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Florida Tech drops in national ratings

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While last year, Florida Tech came in at 177 for national university rankings, according to ratings released a few weeks ago from U.S. News, Florida Tech has dropped to 202.

Although some may be concerned about the 25 spot decrease, it didn’t seem to bother Wes Sumner, Florida Tech’s vice president for Marketing and Communications.

Sumner explained that many considerations are taken into account, such as the academic performance of freshmen, alumni donations, class size and a number of other factors.

However, Sumner also explained that the biggest reason Florida Tech dropped in the rankings was due to something called the Carnegie Classification system.

This system acts as a framework for classifying universities throughout the nation.

“The Carnegie Classification changed and allowed a large number of additional universities in at our Carnegie Classification,” Sumner said. “This means that the new universities got added ahead of Florida Tech, meaning that our relative ranking fell.”

Despite this year’s rankings, Sumner stated that the university as a whole remained constant, or even improved in all of the ranking factors, and still remains a tier one best school for over a decade.

Students such as Riley Dolan, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, believe that smaller classes, high quality professors and job opportunities in the local area have helped contribute to that title.

“When I first started looking at colleges, I was trying to find a university where I can not only be successful in school, but find success quickly once I graduate,” Dolan said. “Florida Tech is known for their engineering programs, and companies like Harris and Northorp Gruman are always looking for interns as well as new engineers.”

Dolan went on to say that most other universities in the state don’t offer the same amount of quality or opportunities that a smaller tech university can offer to their students.

Jordan Neely, a junior in civil engineering, also said that the class size and the technology that is accessible through the university is what causes Florida Tech to be viewed as a tier one school.

“I don’t think that many other universities have the ability to offer the high availability of technology that Florida Tech can offer to their students,” Neely said.

Neely went on to explain that while other universities may have the same technology capabilities of Florida Tech, they often have a larger student body, which could make accessing those capabilities more difficult.

Sumner stated that one of the university’s core values is a lifetime commitment to student success, and despite what the rankings may say students such as Dolan and Neely feel like that value is being maintained.

Venezuelan immigrants’ impact on Trinidad

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Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley shaking hands with Nicolás Maduro. Picture by PRESA PRESIDENTICIAL on Twitter

Over the past two years the situation has worsened in Venezuela to the point that Venezuelans have been fleeing the country in the masses to get away from Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship. 

Under Maduro’s leadership, the country has faced hyperinflation, food shortages and political chaos. 

According to statistics posted by the U.N., 3.6 million Venezualens left the country between 2015 and December of 2018.

As one of the surrounding countries, Trinidad has acted as a safe haven for over 60,000 Venezualens. 

Keep in mind that Trinidad’s population is 1.3 million, excluding the Venezuelans. 

With most Venezualens not having documentation or passports, they must seek creative ways to sneak onto the island. 

“Private boats is the go-to method for many,” said Erich Koch, a Venezualen migrant who is now a citizen of Trinidad. 

Koch has been in Trinidad since 2005, but he has been around the world and traveled back and forth to Venezuela for many years before finally settling in Trinidad. 

Koch made his way to Trinidad after the Trinidadian government showed interest in a building technique that was being used in Venezuela. Through Koch’s expertise in this field, he became a manager at Macon Trader Co. 

Because of his position in the construction company and him being a Venezuelan native, he finds himself helping a lot of the Venezuelans find jobs and places to live. 

“My labor team consists of eight to 12 guys who are registered in Trinidad,” Koch said. 

In the early part of 2019, Trinidad’s government decided to register illegal Venezuelans and grant them a one year legal status to the island. This status allows them to work, have banking privileges and even have driving permits. 

In this process, only the Venezuelans with clean background records were allowed to register. For the individuals who have records, they were either sent back to Venezuela or kept in immigration facilities. 

While Koch said the registration of the Venezuelans was a good step for the government, he also said that there are a lot more issues involving the Venezuelans in Trinidad. 

“About 75 percent of the Venezuelans that have come into Trinidad are people who were already involved in crime and have come into Trinidad looking for avenues to practice what they know [crime],” Koch said. 

The crime in Trinidad has gotten to a point that people are afraid to leave their houses. 

The gang violence has gotten unbearable and the drug and human trafficking have only increased since the illegal migration of criminal elements from Venezuela, according to the OSAC Trinidad and Tobago 2019 Crime and Safety Report.

“Everyone already knows how bad the crime is in Trinidad and the criminals from Venezuela have found their way into it,” Koch said.

