Future visa impact uncertain

Obtaining a student visa isn't a quick process, and it's not getting any easier.\nThe new regulations and harsher punishments the Immigration and Naturalization Service is placing on international students might add paperwork for students and administrators.\nOr not. Simply, it's still too early to understand the effects of SEVIS, a national database that tracks international students, said Lynn Schoch, the associate director of the office of international services. \nStudent visas became a security concern after Sept. 11 because two of the hijackers were in the United States on student documents.\nBut there is some fear that the regulations are going to turn off or prevent international students from studying in the United States. While the United States is raising barriers to international students, countries like the United Kingdom and Australia are lowering theirs, Schoch said.\n"The people of OIS say international student rates in the U.K. and Australia have gone up pretty drastically in the last year," said Thomas Danhorn, an Austrian student working towards his Ph.D. in microbiology at IU. "So a lot of people who want to study abroad think, 'Do I really want to go to the U.S. with all the problems they are creating.' There will still be a lot of people coming but it may hurt exchange and might lessen diversity which from everything I hear is valued at IU."\nChris Foley, senior associate director of admissions of international students, said international applications have not dropped-off, nor have admissions offers. \nWhile international student enrollment might be going up or just staying the same, NAFSA, advocates for international education, reports on their Web site that "The U.S. share of the internationally mobile student market has declined from 40 percent in 1982 to 30 percent today."\n"IU has been committed to increasing numbers of international students, and it has done that pretty consistently," Schoch said. "There has really been no change (in recruitment practices). Whether we should look at ways to increasing our recruitment efforts in light of SEVIS is a good question."\nFoley said the undergraduate level standards for accepting domestic and international students are similar.\nComputer science professor Randall Bramley said the regulations have had no effect on the department yet, and they won't know until after students start to apply for visas in their home countries.\nProfessor James Musser, graduate chairperson of the physics department, said they have increased their number of international acceptances this year.\nThe IU Progressive Faculty Council is holding a forum on the issue at noon today in Woodburn 120. \nAlong with Schoch, law professor John Scanlan, who teaches immigration law classes, will be speaking. \nScanlan called SEVIS rigid, but said he didn't think the regulations would prevent international students from attending U.S. universities. \nAn American education still offers its advantages.\n"(SEVIS) is not just an isolated piece of legislation that is focused on students but it is part of a more general pattern to make life more difficult for foreigners in the United States," Scanlan said.\nScanlan said residents of some Middle Eastern countries now have to register in-person at immigration offices and are having more difficulty obtaining permission to come into the country.\n"Some of the people who are discovered may in fact be dangerous," Scanlan said. (The new pieces of legislation) might do some good. They might do a significant amount of harm, and they are pretty broad. They are targeting a lot of people who are no threat at all to the United States."\nWhile SEVIS might not stop international students from studying in the United States, Sharon Witherell of Open Doors -- Institute of International Education said, "… We think it's a little bit mistaken to think SEVIS will eliminate security"