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Sept. 11 “tragedy” for international enrollments, Dunnett tells FSEC
By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor
Calling the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks a “tragedy for students,” Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education, outlined the significant, government-mandated changes in the admissions process of international students that UB has had to make in the wake of Sept. 11 during a presentation to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at yesterday’s meeting.
Dunnett described for the committee what he called the time-consuming and costly process of implementing the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which will provide a means of tracking and monitoring information about international students, as well as exchange visitors and the programs that admit them for study or research in the U.S. SEVIS is part of the U.S. Patriot Act passed in October 2001 and mandated for implementation by Jan. 1, 2003.
The software needed to implement SEVIS will cost UB about $35,000, and new computers and computer upgrades will cost about $50,000, Dunnett said. Moreover, an additional $10,000 will have to be spent on training staff members and paying them overtime just to enter the data-bringing the grand total to about $100,000, he explained, adding that this figure does not include the cost of hiring additional staff to run the system once it is in place.
Dunnett’s candid and informative presentation also detailed the impact to UB due to the drop in the number of international students being admitted to the university. This reduction occurred for a variety of reasons—most of them bureaucratic—but most of which can be traced back to the government’s reaction to Sept. 11, he said.
And, while few students from Muslim countries decided to return home as a result of Sept. 11—and there were no confirmed campus incidents of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab harassment as a result of the terrorist attacks—the fact that the government has mandated that 18-to 40-year-old Muslim men from any of 19 countries designated by the U.S. as “Muslim” countries be targeted for background security checks will severely slow and hamper the admissions process of students from those countries, he noted.
Dunnett said that several hundred prospective UB students from Indonesia and Malaysia—countries with whom UB has enjoyed long-standing and positive relationships—are awaiting background checks that are time-consuming because of a lack of staff trained and ready to conduct the checks.
“Our problem is going to be that we have a very bad enrollment (of international students) next fall,” said Dunnett. He encouraged those involved in the admissions process at the departmental level to begin conducting early admissions. With the normal admissions process for international students already taking about a year and a half, that time is certain to be lengthened now that UB can no longer issue visas to international students—the process has been restored to the U.S. embassies and consulates in the students’ home countries—further adding to delays.
The number of students attending UB this fall from “Muslim”-designated countries is more than 10 percent of the overall international student population.
“Due to the resulting delays in visa issuance, UB’s graduate and undergraduate enrollments were significantly affected in fall 2002, especially among students from predominantly Muslim countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan,” Dunnett reported, adding that the impact of Sept. 11 on international enrollment will be even greater next year.
“In anticipation of this, International Enrollment Management is stepping up its recruitment effort worldwide.”
About 125 students, almost all males, are either awaiting background checks for visas or have been denied visas, he said.
The Office of International Education took a proactive stance immediately after Sept. 11, according to Dunnett, and along with International Student and Scholar Services has maintained close contacts with Muslim student organizations, leaders of the local Muslim community, including UB faculty, and such local law enforcement agencies as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce as a way of staying well-informed and on top of potential problems and concerns.
And contrary to imagined scenarios, interest in study abroad has “skyrocketed” Dunnett said, with the number of UB students expressing a desire to study overseas increasing dramatically by 44 percent over the past year. This increase, he noted, is “an indication of their (students’) enhanced appreciation for the value of international education.”
On the other hand, international enrollment of freshman and transferring international students for 2002 is down 5 and 11.7 percent, respectively.
Dunnett expressed anger at what he sees as the media’s continued misrepresentation or misunderstanding of the type of visa the Sept. 11 hijackers were issued, which either were tourist visas or “M” visas that permit foreigners to study at “flight schools, beauty schools” and the like.
“Not one of the hijackers was on a bona fide student visa,” he added.
“If you’re a terrorist, the last visa you would ever apply for is a student visa,” continued Dunnett, explaining the lengthy process involved in procuring a student visa.
“Why would you go to all that trouble when you can get a tourist visa?”
But, he added, “We don't crack down on those,” explaining that the travel lobby is huge and wields a great deal of power on Capitol Hill because of the amount of tourist dollars generated in the U.S. by foreign visitors. “We don’t regulate tourist and proprietary visas,” said Dunnett, yet only 2 percent of the 28 million visas the U.S. issues every year are student visas.
The relationship with U.S. border countries Canada and Mexico is precarious, too, when it comes to the once, near free-flow of students back and forth between the countries, he said. However, a proposed ban by the INS on part-time Canadian student commuters was averted, “thanks to a concerted effort by local congressional leaders and supporters of international education,” he said. But in place of long-standing oral declarations between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the U.S. now is requiring that Canadian and Mexican students be issued visas to study in this country, which is certain to cause the bordering countries to retaliate similarly, said Dunnett.
In other business at the FSEC meeting, Kevin Seitz, vice president for university services, reported that he is working on a request by the administration to develop a list of time-lined priorities regarding remodeling, rehabilitation and repair projects, as well as other construction projects on both campuses. The request is aimed at developing better communication between faculty, administration and University Services, and should address many of the concerns faculty have had about the condition of classrooms on campus.
President William R. Greiner also asked that the FSEC designate a liaison to University Facilities so that miscommunication, frustration and misunderstandings between faculty and Seitz’ area could be averted.
“It’s a major fact that we let this thing drift,” Greiner said about the problems related to the disconnect between the Faculty Senate Facilities Planning Committee and University Services.