Many thanks to Ulla Bunz for the links for submitting comments/opinions to US Department of Commerce. This issue is being discussed in Slashdot.org with some interesting comments. [http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/20/1825232&from=rss] The following comment from a fellow graduate student at a US university sums up foreign students' dilemmas to some degree. The last sentence is specially noteworthy: "If you keep driving smart people away like this, you will end up with none of the valuable knowledge you are trying to protect." [From Slashdot] http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=150204&threshold=1&commentsort=0... "I am a foreign graduate student in a US university, and I am seriously disturbed by the increasing restrictions on foreigners doing research in the US. First it was the visa problem that caused a vast drop of foreign graduate applications. Then they cut research fundings for fundamental sicence and prevented non-citizens from participating in DARPA funded research. Now we have this ridiculous license joke. US is at the forefront of scientific research because they were able to attract the smartest minds from all over the world, but it has come to a point that even I am seriously considering alternatives after graduating, and I am sure I am not alone in thinking about leaving. If you keep driving smart people away like this, you will end up with none of the valuable knowledge you are trying to protect." --- air-l-aoir.org-request@listserv.aoir.org wrote: Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 09:47:00 -0400 From: "Ulla Bunz" <bunz@scils.rutgers.edu> Subject: RE: [Air-l] Immigration, education, and "big brother" [was: Student of Concern ] To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2005-05-18/news/feature.html?src=default_rss Forcing students to get "export" permits for participation in certain university courses is just horrible! I've known for a while that there are so called "black listed" college majors. If you are either a student or a professor in any of these majors it is a lot more difficult for you to get a visa for the US. The list is long and you'd be surprised at all the seemingly innocuous majors that the US Department of Homeland Security considers threatening. I think Geography is on it, because you learn about GIS and global positioning systems, and Geology, because you learn about oil, etc. etc. A lot of international students have not been able to get student visas in the last year or so because immigration rules have become a lot stricter, even stricter than right after 9/11. I understand this is done to protect the United States from people who mean it harm. However, being an international person in the US, and being white, female, from a "friendly" Western country, and in a non-black listed major, I can't even imagine how bad it must be for people who are different from me, because even for me, who fits none of the "dangerous" categories (the article lists China, Cuba, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, and Syria as affected countries, but not Saudi Arabia), visa procedures have become even more invasive, slower, and sometimes, frankly, offensive. Apart from the fact that US universities make a lot of money off international students, requiring export visas of students just so that they can participate in regular class activities (like looking through a microscope!) is just horrible, horrible, horrible. I would like to encourage all of you to submit comments to the Department of Commerce - especially those who once replied to our AoIR survey they would not want to come to the US for a conference anymore because of the airport fingerprinting. The article doesn't explain how to go about sending comments or where. I searched the Department of Commerce website and found the original notice (from March 28, 2005) here: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-6057.htm Here is an excerpt on how to submit comments: <Quote> Follow the instructions for submitting comments. E-mail: scook@bis.doc.gov. Include ``RIN 0694-AD29'' in the subject line of the message. Fax: (202) 482-3355. Mail or Hand Delivery/Courier: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Regulatory Policy Division, 14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Room 2705, Washington, DC 20230, ATTN: RIN 0694-AD29. <Endquote> Here is the closing paragraph from the article referred to in the original message. I think it's pretty telling: Quote: While Gupta is already considering a new career path, [Rachel] Claus warns that rules like these have been dangerous in the past. "When the Third Reich was emerging, they said that only Germans of pure Aryan descent could attend German universities. Significant numbers of German scholars departed," she says. "That was detrimental for Germany, but was glorious for the U.S. "We got Einstein." http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2005-05-18/news/feature.html?src=default_rss Ulla ++++++ Miraj Khaled ============ techiemik@yahoo.com mindexplorer.blogspot.com Discover Yahoo! Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing and more. 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