Editorials and Opinion Pieces in Support of International Education

Major publications across the country have carried editorials and opinion pieces written by columnists and thought leaders responding to the news in the 2004 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange (released by IIE in November 2004) that the foreign student population at U.S. colleges and universities has decreased for the first time since 1971. These editorials and essays speak to the value of international education for the United States and to the importance of continuing to attract foreign students to U.S. campuses. Writers have emphasized the need to make sure that America is welcoming to foreign students.
2/28/05 Boston Herald: EDITORIAL: Keep the brains coming in
12/27/04 Philadelphia Inquirer: EDITORIAL: Foreign Students Keep them coming to America
12/05/04 Indianapolis Star: EDITORIAL: Security rules hurt colleges' ability to attract bright foreign students
11/30/04 Cinncinati Post: EDITORIAL: We need foreign students
11/29/04 New York Times: OP-ED: You Can't Get Here From There
11/29/04 Winston Salem Journal: EDITORIAL: Foreign Students
11/28/04 Newsweek: COLUMN -- WORLD VIEW: Rejecting the next Bill Gates
11/28/04 North Jersey Herald: The cost of closing our doors
11/26/04 Daytona Beach News-Journal: EDITORIAL: Fewer foreign students, less security at home
11/22/04 Detroit Free Press: FOREIGN STUDENTS: Drop in numbers represents lost opportunity

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BOSTON HERALD

Monday, February 28, 2005

Editorial: Keep the brains coming in

The State Department has announced a significant easing, as promised, of visa rules for foreign graduate students and researchers. It's highly unlikely that the new rules will help terrorists at all, so the announcement has to qualify as good news.

Few imports help our country as much as the import of brains. Though many foreign students intend to make their careers at home, many stay in America, as the backgrounds of many prominent Silicon Valley company founders attest. This greatly augments the nation's stock of intellectual capital.

Native-born Americans are such technophobes that without foreigners, many universities - never mind similarly situated high-tech companies - would have to close their engineering and science departments. Almost a third of doctoral degrees in the sciences and engineering go to citizens of foreign countries. In engineering alone, close to 60 percent of full-time doctoral candidates are from overseas.

But these enrollments have been declining because of terrorist control measures. Applications to graduate schools were down 28 percent last year - 45 percent from China. A major stumbling block has been the post-Sept. 11 rule that every time the scientist-holder of a scholar's visa wanted to enter the United States, a full, time-consuming security check had to be run if none had been done in the previous 12 months. Now, such a clearance will be good for four years for students and two years for visiting scientists.

Though we hope further liberalization is possible, this is a good first step.

The flow of brains to the United States got its start with Hitler's persecution of the Jews in the 1930s, leading Albert Einstein to settle in Princeton, N.J., the year Hitler came to power. He was followed over the years by Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Theodore von Karman and a galaxy of others who made the scientific enterprise in the United States the envy of the world. This centennial year of Einstein's revolutionary work is a good time to reaffirm the value of brains of whatever source, and a reminder that the struggle to cultivate brainpower in our schools has a long way to go.

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PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - Philadelphia, PA, USA

Monday, December 27, 2004

Editorial: Foreign students keep them coming to America

An import industy worth $13 billion to the American economy each year is showing signs of weakness, and it should be a matter of national concern.

In one category, these imports are down 6 percent this year. Overall, the imports dropped for the first time in three decades.

More important than the hard numbers: These aren't widgets we're importing. Rather, they're the best and brightest college-age minds from other countries.

The annual fall census of foreign students shows that the United States remains by far the most popular destination for overseas students. Fair enough. But the latest figures also show sharp declines in key groups - such as graduate students from India. Those data coincide with data showing that other countries - Britain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand among them - are boosting their numbers of foreign students.

Is it a temporary glitch, or the start of a long-term trend? Either way, university officials and government policy makers would be wise to take it seriously - and begin exploring tactics to maintain the nation's standing as a higher-education mecca.

Many foreign students who remain in the United States after graduation make important contributions to our culture and help advance American technology.

