The Student Exchange Visitor Information System is a computer database that tracks international students studying at universities across the country. Although every college had to register for SEVIS by January 31, Rensselaer had a head start by registering in August. Ever since, Rensselaer has been trying to place every international student into the database.
Jane Havis, assistant dean for international services for students and scholars has been working to accomplish the feat of placing Rensselaer’s 1200 international students and scholars in to the database.
For many years, the program SEVIS has been being worked on. After September 11, 2001, the federal government made it mandatory for every college to report their international students to the INS and add them to the SEVIS System.
This will allow the government to monitor every international student’s educational progress, financial records, and travel in and out of the country.
This process of entering information about the students is time consuming because SEVIS has several problems. To start with it only allows one student to be placed at a time. There are many computer related errors and several of the features of the program are still in their test stage.
Also, the SEVIS requires a lot of personal information about the student. There are over 20 pieces of information required including address, graduation date, major of study, visa classification, date and port of entry, and country of citizenship. This can cause some problems.
For example, not every major at Rensselaer is listed as an option in the SEVIS system. If a student does not finish his education by the date listed, the government requires him to leave the country. “Every student has a different situation and placing this in the system is difficult,” said Havis.
The SEVIS is part of the new, stricter regulations placed upon international students since the terrorist attacks. The amount of paperwork required has increased, a late document is unacceptable, and a missing document may cause suspicion.
As Havis put it, “Students just can’t forget anymore.” Also, because of the new regulations and lack of funding to endorse them, new international students may have to pay a higher fee.
By giving the government an efficient way of tracking international students, SEVIS will ease a great burden put on immigration agencies. These measures are being taken to ensure the safety of residents in United States.