Koch said he believes that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, or TTPS, are not capable or equipped to handle these gangs. 

Human trafficking is also one of the major acts taking place in Trinidad, especially involving teenage Venezuelan girls. 

“It is the easiest way for them to make money,” Koch said. “They don’t speak English so it is easy for them to work in bars or casinos and make money doing [sex work].” 

The Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, said in multiple interviews that he is taking the increase in crime very seriously. 

In an interview on CNC3’s Morning Brew, Griffith said he already has a 78-point plan and is ready to reform the TTPS all in an attempt in the fight against crime.

Koch said he believes that this is good, but because of Trinidad’s government’s lack of involvement or concern to the increasing crime, he said he is concerned the condition of Trinidad will worsen. 

“I have seen Venezuela go through the process, and Trinidad will soon end up like that,” Koch said.“The same thing that is happening in Trinidad was happening in Venezuela.”

Citizens of Trinidad are continuing to express their frustration to the government and police but minimal efforts are being taken.

Business owners are now having to take matters into their own hands by having more security at businesses and even creating police-community task forces. 

One task force is the Tunapuna Police Station Community Council. 

They act in the city of Tunapuna and have been a voice between both the people and the police.

Since the year began, 16 people were killed in the area of Tunapuna of which 4 were killed in one week.  

While crime has always been a problem in Trinidad, Koch said he believes that it has escalated due to the influx of criminal elements from Venezuela. 

Not only has crime increased, but the form of crime has broadened, from drugs to human trafficking. 

While citizens like Koch are skeptical, he hopes that the police service and the government try their best to show some sort of combat against this surge in crime.

Women’s golf team drops Title IX complaint

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Florida Tech’s women’s golf team will not be filing a Title IX report after speaking with athletic administration.

With the discontinuation of the women’s golf team but not the men’s team, the women’s team considered filing a Title IX complaint, as Title IX has certain standards that require universities to provide men and women with equal athletic opportunities.

However, they found out the number of men’s and women’s teams met Title IX’s standards and decided to drop the case, according to Alexis

Dizinno, a freshman in environmental science and a member of the women’s golf team. Dizinno said the team wasn’t given a reason as to why they were being discontinued and not the men’s team, even after their discussion with athletic administration.

“When we found out that the women’s team was being cut and not the men’s team, we questioned how that was allowed, and we asked around,” Dizinno said. “I think in the end, one of the athletic administration people had told us that that was the case and that it was legal, so we haven’t done anything to file a complaint so far. I don’t think it is possible.”

Chris Saltmarsh, the women’s golf team coach, was emailed and called for comment but did not respond to the request.

According to Daniel Supraner, the director of athletic communications, the discontinuation of tennis and women’s golf has left athletics with nine men’s teams and nine women’s teams.

“With Title IX, they want what you’re giving to men’s and women’s teams to reflect the number of the student body,” Supraner said. “Title IX requires that we match that proportionality.”

Bill Jurgens, Florida Tech’s athletic director, said the decision to cancel women’s golf was based on the current and future success of the program.

When making the decision to cut the women’s golf team, Jurgens said they considered who was currently on the team and who would be on it in the future.

“A number of [the current] athletes will be graduating,” Jurgens said. “It will be very difficult to replace them with the ones we have right now.”

Facilities, the present size of the teams and the number of athletes that would be affected were some of the main components considered when deciding what sports to cut, according to Jurgens.

Jurgens said Athletics decided to cut programs because Florida Tech has a larger athletic program than similar sized universities.

“It was an operational decision to try to downsize our athletic programs to be more compatible with the size of the university that we have,” Jurgens said. “That was pretty much something that the university set in place that they felt was important for us to continue to be competitive in our sports program.”

Before the discontinuation of tennis and women’s golf, Florida Tech had 23 varsity teams including the dance team.

In the Sunshine State Conference, seven out of the ten universities have fewer teams.

According to Dizinno, the discontinuation of the women’s golf team came as a surprise to them.

Dizinno said the women’s golf team was called into a meeting with the athletic department a couple of hours before the announcement of their discontinuation was sent out to all of campus.

Prior to the meeting, there had been no warning of discontinuing the team.

“It was super upsetting, especially for me as a freshman,” Dizinno said. “We just recently found out that they’ve been thinking about cutting the team for two years. There are two freshmen and two sophomores on the team who had not been warned about this and had no idea that this was happening, and we just felt neglected and overlooked.”

