The federal government could be monitoring Georgetown’s 1,400 international students more closely before the year is over because of legislation mandating comprehensive data and information collection.
The U.S. Department of Justice proposed in May to begin implementation of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. SEVIS is an Internet-based system that will allow information about foreign students and their dependents to be shared with the government and educational institutions. The rule will specify that schools use SEVIS to issue documentation to students and report pertinent information to Immigration and Naturalization Services.
The regulations will require schools to collect and report information on foreign students to the INS via the Internet, such as a student’s enrollment at the school or failure to enroll, a student dropping below a full course of study without prior authorization, any failure to complete the intended program, a change of the student’s legal name or address and any disciplinary action taken by the school against the student as a result of the student being convicted of a crime.
According to Associate Director of Communications Doug Shaw, Georgetown’s Office of International Programs is working with University Information Services to be able to meet the requirements of SEVIS when it is operational in the near future. “The Office of International Programs will be the organizational unit at Georgetown most directly affected by the new system, but other units will be affected as well,” Shaw said. “Georgetown stands ready to work closely and cooperatively with the [INS] and the Department of State in carrying out the laws governing student visas.”
Shaw said once the system is implemented, the information will remain confidential. “There are no plans to release this kind of information publicly – only to the INS as required by law,” he said. Shaw also said that the future use of the system does not appear to have deterred the number of international student applicants.
SEVIS was available for implementation as of July 2002, but use of the system is not mandatory until Jan. 30, 2002, according to a Department of Justice press release. Similar legislation was passed following the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 but was never fully utilized. “The software was never fully developed and the program never fully funded,” Shaw said. According to the Department of Justice Web site, the legislation was enhanced following Sept. 11 to reflect the need for tighter homeland security.
