Michael Vondriska: Scapegoating students for 'national security'

As the public learns more and more about the terrorists suspected of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks, one new development may have a tremendous impact upon today's college students.

Two of the hijackers may have entered the United States on international student visas.

In response, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) are currently drafting legislation that would rework the current immigration system as it applies to student visas. Specifically, Feinstein and Kyl are looking to bolster the screening process for potential international students -- and keep some from studying in the United States altogether.

On Monday, President Bush echoed the senators' concerns and called for an official review of the national immigration system. Bush claims that the program is designed to ensure tight controls on immigration, and to be sure that student visa applications are being evaluated fairly, so that international students are screened appropriately.

The reactionary plan to "restructure" student immigration, though, demonstrates more than a simple precautionary measure. It is a form of scapegoating for the tragedies of Sept. 11.

But this time, the villains aren't sitting in some faraway cave. They're the friends we sit with on College Green, and the international students who attend universities around our country.

Unfortunately, the review doesn't just stop at restructuring. Feinstein's proposal categorically stops the federal government from issuing visas to students from seven countries considered to be sponsors of terrorism -- Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

This action violates the inherent principles and obvious benefits of international study -- both study for Americans abroad, and for foreigners here in the United States.

While abroad in Madrid, Spain, I was able to experience what it is like to be a complete stranger in another country. Thrown into a home with a Spanish family and into a small private college, I was expected to learn a new language, integrate myself into a different culture and succeed in an academic setting -- all in three months.

At the time, Spain was facing the wrath of terror just as we are today. The terrorist group ETA was embarking upon a campaign of violence to gain the independence of the Basque region in the north.

Car bombs and systematic assassinations first struck in the north, then in Barcelona, then in Madrid. Two weeks ago, I learned that a bomb exploded in a plaza that I had walked through on a daily basis.

But in the end, even despite the terrorist threats, I made a number of new friends, and learned some invaluable lessons about the world and about myself.

There are many great institutions of higher learning in Europe, and Americans are blessed to have the ability to extract a wide range of experiences from them. This is only possible, however, because our foreign counterparts grant U.S. students visas without much debate.

Likewise, the United States has some of the finest educational institutions in the world -- capable of providing those same, and even greater, experiences to foreign pupils. But Feinstein's move to deny access to the best students from around the globe is, at best, counterproductive.

According to the White House, "a goal of the program is to prohibit the education and training of foreign nationals who would use their training to harm the United States and its allies."

Last time I checked, international students were not being taught how to wage war in American academia. Bomb-making and Hijacking 101, after all, aren't on the Penn Course Review's honor roll of top classes.

Thankfully, Feinstein's initial proposition -- the imposition of a six-month moratorium on the issuance of student visas -- received its share of due criticism.

Judith Rodin even weighed in on the issue in a letter to the California senator, writing, "The exchange of ideas between international students and scholars enhances global understanding and the learning experience of our students."

But Feinstein's most recent policy proposal, just as reactionary, has managed to move beyond the realm of national security, and into an area that may place further limitations on students' lives.

The probability of international students participating in criminal activity -- especially of a terrorist nature -- is miniscule. The pure statistics of the situation demonstrate it.

Of the millions of applicants for visas to the U.S. every year, only 2 percent of them are made by prospective students. And even if the two terrorists who entered the country on student visas had been denied entry, they would have most likely found their way though the border via some other fashion.

The Feinstein and Kyl proposals are simply rigid and regressive measures looking to compensate for the loss that America has faced.

If the president is even serious about his campaign promise to "leave no child behind" when it comes to education, he should begin now and call off Feinstein's egregious attack on students who play an integral part in America's educational fabric.

Michael Vondriska is a senior Accounting concentrator from St. Louis, Mo., and executive editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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