Dizinno said the athletes on the golf team with scholarships will get to keep their scholarships.

“They stopped giving scholarships two years ago, so this freshman class is the first one without scholarships even though they cancelled them a couple years back,” Dizinno said.

While some team members such as Dizinno are planning to transfer universities due to the team’s discontinuation, the women’s golf team has been told they can play with the men’s golf team.

Organization presidents attempt to schedule riot

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“We’ve finally had enough,” Veri Upsette posted in the “Presidents for Change” forum March 24.

As the third president in the past year for the student organization Un-Adulting, Upsette said she “can’t even with this school anymore.”

“It’s like we shout and they don’t listen, you know?” Upsette said.

Upsette said organizations have been “shouting from the rooftops” about change, but their cries have gone unheard by administration.

Upsette said once she realized the administration wasn’t listening to their metaphorical cries, she decided to create the “Presidents for Change” forum, a website dedicated to posting ideas for change and complaints about the school, in the fall 2018 semester.

“I hadn’t heard about the Presidents for Change until last week, when they tried to organize a riot,” Hahn Deman, a junior in construction management, said. “Campus security was freaking out about it and sent out emails with screenshots.”

Deman said the only reason he saw the email was because he had accidentally sent his Domino’s verification email to his school gmail account.

Deman said that while he “believes the intentions were good,” somebody should have pointed out that “riot” was not the proper word to use.

“It was supposed to be ‘protest’,” Bill Fates, president of Future Business Billionaires, said. “Veri likes to make a hype around things and I guess her exec board said riot would get more attention.”

Fates joined “Presidents for Change” in February, despite knowing about the forum since the beginning of last semester.

“Veri is the longest president Un-Adulting has had, so I wanted to make sure that she was legit before joining,” Fates said.

The first president of Un-Adulting didn’t show up for the first two meetings; the second president said it was “too much for comfort” on Facebook and tagged Upsette as the new president.

Kale Ships, president of Food Fighters, said this isn’t the first problem Un-Adulting has caused for the presidents.

“They make a lot of noise online and tag other presidents so administration will think it’s a group effort,” Ships said. “I never said I wanted a live panther for the mascot. That was a lot to unpack when it came out.”

Ships and Fates said the riot scheduling has caused grief for their organizations and they won’t be signing up for any other Un-Adulting initiatives.

The post they had signed up for said “in order to help raise awareness of issues our organizations have on campus, sign up to volunteer.”

“It was short and simple so all of us thought it would be like a meeting or something with the administration,” Fates said. “Even SGA signed it. We were all put on the posters that Veri sent out saying “Presidents for Change is organizing a riot for April 1st.” Yeah, we thought it was a joke too.”

SGA declined to comment on their participation in the event but an emailed statement on their latest Panther Release addressed the issue.

“SGA stands behind organizations and their issues. However, we do not condone organization. We will not be attending the riot Presidents for Change is scheduling.”

Security also released an email stating “Organized riots will not be tolerated on campus,” along with the guidelines of unorganized chaos on campus and the procedures for these events.

If any student or organization has future plans for protests, riots or organization, they can refer to the guidelines on handybook.fit.edu.

New Director of Security hired

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Frank Iannone was hired as the newest director of security on Feb. 28, but will not begin working until April 1.

Iannone was the director of college safety and security at Ocean Community College in Toms River, New Jersey.

The former director of security, Kevin Graham, retired on March 1 of this year.

Due to Iannone accepting the offer the day before Graham officially retired, Iannone gave his current employer a 30-day notice before coming to Florida Tech.

During the month of March, Security Lieutenant Barry Cobb has taken over most of the director responsibilities.

Cobb said he has accepted the responsibility of running the security department until the new chief comes in.

He said the biggest difference between his new responsibilities and those of his normal position is “the day-to-day decision making.”

“Before, I was kind of the behind-the-scenes guy,” Cobb said. “I would help Kevin [Graham] make decisions on what we should or shouldn’t do, where now it falls solely on me.”

Cobb said he had no input in who would be hired as the next director but said he wouldn’t have wanted any and is excited for the new director.

“New blood’s always good,” Cobb said. “Come in with some new ideas and hopefully they’ll all be positive for everybody in the university.”

After Graham announced his retirement earlier this year, Chad Shoultz, vice president for facilities operations, headed the search for finding his replacement.

After Human Resources filtered through all of the applicants, a list of about 60 prospective replacements was given to Shoultz.

This initial process by HR was intended to eliminate all applicants that didn’t reach their minimum requirements, according to Shoultz.

