wound that put him in a wheelchair and rendered him unable to speak. A Navy SEAL suffered a career-ending leg wound, and a military dog was killed by an insurgent firing an AK-47.

The judge ruled that those firefights with insurgents would not have happened if not for Bergdahl.

One of the wounded soldiers, Jonathan Morita of California, called the lack of prison time for Bergdahl “unacceptable.” Morita, who testified during sentencing, still does not have full use of his dominant hand after he was hit by the RPG, which did not explode.

“The dishonorable discharge means he can’t receive any of these services like I can. He’ll pay the fine like people get fined for illegal fishing. Ok, whoop-de-doo,” Morita said in a phone interview.

Referring to the lack of prison time, he said: “That’s the one that’s completely unacceptable. It should have maybe not been the life sentence, but it should have been something.”

Without confinement hanging over him, Bergdahl already has a job offer from an animal sanctuary, and a military official who helps design survival training said he would like to use Bergdahl as a part of lectures to service members on how to survive captivity.

The soldier from Hailey, Idaho, was brought home by Obama in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. He has been stationed at a military installation in San Antonio.

At the time of Bergdahl’s release, Obama said the U.S. does not leave service members on the battlefield. Republicans roundly criticized Obama, and Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly calling Bergdahl a traitor who deserved serious punishment.

———

11:40 a.m.

A military judge has found that Bowe Bergdahl should serve no prison time for endangering his comrades by walking off his Afghanistan post.

The judge also gave Bergdahl a dishonorable discharge, reduced his rank to private and said he must forfeit pay equal to $1,000 per month for 10 months. The judge made no other comments.

Bergdahl appeared tense, grimaced and clenched his jaw. His attorneys put their arms around him and one patted him on the back.

Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and had faced up to life in prison. The judge had wide leeway because Bergdahl made no deal with prosecutors to limit his sentence.

Prosecutors had sought stiff punishment because of wounds to service members who searched for Bergdahl after he disappeared in 2009. He was held captive by Taliban allies for five years.

The defense sought to counter that evidence with testimony about Bergdahl’s suffering during five years as a captive of Taliban allies, his contributions to military intelligence and survival instruction and his mental health problems.

___

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has seen its budget picture improve after officials and university economists issued a new fiscal forecast that was a little more optimistic than the previous one.

The state’s forecasting group on Thursday increased projections for tax collections by a total of almost $225 million for the current and next budget years, through June 2019.

Tax collections have been better than expected for the past five months.

The new projections are an average of 1.8 percent higher than those in the previous forecast issued in April.

The new forecast was issued a month after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that legislators did not increase spending on public schools enough this year to finance a suitable education for every child. The new forecast would allow for some new spending.

LOGAN COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 7:30p.m. Sunday in Logan County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Toyota Tacoma driven by Robert A. Nolting, 57, Longmont, CO., was northbound on Logan County road 160 ten miles west of Russell Springs

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It traveled into the east ditch. He overcorrected into the west ditch. The pickup rolled three times and the driver was ejected.

Nolting was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Kennedy Koster Funeral Home.

He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

 

TOPEKA— Fire officials are working to determine the cause of a weekend house fire.

Just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, three engine companies of the Topeka Fire Department responded to the blaze at 1241 SW High Avenue, according to a media release.

Upon arrival, fire crews found smoke coming from the two-story wooden frame home. Firefighters began an offensive fire attack keeping it confined to the home. A search of the structure revealed no occupants. They did rescue one dog from the structure.

Estimated dollar loss – $20,000.00, including $15,000.00 structural loss and $5,000.00 contents loss.

Kansas Gas Service, Westar Energy and the Kansas Chapter of the American Red Cross also responded to the scene.