Student tracking system to cost foreign students extra money

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week that a new fee of $100 will be collected from international students and visiting scholars for the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

SEVIS falls into the effort of the federal government since Sept 11, 2001 to create new systems to better track foreign visitors as a means of terrorism prevention.

The DHS believes that the fee would raise more than $30 million, which would go to maintenance and staffing for SEVIS.

Since January 15, 2003, when SEVIS legally came into use, the bodies on campus that oversee visa and immigration compliance have seen a considerable amount of work. "We're just getting through the last stage of BCIS (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services) reporting," says Jane Etis-Andrews, Director of the International Center.

The International Center has about 800 Arts, Sciences and Engineering students on the Medford campus registering this year.

The International Center has access to many resources for help. Etis-Andrews cited a "good tech team" at Tufts, an able and responsive help-desk at SEVIS, and spontaneous user listservs where administrators share tips and woes.

Despite the help, Etis-Andrews believes the new system could use a facelift. "It's been a process," she says, "We've had some kinks along the way."

"The goal is to keep everyone in good legal status," said Etis-Andrews. She said that the International Center has been "lucky" in that there have not been "any major mishaps." An error in data entry could cause a student to be in legal breach with the system, therefore threatened with fines and deportation.

Clemens Alt, a graduate student from Germany, wonders about the new fee. "Is it worth 100 dollars?" asked Alt. "As understandable as the desire for a tracking system is, the price seems pretty steep per foreigner -- almost all of whom clearly have perfectly good intentions."

The logistics of collecting the fee have also been a concern for both administrators and students. Originally, the fee was proposed to be collected online, through credit card payment or with a check through an American bank.

"The person might not have a credit card," says Carol Murphy, SEVIS coordinator at the Fletcher school of Law and Diplomacy. "Money may not be easily transferable in that part of the world."

The DHS then proposed to have the fee collected at the school where the student would be enrolled. Universities protested this idea. Etis-Andrews said, "We will not be in that loop, we lobbied pretty hard for that."

Through the National Association of International Educators (NAFSA), Tufts joined other universities in the lobby to have the fee collected at the consulate where the visa fee is paid.

"NAFSA represents the voices of educational institutions," said Etis-Andrews. An organization of more than 8,700 members worldwide, NAFSA is currently working closely with the DHS during a 60-day comment period to "to make the SEVIS system as workable as possible," said Ursula Oaks, a NAFSA public relations officer

"Our members have worked very hard to comply with its requirements and we have raised serious concerns about the many technical glitches in the problem, questions about data integrity, the need for better training of officials who use the system and the SEVIS help desk."

Alt thinks that it is a lot of money for just a computer database, although if it were to guarantee better security, he said that he would consider it worth the money.

Alt questioned the effectiveness of the system. "If I were a terrorist, all I had to do is to enroll, miss a few days of classes in which time I fly/drive/ride to wherever I wanted to commit a crime," he said. "Coming back to school I would work hard and maintain [a B- average]. And the system would not have caught me."