From there, Shoultz created a panel that included himself, the dean of students and associate vice president for student affairs, Robert Bowers, and assistant vice president of business and retail operations, Greg Graham, to help narrow down the candidates.

Shoultz said the reason he chose Bowers and Graham was because they have both had a lot of experience with the security department and it was important for both of them to be represented on the panel.

Bowers said in hiring processes like this “they usually select a panel based on people’s involvement directly with that particular position.”

The panel was able to narrow the list down to 10 candidates that stood out based on their resumes and how they fit the open position job description.

According to Shoultz, the panel was able to narrow the candidates down to five that separated themselves through their work history and experience.

After interviews with the five candidates, the panel decided on three finalists that would each have a full-day interview at Florida Tech that Shoultz called more thorough and in-depth.

After the in-person interviews, on Feb. 28, Iannone was hired as the newest director of security.

According to Schoultz, the thing that separated Iannone from the other finalists, who Shoultz said all “could have done the job and done the job well,” was his excitement for the position.

Shoultz said the job opening was posted on Dec. 1, 2018, but it took longer than expected for the hiring process to be finalized.

“My timeline was a bit of an aggressive timeline,” Schoultz said. “When you’re factoring in the holidays and coordinating the panels.”

Iannone is set to begin at Florida Tech at the beginning of next month.

Graham had been the director of security for the past 15 years.

Distress in the Air: Florida Tech’s take on the Boeing 737

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Within the past five months, Boeing has had two 737 Air Max 8’s crash.

Most recently, the Ethiopian airline crash that killed all 157 members on board caused a worldwide grounding of the Boeing model.

Carlos Obregon, a junior majoring in aeronautical science with flight, has been discussing the components of flight failure in the classroom and relating them to the crashes of the Boeing 737’s and how they are relevant to his field of study.

“In my advanced aircraft systems class we talked about how flight systems and controls can cause malfunctions and enroute flight problems,” Obregon said. “We debated on how the software stalling function and overriding features on the model and learned that this could have been the potential reasoning for the planes to crash.”

Pat Spangler, a junior in aeronautical science with an associates degree in air traffic control, was concerned about the safety dilemma that these crashes have drawn attention to and how aviation management is handling it.

In Spangler’s opinion, the Federal Aviation Administration and President Trump could have handled the situation better, but the aviation industry is still the safest mode of transportation and he stands by it.

“Safety is obviously one of the top priorities in the aviation industry, as it should be,” Spangler said. “One protocol put into place by the FAA that I think is essential to the job is a computer test every air traffic controller is required to take on a recurring two-month basis to remain updated on safety and eligible for the job.”

The FAA is responsible for regulating aviation and promoting safety.

However, in recent light of the situation the administration has been criticized by many as the United States was one of the last nations to decide not to fly the 737’s.

Aviation safety regulators in the European Union, China, Australia and the U.K. made the call to not fly the planes ahead of the U.S.

According to prior reports from The New York Times, the delay in the call for Trump to ground the Boeing models was deemed as “a bit too late” by many passengers and pilots.

It’s not just current aviation students that are especially affected by the grounding of the 737’s but also alumni that have entered the industry.

Jared Goodlaw graduated from Florida Tech in 2017 with a degree in aviation management with flight.

He has worked for a regional airliner in the past but is currently flying private jetliners.

Goodlaw stated that the FAA has released no private statements or reports to any licensed pilots in regards to how the situation is being handled nor any other investigative details.

Goodlaw had expectations of announcements directly to all private and commercial licensed pilots from Boeing or the FAA in wake of both incidents.

However, both organizations have failed to communicate if there are any plans underway requiring pilots to complete more training and/or simulations before anymore 737’s are cleared to take off again.

The consensus amongst Spangler, Obregon and Goodlaw is that they all feel their training and studies regarding flight emergencies and preparation is well documented in the Florida Tech aviation curriculum.

All three stated that they still feel safe to work in the industry as it is a very reactive field.

Incidents like this are thoroughly investigated, responsibility is held accountable for and updates and corrections are made as soon as possible.

Pilots are not the only people concerned about the Boeing 737’s.

CBS News reported that approximately 8,600 flights use the Boeing 737 Max 8 in a typical week of travel.

Furthermore, Boeing released an announcement saying that models will be grounded for at least three months.

Travelers may experience more travel and flight difficulties than they expected.

Charles Bryant, a business professor and the manager in charge of Florida Tech’s study abroad program to Spain, is one example of these worried travelers.