One clear area for concern is whether tighter visa rules enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks serve the nation's interest if they dissuade some foreign students from coming. Immigration officials have to focus on safety concerns, of course. But it's also important to seek a balance that doesn't place the bar for entrance so high that foreign university students decide it's easier to go elsewhere.

The economy, as well as the vibrance and preeminence of U.S. universities, benefit from these talented "imports."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/10505210.htm?1c

Copyright © 2004 Philadelphia Inquirer

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INDIANAPOLIS STAR

EDITORIAL: Security rules hurt colleges' ability to attract bright foreign students

Sunday, December 5, 2004

Our position is: Easing government restrictions would help universities like IU and Purdue restore the number of foreign students.

Indiana University Associate Dean Christopher Viers admits that foreign students and scholars always have been "the most highly regulated" of visitors to the U.S.

But stricter immigration and security rules enacted after the 9/11 massacres have made it even tougher for him to attract the bright Ukrainian, Chinese and Middle Eastern minds that have been an intellectual and financial boon to IU.

One case that is especially frustrating to IU administrators is the story of Reza Chamanara, a visiting math professor from Iran. Chamanara, who left for London in May to present papers and conduct lectures at British universities, is stuck in England. Viers says he won't likely "be returning for the spring semester."

Despite help from Sen. Richard Lugar, IU can't find out why the FBI has held up Chamanara's visa renewal. Nor do IU administrators know when -- or if -- he will be allowed to return.

Then there's IU's decade-long arrangement with Petronas, the Malaysian national oil giant, to put 20 Malaysian students a year through prep courses. The deal collapsed in 2002 after State Department officials refused to allow some of the male scholars to return to the U.S. Viers says it cost IU private investment and "the chance to shape the minds of these bright young students."

Difficulties with visas are among the reasons why IU has seen a 14 percent decline in applications from aspiring foreign undergrads and steep drops in enrollment from students from Muslim and Middle Eastern countries.

Such tales have become all too common at American colleges. It's the Chinese nuclear physics grad student waiting a year for the federal government to complete a background check. Or the new student like Ugandan native Humphrey Tusiimirwe, twice rejected for a visa to attend Minnesota's University of St. Thomas, because he doesn't have land or a wife to ensure he doesn't overstay his welcome.

The result: A 2.4 percent decline in the nation's foreign student population, according to New York's Institute of International Education. The drop in enrollment could soon dent America's -- and Indiana's -- economy and reputation as a beacon of freedom.

Despite the obstacles, the U.S. remains the favorite destination of aspiring Chinese physicists, Indian computer scientists and other foreign students. Some 573,000 of them studied in the U.S. last academic year.

Indiana attracts a fair share of them thanks to its top-ranked engineering and medical programs. Purdue is the nation's third-largest host university with nearly 5,100 students at its West Lafayette campus alone. IU's flagship campus in Bloomington is home to 3,714 more, while foreigners make up 30 percent of the staff of its Indianapolis-based medical school.

Foreign student enrollment certainly is a boost for Indiana's reputation and culture, but it's lucrative as well. Foreign students pay steep out-of-state tuition -- Purdue charges $18,800 a year -- helping make the schools less dependent on state funding. The fact that the students also possess some of the brightest minds helps attract grants from federal and corporate sources.

Post-9/11 security restrictions aren't the only reason for the decline. U.S. colleges face increased competition from rivals in Britain and Asia.

But the 9/11 attacks brought a new series of complications. To crack down on terrorism -- and after news that several of al-Qaida's hijackers arrived with student visas -- federal officials ordered that visa applicants had to be interviewed in person by a consul official for 90 seconds. More applicants, including those from China and Iran, had to go through the lengthy Visas Mantis background check, in which those working in sensitive fields such as biochemistry are given extensive reviews by a bevy of agencies, including the FBI. Visas that once took a day to process can take as long as a year to complete.

More complications have come courtesy of SEVIS, a database originally developed during the Clinton administration to keep tabs on foreign students. The system has become a headache for universities because of its inflexibility.

