The Council of Graduate Students will hold its first meeting of the semester at 5 p.m. today in the International Center Spartan Rooms B and C.

The meeting will focus on the state of international student applications with emphasis on how anti-terrorism legislation passed last year will affect them. The act, passed in wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, can affect student visas and terrorism investigations.

Peter Briggs, director of the Office for International Students and Scholars, will be a guest speaker at the meeting and will discuss the current climate of international graduate students’ educational world. He said he will give a 15-minute introduction before opening the floor up for discussion.

Although terrorist attacks were thought to hurt international student enrollment, Briggs said international application activity has been strong.

Briggs said the number of applications is up for all the Big Ten. Private schools also have seen an increase in applications. He said he is not worried about the number of applications or the state of international student’s education decreasing.

“We’ve all been ringing our hands wondering about it,” he said. “The numbers are frankly staggering. They are up, but up a lot.”

Chad Previch