Student Ald. Austin King, District 8, wants the City Council to take a stance tonight against an international-student tracking system that requires the students who use it to pay a yearly fee.
King’s resolution angered some University of Wisconsin officials and Chancellor John Wiley, who said City Council members should not interfere in issues not under the council’s jurisdiction.
Council president Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said Wiley plans to attend Tuesday’s council meeting to speak in opposition to the agenda item and asked Verveer to take the resolution off of the agenda.
The federally mandated Student and Exchange Visitor Information System monitors international students and faculty under the Homeland Security Program. The provision stemmed from the Patriot Act, signed in October 2001 in the aftermath of Sept. 11. It allows universities and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to exchange data on the visa status of international students.
UW announced April 1 that students must pay a yearly surveillance tax of approximately $120 to $125 to reimburse the university for the tracking system. UW officials said they made the decision in response to the $270 million in state budget cuts to the university, leaving the school incapable of carrying the cost of the service. The announcement angered some students, igniting protests across campus last week. University-sponsored listening sessions last week became rallies against the university taxes.
King said he introduced the resolution because SEVIS is “one of the most serious human-rights infringements happening within our borders” and said although the city may not directly influence the university, the resolution’s impact is already evident.
“This is the seventh or eighth media outlet I’ve talked to about the resolution,” King said. “The simple introduction has clearly already had an impact. If we don’t say this is wrong, I don’t know who will.”
Ald. Linda Bellman, District 1, said she will “reluctantly” support the resolution against the fees because it affects so many Madison students.
“I hate to meddle in university business, but it bothers me that they would single out a group and impose the fee,” Bellman said.
Ald. Cindy Thomas, District 20, said she did not even want to debate whether the fee is fair or unfair because the city has no jurisdiction over the matter.
“If the city says they want to cooperate more with the university, it’s not in our best interest to support this resolution if the university has already said that is what it is doing,” Thomas said. “We do not have a real understanding of the financial straits their budget is in.”
However, Thomas added that she did not think the fee was unreasonable.
“They get a heck of a deal out of the tuition the university charges to begin with, and I don’t think $125 is too much for most of those students to handle to begin with,” she said.
The federal government implemented the SEVIS system earlier this year, giving the university and the United States unlimited access to data such as personal information, academic status and fields of study. Currently, 3,700 UW international students must pay the fee.
Under SEVIS, international students can be deported or denied re-entry into the United States for infractions such as dropping courses during the semester or leaving the country without prior permission from UW. If deported, whether for family obligations or academic business, foreign students cannot file an appeal or legal defense.
