All international students studying at American universities are to be tracked by a new system, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, according to a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization mandate.

The computerized system compiles information required of international students through numerous laws and regulations, including the U.S. Patriot Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and makes that information accessible from any computer connected to the Internet.

Through SEVIS, colleges and universities can quickly transfer information regarding foreign students’ academic activities, changes of address and other pertinent subjects to the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These agencies can also relay information to the academic institutions.

The Sept. 11 attacks brought to light the need for a better tracking system. Several of the hijackers in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon entered the country with student visas but never attended a university. SEVIS’ monitoring of students will help to ensure that people who enter the country under the auspices of university study actually do attend.

Costs for SEVIS, which include software updates and salaries for the staff who maintain the program, vary among different institutions and can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for those with no tracking system already in place.

Although Iowa State was well-prepared and spent only $24,000, bringing SEVIS online, future budget cuts could affect maintenance of the service. Given the high costs and looming budget woes for the public institutions, international students across the country should be prepared and willing to share the burden of the SEVIS implementation and operation.

A fee of $50 per semester for each international student attending, as was proposed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this past year, is reasonable and would do much to alleviate funding problems for this necessary system.

At Iowa State, a $50 fee collected from the 2,580 international students would bring in $129,000 per semester, which would be more than enough to operate SEVIS efficiently.

Passing the cost on to students is reasonable and precedented. Just as every U.S. citizen is assigned a Social Security Number at birth and pays through taxes for the privileges provided to them and the tracking of their activities through that number, so too should international students pay to be registered with SEVIS.