For example, if a student has a course canceled and then replaced, the university actually has to request that a Homeland Security official make the change. Since that can take weeks to complete, a student could end up being arrested for failing to meet requirements for staying in the country.

With the help of Lugar and protests from businesses, which also find themselves ensnared by the restrictions, improvements have been made. Most background checks are now completed in 22 days. Homeland Security officials also are staffing a help desk to assist universities with technical issues.

But problems remain. Ball State Assistant Provost Cyrus Reed notes there's no reason why continuing students or scholars -- who often travel overseas to conferences or family visits -- have to go through another security clearance when they've already done so and "aren't security risks"?

Some changes are dependent on treaties with other governments. But the U.S. should extend security clearances from the length of the visa to the duration of a student's study in the country. Making SEVIS more flexible by allowing university officials to change data in the system also would help.

Keeping Americans safe is tantamount, but some of the obstacles to foreign students studying in the U.S. have more to do with bureaucratic inefficiency than true safeguards. Considering that education is one of the nation's -- and Indiana's -- most valuable commodities, the U.S. needs a more flexible system of dealing with foreign students.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/7/199595-1477-021.html

Copyright © 2004 Indianapolis Star

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CINCINNATI POST

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

EDITORIAL: We need foreign students

For decades, to rephrase a favorite simile of the late President Reagan, the United States was a university shining on a hill for hundreds of thousands of foreign students. Eager and ambitious foreign students came here as graduates and undergraduates. Many stayed on to become good and productive citizens and many more returned home, imbued, one likes to think, with such American values as human rights and the rule of law. The U.S.-educated elites in other countries were a reservoir of good will and understanding toward the United States, something we're in sore need of at the moment.

But the attractiveness of the United States for foreign students seems to be dimming, for reasons largely but not wholly associated with 9/11.

A report by the Institute of International Education says that in the school year 2003 to 2004, the number of foreign students fell by 2.4 percent to 572,509, following a minimal increase of 0.6 percent in 2002 to 2003.

The decrease would seem to be insignificant -- except that it is the first decline since 1971-1972.

The decrease was masked somewhat by a slight 2.5 percent increase in graduate students, but the more telling number was the 5 percent drop in foreign undergraduates, from whose numbers the graduate students come. Of the top five countries that send students to the United States, China was down by 20 percent; India by 9 percent; Japan by 14 percent; South Korea by 1 percent; and Canada by 3 percent.

Students from the Mideast fell by 9 percent after falling by 10 percent the year before.

These declines can only hurt us. More than half of our science and engineering students are foreign born. We can speculate why American-born students seem to be shunning science and math, but the fact is, we need these foreign kids.

Some of this decline may be due to rising American tuition costs; increased competition from places like Britain, Canada and Australia; and the improvement in the colleges and universities in the students' own home countries.

But the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming that would-be students find our post-9/11 visa procedures cumbersome, time consuming, demeaning and seemingly designed to keep foreigners from visiting the United States.

This is surely a fixable problem and Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice should make it a first order of business to do so.

http://www.cincypost.com/2004/11/30/editb113004.html

Copyright © 2004 CINCINNATI POST

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NEW YORK TIMES

Monday, November 29, 2004

OP-ED: You Can't Get Here From There

By JOSEPH S. NYE Jr.

Cambridge, Mass. — Last year, the number of foreign students at American colleges and universities fell for the first time since 1971. Recent reports show that total foreign student enrollment in our 2,700 colleges and universities dropped 2.4 percent, with a much sharper loss at large research institutions. Two-thirds of the 25 universities with the most foreign students reported major enrollment declines.

The costs to the American economy are significant. Educating foreign students is a $13 billion industry. Moreover, the United States does not produce enough home-grown doctoral students in science and engineering to meet our needs. The shortfall is partly made up by the many foreign students who stay here after earning their degrees.

Equally important, however, are the foreign students who return home and carry American ideas with them. They add to our soft power, the ability to win the hearts and minds of others. As Secretary of State Colin Powell put it, "I can think of no more valuable asset to our country than the friendship of future world leaders who have been educated here."

