Is MIT a Security Risk?

International students may head for more welcoming countries as U.S. strategies to deter terrorism ramp up at educational institutions such as MIT.

By Sally Atwood

01/01/2001

In the middle of last December, Bilal Zuberi, a doctoral candidate in physical chemistry, spent three hours waiting in line at the John F. Kennedy Building in downtown Boston. A citizen of Pakistan, Zuberi was adhering to new regulations governing certain international students that required him to register with the immigration bureau, have his fingerprints and photograph taken, and be interviewed by an immigration services agent. He had all his official documents in order but was apprehensive. Early reports from California indicated that hundreds of foreign students there had been detained during the same process. Would he be, too? Was this truly just part of a bureaucratic tracking system, or was it an FBI interview in disguise? What kind of questions would he be asked? Would he be able to answer quickly and with confidence? Or would he inadvertently raise cautionary flags that would lead to deportation?

Zuberi's interview lasted about 45 minutes. After all of his anxiety, the agent wanted what Zuberi thought was useless information. What were his parents' birth dates? When did he buy his cell phone? What was his credit card number? To make matters worse, the assistant entering Zuberi's information into the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a new federal computerized tracking system for international students and scholars, could not locate the tab key. "It was a bit scary to know that my academic future and stay in this country was entirely in the hands of these people," he says.

Thousands of male international students and scholars who were born in any of 26 predominantly Muslim countries (see "Special-Registration Countries," bottom) are reliving Zuberi's experience nationwide. The mandate for these students to register is part of a new effort by the government to ferret out possible terrorists. (Three of the terrorists involved in the September 11 attacks had entered the country on student visas.) And since January 2003, U.S. educational institutions have been required to enter all foreign nationals into the new tracking system. Sanctioned by the USA Patriot Act passed in 2001 and under a strict deadline from Congress, the tracking system was implemented before it was fully developed and tested. As a result, it crashes frequently, loses data, is painfully slow, and has been publicly labeled a disaster by at least one Washington lawmaker.

In the research arena, the government is also attempting to bolster national security by adding restrictive clauses in contracts for federally funded research, clauses that could limit the dissemination of results or require preapproval of international researchers who want to work on specific projects (see "Biotech's Big Chill"). And as part of the newly enacted Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness Act, tight controls are being placed on a host of biological agents and toxins-some widely used in research-that could potentially be used in bioterrorist attacks. In addition, students from countries considered by the U.S. to sponsor terrorism (see "Special-Registration Countries," bottom) are barred from working in labs where any of the agents and toxins are present.

But while such strategies may help deter terrorism, they may also have adverse effects on institutions like MIT. Today, 37 percent of MIT's graduate students and 9 percent of its undergraduates come from abroad. Under the slew of recent laws and presidential directives, these students and potential new ones could face delayed approval or even denial of their visas. The penalties for violating either act are stiff, including immediate deportation, heavy fines, and even criminal prosecution. These facts have increased anxiety among faculty and students on campus. There is concern that faculty will stop staffing their labs with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from countries that have a history of significant delays or a high incidence of denials. And as security increases, says Provost Robert Brown, international students may head for more welcoming countries. "If the top talent in the world starts shying away from MIT," he says, "our impact on science and technology will decrease."

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While universities' representatives around the country are echoing Brown's sentiment, Washington still sees two sides to the story, says Jack Crowley, MIT vice president for federal relations. "There are folks in the executive branch and Congress who are sensitive to how quickly we could lose something of value if we become less open, but there are others who say we'll do whatever it takes to make us secure." Finding the delicate balance between these two perspectives will eventually determine the future of our educational system.

Special-Registration Countries
Males between the ages of 18 and 45 who are citizens of these countries or were born in them but now live elsewhere must be fingerprinted, photographed, and interviewed by U.S. immigration agents before their entry visas will be granted. Many registrants may have their applications referred to Washington, DC, for security reviews, which may delay their visas for months or result in application denials.
Afghanistan	Iran*	Morocco	Sudan*
Algeria	Iraq*	North Korea*	Syria*
Bahrain	Jordan	Oman	Tunisia
Bangladesh	Kuwait	Pakistan	United Arab Emirates
Egypt	Lebanon	Qatar	Yemen
Eritrea	Libya*	Saudi Arabia
Indonesia		Somalia
* U.S.-designated state sponsors of terrorism (includes Cuba)