“I always feel lonely as an international student,” Liu said. “But when you go to the activities they host, you see a lot of international students from different places and even from the same country as you … and you feel belonging here.”

Republican presidential contenders attacked upstart Herman Cain’s economic plan as a tax increase waiting to happen Tuesday night, moving swiftly in a fiery campaign debate to blunt the former businessman’s unlikely rise in the race for the party’s nomination.