One cause of the recent decline has been increased competition from universities elsewhere, particularly in English-speaking countries like Britain and Australia. But most observers attribute our loss to a self-inflicted wound. Ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, getting an American visa has been a nightmare of red tape, and the hassle has deterred many foreign student applicants.

Horror stories abound, like the Harvard postdoctoral student in biochemistry who went home to Beijing for his father's funeral, then waited five months for permission to return. And China, of course, had nothing to do with the attacks on Sept. 11.

In an effort to exclude a dangerous few, we are keeping out the helpful many. Consular officials know that they face career-threatening punishment if they are too lax, but face little sanction if they are too strict. Add to those perverse incentives, the need to coordinate with the extensive bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security, and you have a perfect recipe for inertia. More resources can help speed the process, but little will happen until Congress and the Bush administration make the problem a higher priority.

The admission of foreign students to the United States has been controversial in the past. During the cold war, the Eisenhower administration negotiated a student exchange program with the Soviet Union. Opponents argued that our Soviet enemies would misuse the student visas to send spies who would steal our scientific and industrial secrets. That did occur, but it was not the most important effect of the program.

In the first exchange in 1958, one of the students was a young Communist Party official named Aleksandr Yakovlev. He was strongly influenced by his studies of pluralism with David Truman, the Columbia political scientist. Mr. Yakovlev eventually went home to become the director of an important institute, a Politburo member, and one of the key liberalizing influences on Mikhail Gorbachev. A fellow student, Oleg Kalugin, who became a high official in the KGB, said of the visa program: "Exchanges were a Trojan horse for the Soviet Union. They played a tremendous role in the erosion of the Soviet system. ...They kept infecting more and more people over the years."

Starting in the 1950's, more than 110 American colleges and universities participated; some 50,000 Soviet academics, writers, journalists, officials and artists visited from 1958 to 1988. Imagine if the visa hawks had prevented Mr. Yakovlev and his like from entering the United States.

Balancing security risks against the political and economic benefits of admitting foreign students has always been a problem. It is now doubly difficult in a post-Sept. 11 world, but the recent enrollment decline suggest we have not yet got the balance right.

Joseph S. Nye Jr., a professor of government at Harvard, is the author, most recently, of "The Power Game: A Washington Novel."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/opinion/29nye.html?oref=login

Copyright © 2004 New York Times

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WINSTON SALEM JOURNAL

Monday, November 29, 2004

EDITORIAL: Foreign Students

The news that foreign enrollment is dropping at American colleges and universities should be a cause for concern and action in the United States.

The latest "Open Doors" report from the Institute of International Education says that foreign enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities was down 2.4 percent in the last academic year. The institute implements such programs as Fulbright and Humphrey fellowships to help American students study abroad and foreign students come to this country.

Viewed in context, a drop of 2.4 percent indicates a significant reversal. This is the first time since 1971 that American colleges and universities have seen any drop in the number of foreign students. And the percentage would be larger if it weren't for graduate schools, which experienced a 2.5 percent increase. Undergraduate schools, on the other hand, showed a decline of 5 percent in enrollment of students from abroad, and first-time international enrollments in graduate schools fell by 6 percent.

A major reason for this reversal is fallout from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Heightened security has made it more difficult and time-consuming for international students to obtain visas to study in this country. Some foreign students feel that they are not welcome in this country.

Such concerns weaken the position of U.S. colleges and universities in what was already becoming an increasingly competitive international market. Other English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada and Britain have been aggressively seeking the sort of top-notch foreign students who used to flock to the United States. Also, graduate programs are blossoming in countries in Asia and elsewhere.

