MANKATO — For international students in the United States, the spring of 2025 brought some cold winds.
“You’re thousands of miles from home, your family is back there, and you know some people have been taken out of their housing and are incarcerated,” said Todd Lundquist, a professor of business law at Minnesota State University. “… I can’t empathize but I can sympathize.”
The anxiety of the roughly 1,500 international students at MSU, who come from more than 100 countries, can’t be soothed by a free dish of ice cream — not even Culver’s frozen custard. But people like Lundquist hoped that ice cream served with affection, appreciation and compassion would send a message: “To remember that their neighbors care about them, their professors care about them and the people in the community care about them.”
Which is why Lundquist joined other MSU faculty and staff, along with community members, at an ice cream social organized by the Global Education Center for the university’s international students.
Although MSU’s academic year ended last week, many international students in Mankato are sticking around this summer — hoping to avoid any roadblocks that might be placed in front of scholars looking to return from overseas in the fall.
A dozen MSU students were among more than 1,000 nationwide who had their legal status suddenly revoked by the federal Department of Homeland Security with little or no explanation, and a 20-year-old MSU student from Bangladesh was held in the Albert Lea jail for 40 days following his arrest in Mankato on March 28 by ICE agents. Although the direct impact was felt by only a small percentage of students, it inevitably frightened hundreds of others who wondered what might happen next.
“It’s not that they have fear of our society, but they have fear of the unknown,” Lundquist said.
Lundquist readily accepts that some international students in the United States — a number that totaled more than 1 million in the past academic year — will behave in ways that justifies revocation of their student visa.
“But I believe in due process,” he said. “It’s built into the 5th Amendment and the 14th Amendment and it’s for any person in the country.”
The Trump administration has not fully accepted that contention, even after numerous court losses that prompted the administration to rescind the termination of legal status for most of the students. A U.S. District court ordered the release of the MSU student from Bangladesh on May 5, stating that the government had inappropriately targeted him solely because he had expressed opinions on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“What’s going on is abominable. It’s disgusting. It’s not what our country stands for,” said Chuck Syverson, 87, a North Mankato resident who attended the ice cream social. “And to think that that kind of pressure would be put on these kids is just terrible.”
Syverson said the international students are a particular blessing in a place like Mankato, located thousands of miles from any foreign country other than Canada, because they bring the world’s cultures to residents who rarely have the opportunity to travel outside U.S.
A sampling of that was evident in Highland Park, thanks to the universal appeal of ice cream. American universities have long had a similar appeal in all corners of the Earth.
“Back home, everyone thinks the USA is the land of opportunity, and you don’t want to miss that,” said Erica Quaye, an MSU nursing student from Ghana.
Quaye said the policies and actions coming out of Washington won’t dissuade her from getting her nursing degree.
“I’m committed to finishing,” she said, adding that she focuses on academics rather than the threats international students are facing. “I just go about my classes and try not to think about it.”
Events like Tuesday’s help, said Pamela Bosomtwe, another nursing student from Ghana, who feels welcomed at MSU and in Mankato.
“Here, they are all caring,” Bosomtwe said.
A student from Liberia, who declined to give his name in the current political climate, said he tries to avoid talking about controversial issues with people in Mankato unless he knows them.
“All of these people, you don’t know who they are,” he said. “… You just have to be careful what things you say to others.”
But the Liberian student is planning to go to law school, and the attacks by the Trump administration on international students — and on higher education in general — are intellectually interesting to him.
“He’s a businessman,” he said of Trump.
Yet, he’s undermining a higher education system that attracts students from all over the world, bringing money to the United States and bolstering the finances of American colleges. By contrast, the tuition paid by many domestic students is heavily subsidized by the federal and state governments. Trump is also targeting specific universities for steep reductions in grants, including Harvard University — which the student said is the possibly the most renowned institution in the world.
“His saying is ‘make America great again.’ Are you sure you’re trying to make universities great again?”
International students can also provide fresh perspectives, including on U.S. government. The Liberian student talked about 1st Amendment, which he calls “the essence of the Constitution,” along with the due process rights guaranteed elsewhere in the document, the importance of the Supremacy Clause, and the imperative of honoring the checks and balances between the branches of government.
Trump, assuming he believes his executive orders related to higher education are wise, should not hesitate to ask that they be properly enacted into law through congressional hearings and votes, the students said.
“If it’s right, Congress can make that choice,” he said.
Asked if he had any other thoughts to share, the student said he didn’t: “These days I try not to talk a lot about politics. I just want to enjoy my ice cream, man.”
He decided, though, there were a couple of other messages he would convey to other students who made the choice to study in America.
“There are still people who embrace us,” he said, looking around Highland Park. “… And I want all the international students in America to know: It’s only going to be four years. It’s going to be OK. Just keep trusting the process.”