Northwestern University placed a hold on work-authorization requests for international students tied to elective coursework, the school announced in a Monday, Aug. 31 email to F-1 visa holders.

The hold on Curricular Practical Training requests affects students whose work experience is connected to their studies but not required for graduation, The Daily Northwestern reported. CPT is the federal program that allows international students on F-1 visas to work full- or part-time in internships, practicums and cooperative education programs classified as integral to their academic program.

The university's Office of International Student and Scholar Services sent the email in response to two messages from the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVP, which operates under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. SEVP issued guidance on Aug. 12 and a follow-up on Aug. 24 that tightened the definition of "integral." Under the new interpretation, CPT-eligible work must be required for all students in a given curriculum to graduate, not simply related to a student's field of study.

Universities that fail to comply risk losing their certification to enroll international students, according to both SEVP messages.

OISS said in its email that the hold was meant to protect students' legal status during a period of uncertainty, The Daily Northwestern reported. Northwestern did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment on how long the hold will last.

The hold affected students already planning fall work. Rayden Yap, a rising McCormick sophomore from Indonesia, told The Daily Northwestern he felt "panicked" when he learned the pause could affect future summer opportunities and his on-campus job.

"Assuming that this regulation continues throughout the time that I'm gonna be at Northwestern, it's going to be a huge blow," Yap told the newspaper.

An international graduate student at the Kellogg School of Management, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from ICE, told The Daily Northwestern she had accepted a return offer from her summer internship employer but was unsure whether she could continue working. Without CPT, she said she would also lose access to Kellogg's hands-on programs, including independent studies and in-quarter internships, because they are not required for graduation.

Northwestern's Undergraduate International Student Advancement Council sent a letter to OISS and Provost Erik Luijten asking the university to narrow the hold to individualized review, publish a decision-making timeline and release written criteria students could share with employers, according to the group's Instagram account.

The hold mirrors actions at universities nationwide. The University of Southern California, UCLA, the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have announced similar pauses, The Daily Northwestern reported. A Nixon Peabody legal alert published Aug. 31 noted that the SEVP messages do not create new regulatory obligations but signal how the agency intends to enforce existing rules.

No timeline for lifting the hold exists.