Americans should be worried about these changes. Foreign students bring an estimated $13 billion a year into the United States. Also, some specialized graduate programs depend on top-notch foreign students to have sufficient enrollment. And many of the best foreign students pursue their careers in this country after graduation.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_ColumnistArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779393301&path=!opinion&s=1037645509163

Copyright © 2004 Winston-Salem Journal

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NEWSWEEK

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Rejecting the next Bill Gates

BY Fareed Zakaria

AS CONDOLEEZZA Rice enters the State Department, she will face a number of pressing foreign policy problems that she cannot solve. This will not be for lack of effort or intelligence on her part. It's just that many foreign policy crises involve the interests and activities of countries across the globe, and changing them takes time.

And even then, whether it's Iran, North Korea or Darfur, there is no quick fix that Washington can impose. But there is a growing danger for the United States that needs urgent attention, that can be solved and that is almost entirely within Rice's power to handle. It's the foreign visa crisis. Left unattended, it is going to have deep and lasting effects on American security and competitiveness.

The facts are plain. US visa procedures have become far too cumbersome, and bureaucrats are turning down far more applications than ever before. One crucial result is the dramatic decline of foreign students in the United States — the first shift downward in 30 years. Three new reports document the magnitude of this fall. Undergraduate enrollment from China dropped 20 per cent this year; from India, 9 per cent; from Japan, 14 per cent. The declines are even worse in graduate schools: applications from China have dropped 45 per cent; from India, 28 per cent.

Some Americans might say, "Good riddance, it's their loss." Actually the greater loss is ours. American universities benefit from having the best students from across the globe. But the single most deadly effect of this trend is the erosion of American capacity in science and technology. The US economy has powered ahead in large part because of the amazing productivity of America's science and technology. Yet that research is now done largely by foreign students. The National Science Board (NSB) documented this reality last year, finding that 38 per cent of doctorate holders in America's science and engineering workforce are foreign-born. Foreigners make up more than half of the students enrolled in science and engineering programmes. The dirty little secret about America's scientific edge is that it's largely produced by foreigners and immigrants. Americans don't do science anymore. The NSB put out another report this year that showed the United States now ranks 17th (among developed nations) in the proportion of college students majoring in science and engineering. In 1975 the United States ranked third. The recent decline in foreign applications is having a direct effect on science programmes. Three years ago there were 385 computer science majors at MIT. Today there are 240. The trend is similar at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and the University of California at Berkeley.

Falling foreign enrolments will produce a broader but no less profound loss for the United States. America has spread its interests, ideas and values across the world by many means, but perhaps the single most effective one has been by educating the world's elites. For example, Western ideas about the benefits of free markets and free trade have become the global standard. This may have much to do with Western foreign and trade policies. But surely this shift has been strengthened and facilitated by the fact that so many of the people in the ministries of finance, trade and industry in the developing world were educated at Western universities. The U.S. government can claim little credit for Chile's remarkable and successful free-market revolution. But the University of Chicago — which trained most of the economists who spearheaded those reforms in Santiago — can. Foreign students return home from the United States bringing with them an appreciation for U.S. values, ideas and, indeed, for America itself.

The hegemony of ideas is often a greater and more lasting source of power than brute force. When historians write about our times, they will certainly note that America dominated the international agenda for decades through this distinctive form of power.

But that hegemony is weakening for four reasons. First, America has become less attractive in the eyes of the world. Second, Washington is making it tougher to come here. Third, there is greater competition and more alternatives for the world's best students. (The biggest beneficiaries of the American decline have been universities in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.) And, finally, there are more opportunities around the globe. A software engineer in India can make a good living in Bangalore and not have to leave his country, culture and family behind.

Some of these problems can't be solved by the next secretary of state. But America's image abroad is something Rice could help improve. And visas will be entirely under her control. I understand the need for greater scrutiny after Sept. 11. But it has given already cautious bureaucracies a new rule: "When in doubt, deny the application." Every visa officer today lives in fear that he will let in the next Mohamed Atta. As a result, he is probably keeping out the next Bill Gates.

Fareed Zakaria is the Editor of Newsweek International

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6542347/site/newsweek/

Copyright © 2004 Newsweek

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NORTH JERSEY HERALD

Sunday, November 28, 2004

The cost of closing our doors

By J. Michael Adams

THEY ARE no longer dreaming of America. We should be very worried.