“With the Boeing 737’s being grounded, myself and those participating in the Spain study abroad program are having to look at different airport destinations within Spain,” Bryant said. “For example, instead of flying out of a smaller airport in the country like Malaga as we had originally planned, we are looking at other options that have more flight availability in bigger airports like Barcelona. Yet, this adds more planning and financial stress as the travel date in early June arrives closer and closer.”

Bryant draws attention to another issue: If he is having troubles finding flights for a group of roughly 20 or so people, it will likely be hard for the immense number of international students on campus to find flights home at the end of the semester in early May.

The Boeing 737 investigations are still underway and officials have stated they are doing their best to remain honest with the general public as they are well aware of the pressing matters and concerns at hand.

Professor iterates research integrity amidst anti-vaccination controversy

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The controversy surrounding the anti-vaccination movement on social media has some students expressing the importance of peer-reviewed journals.

An Ohio teen, using Reddit— an American news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website—and scientific journals, went against the views of his mother and got himself vaccinated.

The teen testified against his mother before at a Senate hearing alongside experts, according to the Washington Post, which has caused an increase in the discussion of the topic.

Dzmitry Yuran, assistant professor in the school of arts and communication, believes that the popularization of peer-reviewed journals does more harm than good in the spread of misinformation in media.

“[Peer-reviewed journals] are crucial,” Yuran said. “But they’re not all powerful.”

Yuran said one such problematic journal was the anti-vaccination research.

He said the anti-vaccination movement was popularized with a scientific journal that has since been retracted because the co-authors revealed the data collection was unethical.

Yuran said peer-reviewed journals never give a 100 percent course of action; it’s the second level of interpretation that does that, which is usually in the realm of the media.

He said new research gets into places like a morning talk show or in the pages of the BBC.

The discussion usually surrounds understanding research that’s been done on a small animal, usually a mouse, but is interpreted as a course of action for human beings.

“Once it’s out of the journals, there is no control over it,” Yuran said. “It goes into the realm of misinterpretation, speculation and everything else.”

Yuran said this misinterpretation is caused by the simplification of information based on what people want to get out of them.

He said they’re often read by people who don’t necessarily “understand [the journals] fully, crawls down to [the] conclusion section and fishes for that one useful tidbit of information that they can turn into [a] course of action.”[sic]

Zachary Eckert, a graduate physics student, also shares the same beliefs as Yuran Eckert said science can easily be used to prove personal bias.

“With nearly any set of data you can get pretty much any outcome you want,” Eckert said, “depending on how you look at the data.”

Eckert said there are multiple ways of looking at numbers. He said it’s imperative to try and find the most true results from any set of numbers.

“The simple solution to every ailment in life is what we’re after,” Yuran said. “We want a simple shortcut and hope that science will give it to us.”

Yuran said that there’s no one solution to the spread of misinterpreted research, but education plays a big role.

Many scientific journals are published by people who have a very specific educational background and are difficult to read.

He also said they’re costly for the general consumer who may not understand the technical writing.

These factors lead to an over reliance on someone to interpret the information for the general public.

However, Eckert believes social media platforms play a big role in the spread of misinformation.

He said that most things that are shared are those which have polarizing opinions in the titles and is typically not based on either the content of the article or whether the article has evidence for it.

Most people decide whether they agree or disagree with shared articles from the title and share it without properly reading.

“If it supports your worldview, you’re going to share it with everybody else,” Eckert said. “And then your social media circle becomes an echo chamber of everybody who agrees with you.”

Eckert said memes– humorous images, videos or pieces of text that are copied and spread rapidly by internet users–may be helpful in dispelling misinformation.

He believes the simplicity and relatable nature of memes can easily be shared than an article explaining complicated science.

“They’re more likely to be able to permeate certain circles,” Eckert said. “And it can get some of the more centrist people to rethink their ideas.”

Yuran believes that society has a very long way to go in it’s relationship with science, but personal research and cognitive understanding on an individual level is a huge step in the right direction.

Venezuela Asylum: Escaping Maduro

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Nicolos Maduro (above) has served as Venezuala’s 46th president since 2013. Juan Guaido is now recognized as the interim president of Venezuala by multiple countries. Photo from Flickr.

In the fall semester of 2014, 18 Florida Tech undergraduate students claimed Venezuelan citizenship.

As of 2018, only one remains. Numerous organizations, such as the Council on Foreign Affairs, have declared the South American country’s economic and political landscape as rapidly deteriorating.

