For some Jacksonville scholars, the feeling of uncertainty that we've all been living with for months has been added onto in an exponential way.
Universities are coming up with new ways to help international students as they work to understand what the Trump administration's new visa policy means for them. The policy states students cannot stay in the country if all of their classes are online.
UNF announced an in-person class requirement for international students to make sure they can continue their higher education. They return to campus under a hybrid instruction model, but some students fear what could happen if for some reason the university were to be forced entirely online.
"That feeling of like you're completely unwanted here," said UNF international doctoral student Valentina Bongiovanni. "It's hard to live with."
Valentina has two master's degrees and is working toward her doctorate in education leadership at UNF. She's put in years of hard work and more than three years of calling Jacksonville home.
"The idea that that could be just taken from you from one day to the next... It's scary," she said. "I'm doing everything by the book, everything I can do to be compliant, to do things right. And I feel like I'm being treated in a way that, it's almost threatening right? And again, having that constant pressure of you don't know what's gonna happen."
Valentina's family is from Argentina. All flights to, from, and within Argentina are banned until September.
Support from UNF is helping keep Valentina afloat in already uncertain times. But her fear that the university could still be forced to close looms large.
"I am a student just like any other student," Valentina said. "It doesn't matter where I come from. I come here to study and to learn and with what I learn I help to make the world a little bit of a better place. I am treated as if I'm not really in the same category as the rest of the students."
Hemanth Kumar is going into his second year for his masters degree in mechanical engineering at UF. If he has to quit he doesn't think he could get a job in it in India, where his family is, and he's already spent thousands here.
"It's a loss actually," Hemanth said. "I can't show to anyone that I completed my MS. There's no proof. So I just have to show my bachelor's degree. It's what it is. It's going to be a huge loss to me, my family, economically, mentally."
All of Hemanth's classes were supposed to be virtual and he's trying to figure out what to do because without an in-person class he won't be allowed to stay at UF due to the Trump administration's policy change for international students.
UF is working with students who are concerned about their schedules. Hemanth is also worried about loans.
"This money's not only the principal amount but also the interest adds up for this," he said. "It totally makes a complicated situation and it scares us. We don't know what's going to happen."
With that uncertainty comes confusion about why the visa policy was changed. He wants a guarantee he could get back his losses.
"Because we are spending so much money in this country," Hemanth said. "Of course anyone would hope to get it back."
At UNF the media relations coordinator says they have 382 international students enrolled. UF's website states it enrolls 6,000 international students every academic year. That's about one in every nine students.
Several professors at UF say online they are willing to offer courses to help international students.