The Institute of International Education reported on Nov. 10 that the number of international students studying in the United States declined last year by 2.4 percent, the first decline since 1971-72.

The Council of Graduate Schools announced a week earlier that the number of international graduate students enrolling for the first time this year at American universities decreased 6 percent - the third straight decline after a decade of steady growth.

Yet America still hosts nearly 600,000 international students - far more than any other country - and our higher education system remains the envy of the world, with the greatest collection of faculty, facilities and resources.

So why should we be worried?

The drop in international students is symptomatic of the widespread perception that America no longer lays out the welcome mat. That instead we offer a slumping economy, plenty of bureaucratic regulations and a rising tide of arrogance and intolerance.

Numerous surveys show a growing lack of confidence and even hostility toward our nation. The Pew Research Center, for example, reported this year that anti-American views were not only pervasive in the Muslim world but also rising in Europe. We're losing friends at an alarming rate and more people are boycotting American products, says Business for Diplomatic Action.

These negative attitudes are contributing to the loss of international students. As one group of exchange students remarked, "The United States is no longer cool."

So they now turn toward Great Britain, Canada and Australia, where they sense a friendlier environment and where it's easier to apply and less expensive to live and study.

What does this mean for us? There is a heavy price tag. It is estimated that these students contribute $13 billion annually to our economy. And, since many live and work here after graduation, that impact is compounded. Further, international students are especially active in science and engineering, and their research contributions bolster scientific progress and U.S. competitiveness.

Even more important, international students are integral to the education process. We need to learn from them. We need to hear their voices in our classrooms. In a world connected by technology, economic links and global challenges, it is vital that American students understand and learn to work alongside those from different cultures. Few American students study abroad, so we must bring the world to our classrooms. International students do exactly this.

Perhaps above all, we need to teach international students. We need to teach them about our political and economic systems, and help them understand our point of view. These students will become influential leaders worldwide. How different will they be if they've had a positive experience in America?

What can we do? Colleges and universities must enhance recruitment efforts overseas. Strong support services must be provided before and after foreign students enroll. And cross-cultural dialogues and interactions must be encouraged between American and international students.

On a recent trip to Egypt, one parent told me her son studied four years in America and came home without one friend. Possibly her son was not interested in making friends, but more likely he did not have many opportunities to form friendships. That cannot happen.

We must be mindful of security, but visa policies must be rational. There have been improvements but problems continue. For example, those seeking student visas must be interviewed in person by a U.S. consular official. So they often wait weeks and travel great distances for a three-minute interview.

Also, many students, once here, are afraid to travel to conferences or visit their families for fear of not being readmitted. Would you accept that deal?

Even if we can streamline visa procedures, we still have the question of America's credibility and reputation overseas.

To improve our image and strengthen relationships abroad, we must all become ambassadors of goodwill. We must be global citizens who understand the connections between cultures and who extend their circle of consideration outside our borders.

After a divisive election, we can agree that making more friends and creating more allies will advance our national interests. So we must demand that our business leaders act responsibly overseas, and we must hold our government accountable when it fails to honor international commitments or to advance the cause of justice abroad.

In acting apart from the international community and in disregarding the voices of others, we risk creating what we have been trying to prevent: a lost generation that sees America not as a beacon of hope but as a place to avoid.

Education is our greatest weapon.

As H.G. Wells wrote, "Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."

We must not lose this generation of students.

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J. Michael Adams is president of Fairleigh Dickinson University. He helped to establish the Global Virtual Faculty, scholars and practitioners around the world who participate in courses using the Internet. Send comments about this article to oped@northjersey.com.

