International Incidents
Post–9/11 rules complicate life for students from other countries studying
at Rochester. By Ryan Whirty | Illustration by Michael Osadciw
When Qin Zhang, a graduate student in Rochester’s mechanical engineering
program, arrived on campus in 2002, she had hopes of returning home to China
every once in a while to visit.
But that was almost three years ago. After experiencing the hassles resulting
from the post–9/11 heightening of federal monitoring of international
students—on one trip home her visa application was delayed two and a half
months—Zhang is considering forgoing any more trips to China until she
finishes her Ph.D. Going home just might not be worth it.
“It’s a big risk for me to go home,” she says, noting that
the delay she experienced is actually relatively short compared to the experiences
of other international students. “America is the best country to come
to [for an education],” she adds, “but [U.S. officials] need to
make it more comfortable for students.”
Zhang isn’t the only one put off by the extra security for international
students: According to a November report by the Institute of International Education
(IIE), international student enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities dropped
by 2.4 percent in the 2003–04 school year, the first decrease since 1971–72.
Last March, the Council of Graduate Schools reported that its survey of 450
member institutions showed a 5 percent decline in foreign applications for graduate
study from 2004 to 2005. That followed a 28 percent decline in the previous
year, according to the council.
According to IIE figures, Rochester’s total international enrollment
fell from 1,337 in 2002–03 to 1,156 in 2003–04, or 13.5 percent.
Such declines have been especially acute for graduate programs, which are home
to 85 percent of the Rochester’s international students. Dean of Graduate
Studies Bruce Jacobs says that while there has been a drop in doctoral enrollments
for both U.S. and international students, the decrease for foreign enrollees
is 11 percent greater than that of American enrollees.
Educators at Rochester and across the country cite numerous reasons why international
students are turned off from American schools. At the top of the list are extraordinary
delays—or outright rejections—in the visa approval process, as well
as the intense federal tracking and monitoring system international students
face in the United States.
Tack on hefty processing fees for various documents—such as a new $100
tracking fee each foreign student now pays to the Department of Homeland Security
in addition to the $100 visa application fee—and many aren’t surprised
that international students are turning away.
“The evidence is growing stronger every year that we’re clearly
the losers when our record of visa denials causes talented people to cross Rochester
off as an educational or employment goal,” says Joseph Eberly, professor
of physics and astronomy. He adds that “the topic of ‘foreigners’
among us has been made irrationally sensitive by occasionally wildly unfounded
claims made for what appear to be purely political purposes.”
Many of the federal laws and directives instituted since the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon—such as the USA Patriot Act in 2001
and the Homeland Security Act a year later—have made life more difficult
for both students and officials.
Cary Jensen, director of University International Relations, says administrators
must provide detailed reports on every international student each academic term.
“There are all these things you have to report,” he says. “[If]
they change their address, they change their major, they drop below full-time.
. . .”
Jensen says much of his and his colleagues’ time is now consumed by helping
international students maintain their “status,” or their right to
stay in the country once they arrive. He says keeping a student’s status
requires adhering to a number of legal requirements—including providing
proof that a student is in the country for educational purposes only, an increasingly
challenging requirement as students approach graduation and seek job opportunities
in the United States.
Sylvia Kless of the International Services Office agrees. She says such added
responsibilities prevent her from doing what she really loves: helping the University’s
international students adjust to life in the United States and guiding them
through their Rochester experience.
“My background is in counseling,” she says. “I can’t
spend a lot of proactive time helping students with cultural adjustment and
programming because we’re dealing with a myriad of regulations that are
increasingly complex and restrictive.”
The strain is particularly felt by students studying mathematics, engineering,
and the sciences—subjects federal officials consider sensitive in light
of the terrorist threat. Carla Gottschalk, the mechanical engineering department’s
graduate coordinator, says Chinese students have been especially subjected to
long delays when trying to return from China. As a result, she says, some of
them have decided to stay in Rochester over the summer and holiday vacations
out of fear that their paperwork will be held up or that they won’t be
allowed back into the country at all.
Before returning to his native Sri Lanka for his wedding in December 2004,
microbiology & immunology graduate student Thaminda Ramanayake says he was so worried
that he might get held up coming back to Rochester that he obtained a letter
from the department confirming his status as a student in the physics and astronomy
program with a detailed description of what he’s studying.
He also decided to apply for his visa at the U.S. embassy in Sri Lanka on December
15, a full two weeks before his flight back, because he knew a grouchy embassy
official could reject his application for any reason. “It could be that
he didn’t have coffee in the morning,” he says. “They could
say you’re involved in terrorist activities.”
As it turned out, Ramanayake got lucky: He had no problems returning to Rochester.
That was especially fortunate, given what he and his family experienced just
two days after his wedding: the devastating tsunami that took hundreds of thousands
of lives across Asia, including dozens of Ramanayake’s relatives and friends.
Many educators in the United States and at Rochester fear that if students
like Ramanayake decide to go elsewhere for their education—schools in
other English-speaking countries like Australia, Britain, and Canada are actively
recruiting top international students, and developing nations like China and
India have been furiously improving their higher-education systems—the
United States in general could suffer.
That’s because international students might be more important than many
realize. According to the IIE report, international students contribute about
$12 billion annually to the American economy.
In addition, Rochester officials say, international students contribute to
U.S. society by playing a part in countless scientific and entrepreneurial efforts
that improve the quality of life. Jacobs says, for example, that of the 400-plus
Rochester alumni serving on top college faculties across the country, roughly
one-fifth of them were international students.
“[International students] have been very important in [the Rochester]
story, and I’m sure they’ve been good for the very best schools
in the country more generally,” Jacobs says. “Many have been given
the responsibility of training the best students. That’s an outcome for
the entire country.”
Fortunately, Rochester officials see some positive adjustments being made to
the federal security system. Kless says, for example, that many students have
begun receiving priority in getting visa appointments so they can enter the
country before the start of classes, and the State Department is extending some
clearances to four years so students can come and go more easily.
And a November 2004 article in U.S. News & World Report noted that then
Secretary of State Colin Powell asked consulates to work harder to speed up
the visa application process. The result, the State Department said, was a drop
in processing time from 70 to 22 days.
In essence, many at Rochester are hopeful that a happy medium can be reached.
“I believe that with enough input from the academic community, there
can be solutions which help maintain homeland security, while at the same time
minimizing the adverse impacts,” says Arie Bodek, chairman of the Department
of Physics and Astronomy.
As for Zhang, she hopes U.S. officials will realize how much international
students contribute to the country and, as a result, make life easier for such
valuable resources.
“[The government] should provide an environment to make the students
want to stay here and make the country better,” she says.
Ryan Whirty is a Rochester-based freelance writer.
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