MONDAY, JULY 17, 2017 | VOLUME 134 ISSUE 07
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
Pro-campus carry speaker may come to KU this fall CHANDLER BOESE @Chandler_Boese
This fall, some students from the University’s conservative organizations are looking to inject a new voice into the conversation surrounding concealed carry on campus: Antonia Okafor, a pro-campus carry advocate and conservative feminist. College Republicans, Turning Point USA and the Network of Enlightened Women have entered into talks with Okafor to speak on the University’s campus in early October. The organizations are hoping to put down a deposit in the next couple weeks and then pay the rest of Okafor’s speak-
ing fee with Student Senate funding. Okafor, currently a graduate student at the University of Texas, according to her website, helped push for getting concealed carry on campus at Texas colleges, a change that went into effect last August. Okafor also leads a movement called “EmPOWERed,” which focuses on women’s right to carry guns and the way that can increase their safety. With concealed carry on campus having gone into effect in Kansas this summer, Victoria Snitsar, the vice-president of NEW and communications chair for College Republicans, said Okafor’s perspective on campus carry as a black,
millennial conservative is sorely needed. “Bringing somebody with those identities to our school will kind of shed a little bit of a different light on that conversation,” said Snitsar, a junior from Santa Monica, California. The organizations are hoping that Okafor’s speaking fees, which can range from $5,000 to $15,000, according to her website, will be provided through Student Senate funding. “We think it’s good enough to be able to get Senate funding through in the first cycle, hopefully,” Snitsar said. While the organizations were always looking to bring in a speaker who could talk
Contributed photo Antonia Okafor, a pro-campus carry advocate, may visit the University this fall at the invitation of conservative student groups.
about campus carry, Snitsar said she was really pushing for Okafor specifically be-
cause of her unique identities and focus. “For NEW, we’re really
all about empowering women and giving them a way to protect themselves is one
International students may struggle to get jobs under Trump KATHY WONG @KathyW0NG
International students now face new challenges as they seek employment after graduation. The Trump administration’s issuance of the travel ban and recent executive orders have made it more difficult for international students to obtain jobs and work visas in the U.S. According to the Chicago Tribune, the order that puts
international students most at risk is the “Buy American, Hire American” plan, an executive order President Donald Trump signed in April. If the U.S. Congress chooses to put it into action, this plan will limit the number of foreign workers in the U.S, as well as encourage American companies to hire Americans rather than foreigners. However, no actions have been presently made. Recent University grad-
uate Melanie D’Souza, from Oman, has faced significant challenges since the signing of the “Buy American, Hire American” order. This spring, she said she applied to dozens of jobs, but received very few offers. “It’s shocking,” D’Souza said about the difficulty in her job hunt. “After the executive order, many companies changed their eligibility requirements online by offering jobs only to citizens.” According to an article
on foreignpolicy.com, the way that foreigners are able to legally work in the U.S is through applying for a work visa, the most common being the skilled worker H-1B visa. This year, H-1B visas will only be given to 85,000 out of 199,000 applicants through a lottery system, which is purely up to chance. Therefore, companies can run a huge risk when hiring foreigners because of the cost it takes to cover all the legal and application
fees, when the individual may not even be able to receive the visa. Because of these difficulties and costs, many small non-international companies are more hesitant and unwilling to put the time and money into hiring foreigners. “I’ve had employers take back their offers because they learned about how much it would cost to hire a foreign worker,” D’Souza said. “This has not only hap-
pened to me, but to many of my friends as well.” According to the Office of International Programs, as of the spring 2017 semester, for both the Edwards and Lawrence campuses, there were a total of 2,176 graduate and undergraduate international students enrolled. “Changes have been discussed by legislators, the SEE INTERNATIONAL PAGE 2