Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that international students taking all online courses would no longer be able to secure student visas. On Tuesday, facing widespread and fierce legal protests, the White House rescinded the policy. As professors at the University of Hawaii, we are breathing a sigh of relief. The new policy would have spelled disaster for international students, and for American higher education and the broader economy.

ICE’s announcement presented a terrible bind for the U.S.’s 4,298 degree-granting institutions and 1.1 million international students, all trying to cope with the effects of a destructive pandemic and a struggling economy. For universities — particularly on the mainland, where COVID-19 rates are high and climbing fast — online classes are often the only safe option. Here at UH, where we are lucky to have the nation’s lowest rates of infection, we are planning a hybrid model, but we still face COVID-related challenges: classroom space is scarce with adequate social distancing. The unfortunate reality everywhere is that at least some, and often all, classes must be held online.

Following last week’s announcement, international students found themselves in a bewildering situation, as if moving to a new country with the world’s worst pandemic outbreak were not scary enough. Some students had signed year-long leases and had begun to prepare for the academic year. Many worried that, even if they registered for classes planned as in-person, a worsening pandemic could force those classes online later, and international students would have to return home immediately.

Perhaps some international students already decided to abandon their plans to study in the U.S. this year. No one could have blamed them. But we hope not too many changed their plans. Losing our international scholars would cost America dearly.

International students pay higher tuition rates, subsidizing domestic students’ education. Each year, they bring $45 billion into America’s universities. As the economy struggles under the stress of the pandemic, we can hardly afford to pass up this revenue.

The U.S. also relies on international students to help us lead the world in research and innovation. According to the American Immigration Council, the current H-1B visa program is likely to create 1.3 million jobs and add $158 billion to our economy by 2045. America’s eight leading pharmaceutical companies have employed over 3,000 foreign scientists. The COVID-19 vaccine we all so anxiously await depends on these international contributors. If we lost the ability to attract the world’s most brilliant minds, other nations — such as the U.K., Germany, Israel, Korea or China — could overtake our competitive advantage.

Some of our international students are innovators; others are future heads of state. Many of the U.S.’s critical allies, including Japan, Germany, Mexico, Singapore and Israel, have leaders who attended U.S. universities. We enjoy stronger economic and political ties with these leaders, supporting collaborative relationships that are more important now than ever.

American higher education is like the beautiful Paris cathedral of Notre Dame. Notre Dame took 180 years to build, but only a few hours to burn. Similarly, over the past few centuries, America’s higher education system has become the world’s best, competing successfully against older institutions in Oxford, Cambridge and Paris. Tragically, one ruling could have erased this advantage — with costs for all Americans.

Just as Notre Dame will take a long time to restore, it would have taken many years and much effort for our universities to recover from the damage ICE’s policy would have done. Everyone must understand the value of our international students and the disaster it would have been to drive them away.

Tung Bui, Ph.D., Tamar Kreps, Ph.D.. and Hannah Nguyen, Ph.D., are professors at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii-Manoa.