International students may have to pay an additional $100 fee to the government to help operate and enforce the federal computerized Student and Exchange Visitor Information System that tracks the activities of students coming to the United States for post-secondary education.
The federal government is proposing this fee to offset the costs of maintaining the staff and resources that keep track of foreign students.
The government is justifying the fee as a necessity for sustaining national security and would like to implement it either by next spring or fall semester. Introduced to it earlier this year, the public has until Dec. 26 to suggest any changes to the fee.
The federal government first required international students to register with SEVIS through their university last January. According to homeland-security officials, about 800,000 students at 8,000 schools are now enrolled in the system.
The new charge would come in addition to the $100 visa application fee and a visa issuance fee that is set according to a student’s country of origin. The fee could get some opposition from students who have faced long waits for visas and visa renewals since tougher security measures went into effect after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The government allocated approximately $36 million to set up the system, but it did not provide funds for individual universities to implement and operate it. Many schools do not have updated computer systems that use the required Internet-based database or the necessary staff to operate it, resulting in them charging their international students more than $100 in additional university fees per semester.
The University of Wisconsin tried to implement such a fee last year in order to pay the expenses associated with meeting federal requirements set forth by the Homeland Security Department. However, the university dropped the idea after immense pressure and protests from students.
Instead, UW has been pulling private and public funds to help pay for the system. UW took about $230,000 out of its overall budget to set up the computer system. Other Big Ten schools, such as Purdue, were not able to do this and charged their international students an additional $50 per semester to pay for the campus program.
“We’re going to try and make them part of general funds,” Casey Nagy, executive assistant to Chancellor John Wiley, said.
Nagy said there are concerns with the imposition of the federal fee, because it may reduce the number of international students UW receives.
“We find it regrettable,” Nagy added. “We’ve been very active in voicing our views and concerns [with the fee]. But it’s a federal initiative, and we’ve done everything we can.”
Although federal fees may be increasing due to the system, Nagy assured that it is not likely the university will try to impose additional fees for its international students.
UW Ph.D. student Arthur Chang said the reasoning behind the fee and SEVIS is very “ambiguous” and crosses a gray area between domestic and foreign policy. Every national and international student, he said, is working to do the same thing — to get an education — and they should all be treated equally.
“I think the fee is unfair, but as an international student, I don’t have the liberty to say anything against the government,” Chang said. “I think the fee could be lower, [but] this is a requirement to come here.”
If it is intended to stop criminals and terrorists, Chang said it would be hard to do, adding that the program is really just an inconvenience.
“I think the purpose was OK, but I don’t think it’s effective and does any good,” Chang said.
The new federal fee is expected to generate more than $30 million a year. However, it will be used to upgrade the computer tracking system and a full-time staff to enforce universities and colleges to comply with the program and laws. They will also check on violators, such as students who try to use improper documentation or who stop attending classes.
UW currently has about 4,600 foreign students, including 1,000 research and teaching scholars. This number has fallen by only 35 students since last year.
