Stephen
C. Dunnett is vice provost for international education.
How have the terrorist attacks affected international education?
As many have observed, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 did not affect the United States alone; they were an assault on global civilization itself. A roll call of the dead suggests how widespread were the losses: citizens of more than 80 countries died in the attacks. Among those killed were international students who chose to study here in part because they respected our ideals of freedom and tolerance and felt welcomed by our society. What troubles me is that in our response to the attacks we may compromise these very ideals and make the United States less a beacon of freedom around the world. We read in media accounts that some of the terrorists were in the U.S. on student visas. In fact, however, while those who attended flight schools entered the country on M-visas for vocational training programs, none of the terrorists was here on a student (F) visa for higher education.
How might congressional action affect international students?
There are a number of proposals before Congress to impose stricter requirements for the issuance and monitoring of student visas, despite the fact that international students constitute less than 2 percent of all non-immigrant visitors to the U.S. One proposal floated in the Senate would impose a six-month moratorium on the issuance of student visas. If this proposal went into effect, it would have a disastrous effect, not only on international education, but on large research universities such as UB that rely heavily on international students for their graduate and research programs. Indeed, I am gravely concerned that our leaders will unfairly punish international students by making it much more difficult for them to enter the country. This would be sad, indeed.
Why are international students important?
For many reasons. International student enrollments in the U.S. have grown rapidly—from 53,107 in 1960 to 514,723 in 1999-2000. UB likewise has seen dramatic growth in the numbers of international students we enroll—from 1,600 five years ago to more than 2,800 this year. While nationally, international students account for 3 percent of all students in higher education, they represent about 10 percent of the enrollment at major research universities like UB. The total economic contribution of the more than half-million international students and their dependents was $13.3 billion in 1999-2000. In Western New York, the total economic impact of international students and their families currently exceeds $60 million per year. But their economic contribution is only one of the benefits—and not necessarily the most important—that international students bring to our country. International students are valuable assets in many ways, advancing the university's research and teaching missions, internationalizing the university community and enriching the cultural and intellectual life of the campus, and bringing a range of ideas, perspectives and experiences otherwise unavailable to us.
Do you support proposals to more closely monitor international students in order to prevent terrorism?
The higher education community currently supports the development of a computerized system to monitor the status of international students in the United States. I believe the proposed Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), if it is fully funded by the federal government and promptly implemented, offers the best available federal system for monitoring the status of international students.
Will the government's response to terrorism affect international education in other ways?
More dangerous than proposals to restrict visa issuance are measures that would put at risk our constitutional freedoms, including provisions to detain immigrants indefinitely under suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Non-citizens have long enjoyed most of the same constitutional privileges as citizens. We must raise an alarm about legislation that will deprive immigrants of their lawful rights and protections and which ultimately threaten our own freedoms. As the champion of freedom and human rights worldwide and the nexus of the global exchange of knowledge, research and ideas, the United States has an obligation, not only to its own people but to the rest of the world, to uphold its commitment to basic freedoms and to preserve a open and tolerant society. Let us learn from past mistakes, such as the unjust internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, that compromising our constitutional guarantees for the sake of a phantom security is a tragic mistake unworthy of our democratic ideals. It would be giving the terrorists the victory by institutionalizing fear and injustice.
Have there been any anti- Arab or anti-Muslim incidents at UB?
No, I am proud of the fact that we have not seen at UB any incidents of anti-Arab or anti-Muslim hatred or harassment. This is a tribute to the maturity and tolerance of our campus community and to UB's efforts to become a global university.
What have the recent events taught us?
At no time in the recent past have educators such as ourselves been more relevant or had such an important challenge. It is for us to explain to our students the very complex histories and circumstances that lay behind terrorism and the September attacks. As never before, we are called upon to educate our fellow citizens about the rest of the world and to provide opportunities for them to become globally aware through direct experience of other languages and cultures. The failures of intelligence that allowed the terrorist attacks to succeed draw attention to a more significant, long-term failure on our part to train sufficient numbers of intelligence and consular officers who are expert in the languages and cultures of other nations. As a result, we are ill equipped to fully and accurately interpret the actions of friend and foe around the world. Moreover, if we are to win the "war on terrorism," we will need the support of many countries around the world. But this support cannot be a one-way street. We must redouble our efforts to reach out to other countries, to globalize our curricula, to encourage our students and faculty to go overseas, and to welcome students and visitors from all countries and cultures.
