by Kenzie Kesselring

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst announced in mid-February that it was going to stop allowing Iranian students to major in some graduate engineering and science programs.

This ridiculous and racist decision was made in attempt to comply with the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, which attempts to lessen the threat of Iran building nuclear weapons.

According to the U.S. Department of State Diplomacy in Action’s website, the act required schools to assess the visas of the students attempting to study engineering. It was not meant to flat out deny Iranian students the right to study certain sciences all together.

However, UM at Amherst administrators felt the need to take this act to the next level.

Not only is this school’s desire to exclude these students from following their dreams racist, but it’s also un-American. Education is the backbone of this country. For a collegiate institution to try and take the right to a certain education path away from a young adult is wrong.

Just because these students are Iranian doesn’t make them terrorists or anti-American war criminals. Some of these students may want to study engineering to help the U.S. develop new ways to end the Middle East conflicts.

The decision UM at Amherst made was uneducated and irrational, but thankfully the policy isn’t here to stay.

Due to the backlash UM at Amherst received, they announced in the same week that they were reversing their policy. The Iranian students of UM that are studying engineering have nothing to worry about — for now.