The September 11th attack
Tracking of foreign students likely
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
A proposed federal mandate that would create a database to track foreign students studying in Hawai'i and other states could gain momentum in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
University officials in Hawai'i had been concerned that the federal effort would stem the tide of foreign students coming to this state to earn degrees and give colleges the burden of collecting a load of paperwork for the federal government.
Now, however, with organized political opposition vanishing, they acknowledge the law is likely to be implemented. The FBI has said some suspects and material witnesses in the Sept. 11 attacks entered the country on student visas.
"Congress will want to do whatever is appropriate to track anybody and everybody," said Melinda Wood, educational specialist at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu. "I think there will be a big interest in tracking all kinds of people. That sets off a whole different set of problems."
The mandate is included in Section 641 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, passed after one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers entered the country on a student visa. Section 641 is still going through the federal regulation review process, and has not been implemented.
The 1996 law mandates that the Immigration and Naturalization Service track all foreign students studying in the United States.
More than 600,000 international students study at American universities and colleges each year.
The database on the international students would be maintained with information provided by the universities and paid for by a $95 fee students would pay before applying for visas.
"What the (INS) needs to be looking at is a reporting system (that does not) single out students," said Martha Staff, international student adviser at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, where 1,333 foreign students study. "Getting something like that up and running is a terribly large and complicated task."
Hawai'i's 5,400 international students bring an estimated $125 million to the state each year through tuition, living expenses and the living costs of spouses or children who are brought to the state, according to the NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a nonprofit association in Washington, D.C., dedicated to international education.
Students could choose to take their tuition dollars and living expenses to other countries if it becomes too difficult to apply to schools here, Hawai'i educators and other analysts say.
Victor Johnson, associate executive director for public policy at NAFSA, said the organization has dropped its opposition to the tracking database, but still hopes to work with immigration officials on its implementation.
Given the bipartisan spirit in Congress now, Johnson said NAFSA officials agree that this is not an appropriate time to lobby against the database.
"We still think everything we said about it is right," he said. "The reason that we had been concerned about this system before is that inevitably the fee is going to cause a drop in foreign students studying in the U.S. We just don't think it's proper to continue with the debate right now."
Implementing the computer database would still likely take a couple of years, Johnson said. "They can't do it tomorrow because they don't have the huge, complex technical support structure set up that is necessary to do this," he said.
Still, the database may start sooner than expected, he said. "I would have to assume that the INS, especially after Sept. 11, is not going to want to be seen as dragging its feet on this."
Staff said she is concerned that other paperwork the INS already requires of foreign students, such as student work visas, would pile up so much that it would become a burden for students to study here.
The UH administration has been touting Hawai'i as an ideal place for Asian and Pacific Rim students to get college degrees. Given the state's impending economic crisis, Staff said the state should want to be even more welcoming to its foreign students.
"It will be interesting to see what is revealed over the next few weeks and months," she said. "My hope is that student visa holders will be a very minor concern."
The bulk of the state's foreign students — 2,255 — attend Hawai'i Pacific University, comprising one-quarter of the school's population.
Scott Stensrud, associate vice president for enrollment management at Hawai'i Pacific University, said the school isn't opposed to tracking foreign students, but wants issues such as who pays the cost of the data collection and how the reporting would be done to be resolved.
Section 641 could be implemented at the earliest with the 2002 spring semester. The $95 fee will have to be collected from students before the database is started, because Congress has said the program must be self-sustaining.
"We're in direct competition with Canada and Australia and the UK," Stensrud said. "Students may decide to seek their educations elsewhere. The international students have been a big part of who we are. Anything that jeopardizes that we would certainly be concerned about.
"We're also supportive of the efforts to track students and make sure it's legitimate people who are coming here."
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
