International students may be asked to pay a fee to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to improve the system that keeps student records.
The roughly 2,900 MSU students who are from abroad would have to pay the expected $95 charge if the proposal goes into effect next January.
Gregoire Vernet, a native of France, said he wouldn’t be happy to pay more fees.
“I think we pay enough, we pay fees for housing, phone bills and fees for living here,” the lifelong education student said.
David Horner, director of the MSU Office of International Students and Scholars, said the fee would pay for improvements in the technology used to track information such as a student’s academic major, address and date they entered the country - facts the university already keeps.
“If we can do that electronically and more efficiently, that is a good thing,” he said. “But to charge every student and scholar - that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Horner said fees are unnecessary because the Immigration and Naturalization Service will realize savings by creating a paperless system and 23 universities have already begun using the electronic system.
Adding fees makes studying in the United States less attractive for foreign students, which could mean a financial loss, Homer said.
Educating foreign students brings $12 billion a year to the country - the third greatest service import.
“The U.S. is competing with Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and Canada,” Horner said. “Instead of building roadblocks, (those countries) are developing programs to make it easier for students to get into those countries.”
Horner said international students add diversity to campus and create worldwide connections.
Greg Palmore, Michigan spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said the proposed fee is not intended to target or prevent students from studying in the United States.
The proposal stems from a 1996 immigration reform passed by Congress.
“This system is built in a democratic way - we are not here to target any culture or background,” Palmore said. “There is no need to speculate until it actually becomes law.”
Palmore said the Immigration and Naturalization Service is open to hearing students’ opinions on the proposal. He said the fee accompanies ones already approved and set to take effect in January.
“The fees will go to infrastructure needs within the agency, but it is not one single slot,” he said. “In time of national crisis, we put money to where it is needed.”
Rodolfo Altamirano, director of the International Center at the University of Michigan, said the events of Sept. 11 may play into the tracking issue that is again surfacing. He said he feels the system is being created as a safeguard.
“INS will have a tightened security of who is coming through the boarders,” he said. “They want to make sure they are in control and know who is coming in. They want to make sure they are really students.”
Altamirano said the fees may impact the cultural and financial wealth foreign students bring to the country.
“If you are imposing a lot of these fees, that would affect my decision as to whether I want to come to the Untied States,” he said “It would be another added burden and symbolically not welcoming.”
Il Woo Suk, a South Korea native, said he hopes the Immigration and Naturalization Service makes more information available about the proposal.
“I don’t think they should do that but if they do, I have to just follow,” he said. “Ninety-five dollars is big money to everyone, higher than I would expect.”
The Immigration and Naturalization Service can be contacted at insregs@usdoj.gov or by phone at (202)514-3048.
