Students
angered by new international student fee
BOSTON (AP) -- About 200 international students
at the University of Massachusetts have
refused to pay a new student fee, a protest
that could result in dismissal from the
school and loss of their student visas.
The
$65-per-semester fee for foreign students
was designed to compensate for cuts to the
budget of the university's international
programs office. It appeared for the first
time on spring-semester bills due this month.
Part
of the fee will also help pay for a new
federal student tracking program called
the Student and Exchange Visitor Information
Systems, or SEVIS, which Congress created
to prevent terrorists from entering the
country on student visas.
International
students nationwide are required to register
through the system before receiving visas.
Critics
of the fee say it's unfair to ask the 1,600
foreign students to pay for a system created
to monitor them and wrong to ask only foreign
students to bear the costs.
''Everyone's
scared, but I'm willing to take it as far
as I can,'' said George Liu, 31, a graduate
student from China. ''I don't want to lose
my student status, but (the fee) is an insult,
because it's so discriminatory.''
University
spokesman Patrick Callahan said the budget
for the international student office was
cut $240,000 last year, and the new fee
would provide a little over $200,000. A
small amount would help track foreign students,
as required by the law.
''SEVIS
is mandated,'' he said. ''We don't have
a choice.''
The
Graduate Employment Organization, a union
that represents 1,000 international graduate
students at the university, has urged students
not to pay the fee.
The
university's Web site tells students that
to remain in good standing, they must meet
financial obligations by all required deadlines.
The consequences could include dismissal.
Chris
Vials, president of the GEO, said school
administrators agreed to meet with opponents
of the fee. He said a better solution would
be a $5 or $10 fee for all students.
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