As a result Florida Tech has taken a heavy hit in regards to Venezuelan enrollments.

Current president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has been in power for six years, and his reign has been criticized by many.

Amnesty International, a London based human rights organization, has labeled Maduro’s actions as destructive towards the economy, and marked his military legitimacy as abusive wrongdoings against the opposition lead by Juan Guaido.

In early January Guaido officially became head of the opposition-held parliament, the National Assembly.

Since then, the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Peru, Colombia and several European countries have all recognized Guaido as interim president of Venezuela.

With no food, no money and no definite sign of improvement under Maduro’s regime, Venezuela has currently been deemed as the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere according to the U.N.

In 2017, The New York Times interviewed 21 Venezuelan doctors who encountered nearly 2,800 cases of child malnutrition due to the food shortage and hunger crisis in the nation.

By the end of the year, The International Monetary Fund IMF has projected Venezuela’s inflation rate to reach 10 million percent, forecasting one of the worst hyperinflationary crises in modern history.

Jose Coiman, a junior in chemical engineering, is a native from Caracas, Venezuela.

He describes Maduro as a force that has lead his home country into complete ruin.

Coiman came to Florida Tech in the fall of 2016 while his father left Venezuela nearly four months later.

His mother and sister soon followed in the summer of 2018, fleeing the nation in hopes of a better life in Manaus, Brazil.

In 2015, during his third year of high school, Coiman started to notice just how bad the situation had gotten.

“I didn’t go to school for almost three months,” Coilman said. “I couldn’t even get to school because of the protests, it was so dangerous to leave home. The national guard and protesters were constantly occupying the streets.”

Coiman believes that with support from the U.S. and other European countries, Guaido and the opposition offer a sign of hope for the people of Venezuela.

However, he does not think the country will reach stability for the next 10-15 years.

Freshman Antonella Merola is studying chemical engineering as well, but her journey from Venezuela to Florida Tech is a bit different than Coiman’s.

Merola was born and raised in Caracas until her family relocated to Panama just under two years ago.

When she found herself in the process of applying to colleges in the U.S., Merola worried it would be very challenging to obtain a Venezuelan student Visa.

Merola took advantage of her dual Italian nationality and is attending Florida Tech under an Italian student visa.

Marivi Walker, the assistant director for International Admissions at Florida Tech, said that she has had plenty of experience working with students like Coiman and Merola.

“Four to five years ago it was very different with the Venezuelan students,” Walker said.

Four to five years ago, the Venezuelan government had an agency that administered legal currency exchange in the country called Comisión de Administración de Divisas (CADIVI).

CADIVI essentially determined what money got to leave the country and at what exchange rate you could buy U.S. dollars.

Therefore, they were also in charge of granting or denying applications for students to send tuition payments abroad to the U.S.

“I started to notice two years ago [during fall 2016 applications] little by little, that CADIVI had started to disappear,” Walker said. “The agency simply ran out of money.”

Towards the end of CADIVI’s downfall, the situation reached a turning point for Venezuelan undergraduate seniors in the spring of 2017 as they were trying to finish their degree programs.

“During the collapse of CADIVI, we had Venezuelan students who were graduating but could not get funds from Venezuelan banks to pay for their remaining spring semester,” Walker said. “The university literally had to grant them emergency funds stating that those individuals could graduate, but must eventually pay their tuition back.”

With students no longer able to pay their tuition using money from Venezuelan banks, it put a significant taint on being able to attend a college in the U.S. at all.

All Venezuelan students now have to rely on money they have already managed to send over to the U.S.

Moving forward, Walker has faith that the opposition led by Guaido could turn things around for the country which in return could boost Venezuelan enrollment at Florida Tech to what they once used to be.

“I truly think that we are at a make-or-break point,” Walker said. “When you hear Guaido speak, it will bring tears to your eyes because you will think, ‘Where did this man come from?’ He shows more of a genuine concern for finding peace within the country rather than trying to seize its leadership, and that is what signifies hope for the people of Venezuela.”

Merola, as well, vocalized her opinion in regards to Guaido’s intentions as leader of the opposition.

“When people hear about what is happening in my country I don’t want them to think the opposition is an invading power-hungry force,” she said. “Their sole purpose is to put the countries best interests before corruption and self-interest.”

A universal theme amongst Merola, Walker and Coiman is that the people of Venezuela are not going down without a fight and they will receive the justice and humanitarian rights they deserve one day.