Copyright © 2004 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

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DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL (Florida)

Friday, November 26, 2004

EDITORIAL: Fewer foreign students, less security at home

Zivin Park is a South Korean doctoral candidate in electrical engineering at the University of Florida. Like many graduate students, he's a teaching assistant. Three years ago, his 40-seat classes were full, and mostly with foreign students. This fall he had 15 students in his class, Americans included. It's the latest sign of an alarming trend on campus. Colleges and universities are losing foreign students. At UF, 127 fewer foreign students enrolled this fall, a 22 percent drop from last year and a 5 percent drop in the international student body as a whole. In graduate schools across the country, admissions of foreign students were down 18 percent this year, and enrollment down 6 percent. Most of the drops affect students from countries that haven't been tied to terrorism: China, India and South Korea. The drop at UF is the most severe in the country.

The United States has never experienced a brain drain before. From 1971 to 2002, foreign student enrollment increased every year. More stringent visa rules following the 2001 attacks were designed to send one message -- that the country would more carefully police its borders. Intended or not, it also sent an unmistakable message: Foreign students are no longer enthusiastically welcome. Message heard. The number of foreign graduate student applications -- before visas are applied for, before universities decide whom to admit -- is down 28 percent this year. Universities abroad, in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, are reaping the benefits, competing aggressively for the new pool of students and capitalizing on their research potential. It's a loss the United States cannot afford.

The University of Kansas is working on a vaccine for West Nile virus. Last year two Russian researchers working at the university went home for vacations. Their return was delayed six months, halting research. The professor heading the project advertised one of the positions. He received 20 applications, none of them American researchers, which forced him back into the same dilemma. He could hire someone new, but visa trouble would follow.

Research is suffering. But so is national security. Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education last year, Victor Johnson, an associate executive director of the Association of International Educators, described the new barriers as "unilateral disarmament in the battle of ideas, values, and beliefs -- especially in the Arab and Muslim world -- that is central to success in the war on terrorism." Foreign students contribute to a campus' diversity. They lower cultural barriers, foster less parochial understanding of the world and create exchanges vital to mutual understanding and respect.

The government has alternatives to its current mish-mash of improvised, inconsistent rules. Foreign students who leave for brief vacations can have their visa applications processed ahead of their trip out of the country. The State Department, which handles all visa applications and metes out delays, should give universities here, and the foreign students they're trying to attract or retain, realistic time-lines on visa applications and delays so that research isn't held hostage to inexplicable, open-ended waiting periods. The government could also reverse a perception of foreign students as, essentially, guilty of terrorism until proven innocent. Most of all, university presidents should be persuading Congress both to relax the rules and provide money for federal record-keeping requirements that have been straining university budgets and unfairly burdening foreign students.

We'll never know if a potential terrorist or two were kept out of the country among the tens of thousands of foreign students choosing to go elsewhere. We do know that the "unilateral disarmament" in brains is hurting research, impoverishing campus culture and projecting the wrong image about America. For a nation of immigrants, that's an unexpected, remediable disgrace.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN72112604.htm

Copyright © 2004 News-Journal Corporation

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DETROIT FREE PRESS

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

FOREIGN STUDENTS: Drop in numbers represents lost opportunity

At a time when America needs all the friends it can get, the country is missing out on one of its best opportunities to cultivate good will and an appreciation for the democratic way of life.

The inevitable post-9/11 falloff in foreign college students has finally materialized. The Institute of International Education this month reported that foreign enrollment at U.S. colleges and universities dropped 2.4 percent last school year.

In losing those students -- by sending a message that would-be visitors are unwelcome through laborious visa applications that even the secretaries of State and Homeland Security acknowledge take too long to process -- the United States discards a valuable asset for better global relations.

Last week, as he welcomed a group of mid-career professionals spending a year studying in the United States, retiring Secretary of State Colin Powell offered strong testament to the power of such programs:

"You will leave a part of yourself here in America and take a part of America that will be with you always. This exchange enriches us all. . . . Share what you learn about America and about yourself with all of your friends and your family members and your fellow citizens. Most importantly, always work to advance the search for greater understanding through openness and exchange."

That is why getting students here is so important. Powell and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge have said they know deflecting students is a problem and they're working hard to clear the way.

But not effectively enough. America is losing valuable opportunities to create a host of unofficial ambassadors.

http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/eforn23_20041123.htm

Copyright © 2004 Detroit Free Press Inc.