Student Union
State Law Bars Yale's Plan B Vending Machines
![FILE - Condoms are seen above chewing gum and food snacks in a vending machine in China, Sept. 23, 2007. State law limits what Yale University in Connecticut can dispense in its campus vending machines.](https://gdb.voanews.com/6a583548-7876-4f0f-acdf-b1bb7ab86afa_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Yale University will not follow dozens of other schools nationwide and dispense contraception pills through campus vending machines, because it is barred by state law.
"The wellness machines will not be available on campus," wrote Karen N. Peart, director of external communications at the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications, to VOA via email. Connecticut "state laws currently do not permit over-the-counter medications to be sold through these machines."
But Peart asserted that Yale would continue to provide Plan B, often referred to as the "morning-after pill," free to students through the campus health center, along with the Paragard IUD, another emergency contraceptive option, and comprehensive counseling regarding contraception and reproductive health.
"These products have been available at the Yale Health Pharmacy for many years before a group of students originated the idea of piloting a wellness machine," Peart wrote.
Access growing nationwide
Yale would have joined a growing list of universities in the United States to install machines that offer condoms, emergency contraception and lubricant last month. Contraception pills under the commercial name Plan B can be taken up to five days after intercourse to thwart conception.
"The point of this is to make Plan B more accessible and to make medications, in general, more accessible," said Ileana Valdez, a Yale sophomore who spearheaded the effort, according to Yale Daily News. "Hopefully this will set a precedent for more machines to show up around campus that contain other things so Yale students don't have to go out of their way to go to [convenience stores], especially students from the new colleges."
Plan B, or levonorgestrel, can reduce the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent, according to the Plan B One-Step website. "The sooner it's taken, the better it works," says the website.
According to the website of the Mayo Clinic, one of the largest not-for-profit academic health systems in the United States, levonorgestrel is an option when intercourse did not include physical, hormonal or device protection such as condoms, birth-control pills taken daily and over time, or intrauterine devices.
"Morning-after pills can help prevent pregnancy if you've had unprotected sex," the website explains. "Morning-after pills do not end a pregnancy that has implanted. They work primarily by delaying or preventing ovulation. ... [this] isn't the same as mifepristone (Mifeprex), also known as RU-486 or the abortion pill [which] terminates an established pregnancy — one in which the fertilized egg has attached to the uterine wall and has begun to develop."
Student health services
A survey by the American College Health Association conducted throughout 2015 showed 79 percent of surveyed colleges and universities offered Plan B or over-the-counter emergency contraceptives to students through their student health services.
The list of schools that offer levonorgestrel in vending machines is growing, including colleges and universities from large to small, and driven by student demand. A number of University of California campuses, Dartmouth College, and Stanford University were among some of the first.
A fall survey showed more than 75 percent of students questioned said they were unaware that Yale Health offers emergency contraception around the clock and for free, the Yale Daily News reported.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. sold Plan B One-Step and other emergency contraception products to Foundation Consumer Healthcare in a $675 million sale in November 2017. The contraception, which previously required a doctor's prescription, became available without a prescription to women 17 and older, although some schools will dispense the drug to males.
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- By VOA News
International students have options to pay for grad school
![Children play outside Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus in Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 2024.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-c0a6-08dcc2504f9d_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. News & World Report tackles the challenges of paying for grad school as an international student with this story giving tips on paying for school. Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By Tracy Liu
Economics, tensions blamed for Chinese students shifting from US to Australia, Britain
![FILE - Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa application interviews, May 2, 2012, in Beijing.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-4fea-08dc96d3d82c_cx0_cy5_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.
Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.
The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.
While the U.S. saw a nearly 12% total increase year-on-year for that period, the number of international students from China, its top source, fell by 0.2% to 289,526.
That’s 600 fewer students than the 2021-22 academic year, when their numbers dropped by nearly 9%. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15%, in line with the world total drop.
While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.
Vincent Chen, a Chinese study abroad consultant based in Shanghai, said although most of his clients are still interested in studying in the U.S., there is a clear downward trend, while applicants for Anglophone universities in Australia and Britain have been increasing.
"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."
Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.
The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.
The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.
Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.
Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.
Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.
When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.
"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.
Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.
Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.
"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.
Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”
The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.
Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
- By VOA News
Duolingo report details the reality of Gen Z international students
![FILE - A Dartmouth Athletics banner hangs outside Alumni Gymnasium on the Dartmouth University campus in Hanover, NH, March 5, 2024.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-e46b-08dcc24fe52c_cx0_cy9_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
A report by Duolingo takes a look at the experiences of Gen Z international students studying in the U.S., Australia and the U.K, The Pie reports.
The report, the site says, debunks "characterizations of them as 'tech-obsessed, attention-deficit and self-centered'" and highlights "their emerging role in shaping global politics and economics."
Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
School with the lowest costs for international students
![FILE - A newly printed U.S. dollar bill is shown at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on Dec. 8, 2022.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-5bb0-08dba10bf4ed_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. News & World Report crunched the numbers and came up with a list of 20 U.S. colleges and universities with annual total costs at or below $20,184. Check out these best bargains for international students here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
How to make the most of schools' international student services
![FILE - Students walk down Jayhawk Boulevard, the main street through the main University of Kansas campus, in Lawrence, Kansas, April 12, 2024.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-b8af-08dca145cc99_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. colleges and universities offer a variety of services for international students.
U.S. News & World Report takes a look at them and details how to best use them. Read the article here. (June 2024)