For most students at the College, moving off-campus or taking a leave term does not present the possibility of deportation from the United States.
For international students like Tanya Ghani '03 and Nicholas Bwana '06, however, failure to report details like these to a new Immigration and Naturalization Services program called SEVIS could earn them one-way tickets back to their respective countries of Pakistan and Kenya.
SEVIS, or the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, is a real-time Internet-based government program on which U.S. colleges must now post information about international students such as current address, course load and field of study.
The program is designed to monitor university programs as well as the validity of an international student's stay in the United States, though those involved in the international student community at the College say programs such as these are also used to pinpoint suspicious activity.
Since many of the terrorists involved in the attacks of Sept. 11 were in the United States legally on student visas, the government has recently put a priority on stopping up leaks in its immigration system.
Dartmouth has been in compliance with the SEVIS program since August of 2002, almost six months ahead of the compulsory national Jan. 30 deadline, according to Director of the International Office Steve Silver.
International students contacted by The Dartmouth said the new program has not caused them logistical problems, as the College's International Office has been extremely supportive in keeping students abreast of paperwork deadlines, according to Ghani.
"They're definitely on our side," Ethiopian native Daniel Tadesse '03 said of the office.
Practical changes for international students include filling out new SEVIS-compliant I-20s, or certificates of eligibility for non-immigrant student status.
While students have experienced a fairly seamless transition into life with SEVIS, International Office administrators point out their own experience with the program has been far from simple.
"It is an ongoing challenge to work with a program that still has many bugs, many issues," as most computer programs in their early stages do, Silver said. "We're still working through the best way to get our information in the most accurate and timely fashion."
Silver emphasized that the government was leaving very little room for flexibility in its efforts to collect information about international students.
"They are enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for their own employees, zero-tolerance for international students making mistakes, zero-tolerance for International Office staff members," he said.
"The good news is that we are in compliance, we have a good system, we are ahead of the game," he added.
Though the concept of SEVIS was in the works far before Sept. 11, Silver said the terrorist attacks "hastened that process and aided in the speedy creation" of the program.
Of the biographical information SEVIS can red flag, Silver said the student's native country might stir up concerns, and that certain fields of study, "nuclear physics, for example," would raise eyebrows and could draw an additional level of security attention to that individual.
In those instances, information would be referred to the FBI and the CIA, rather than to embassies and consular offices with which the International Office typically deals.
"The government is very serious about this, and consequently they're making sure we all play by the rules," Silver said.
While international students report little difference in their day-to-day lives at Dartmouth with the advent of SEVIS, traveling to school has proved to be a problem in many instances.
Country of origin, the traveler's sex and the prestige of the school he or she attends play roles in how much of a hassle customs agents give traveling international students, according to Ghani's experience.
"Being at Dartmouth really helps when I came back from break, the customs officer saw where I went to school and he didn't bother me about it," she said.
German native Dirk Blum '03 acknowledged that anyone without an American passport, including himself, was subject to search at a much more frequent rate, regardless of which educational institution he or she attends.
Students carrying passports from Middle Eastern countries have had more significant difficulties upon returning to the United States
Ghani said she knew of non-Dartmouth Pakistani students who had not been able to receive visas at all this year and the International Office reported that at least one member of the Class of 2006 was forced to defer to the Class of 2007 as a result of security problems.
New procedures invoked since Sept. 11 have raised ethical and privacy issues within the international community.
Particularly cited is the INS's Special Registration policy, in which visitors from particular countries to the United States with non-immigrant status, such as students, are required to register upon entry. Registration includes fingerprinting and being photographed.
Only students of a certain age from particular countries -- most of which are Muslim -- are required to register.
Though he does not have to register under current regulations, Ashnil Dixit '03, of India, says he does not doubt he will soon have to.
"I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of time when I'll have to register, and I'm not looking forward to that," Dixit said.
"They should stop harassing us," said Bwana. Other students said they understood the new stringent policies.
"I see them as positives, they're not making my life any harder than it was before," said Blum, though he acknowledged as a European, he has not received as much scrutiny.
While the overwhelming majority of international students have had little serious difficulty re-entering the United States after vacations, Silver said without their compliance with the SEVIS program, that could change.
"We're hoping our international students and scholars will take these changes seriously in order to protect themselves, and to protect other colleges -- to enable us to bring future generations of international students to the College," he said.
Silver said he could not put a value on the presence of an international population at Dartmouth.
"I think we all benefit greatly by rubbing elbows with people from other cultures, other countries, and our international population benefits too, from the opportunity to have a first-class U.S. education and experience," he said.
International students should monitor the Office's Blitz bulletins in order to keep up with new requirements, Silver added.
