ISU officials said they are frustrated with bureaucratic red tape that is holding up the installation of a computer program that will track international students.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has mandated that the records of all international students, including the 2,572 at Iowa State, be tracked through an online computer system called Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). All universities must have the system in place by Jan. 30, 2003.

Pat Parker, assistant director of admissions, said she thinks the deadline is unrealistic.

“The government, because they haven’t been working with the university, doesn’t realize what they’re asking,” she said.

Parker said the INS originally said universities would have a year from Jan. 1, 2003, to get its systems together, but the new deadline allows only a month for part of the system.

Parker said the system could end up with less information than it started with if it isn’t tested before the operational due date.

“INS wants an easy and fast solution, but you can’t provide that in a limited amount of time,” Parker said.

Dennis Peterson, director of international educational services, said the final requirements for the system have not been released to the universities.

Iowa State has ordered the software that will be used to keep track of the required information, but it has not yet arrived because the regulations have not been released.

“We are expecting the software sometime by the middle of October,” Peterson said. “But it’s all speculation on our part.”

SEVIS is taking not only time, but also money and resources from the university. Parker said the computer system will cost somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000.

Peterson said the university will spend about $36,000 per year for technical help with the system, in addition to hardware costs. He said Iowa State will not receive reimbursement for operating costs from the government.

SEVIS is not a new concept.

Peterson said in the past when the INS wanted information on international students, it would call the university. Then the university would send it the information. With SEVIS in effect, the INS will be able to go online to find whatever information it wants to see.

He said the INS has not asked for any information about an ISU international student since 1994.

SEVIS was started nationally in February 1993 after the first bombing of the World Trade Center under the name CIPRIS.

“We were excited because INS and higher education were working together,” Parker said.

Peterson said a similar system to the one Iowa State will be using was tested in 22 southern states during a period of three years.

After the Oklahoma City bombing, the deadline for the system’s employment was pushed forward and higher education was no longer working with the INS.

Peterson said the system was to be implemented by 2005, but after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress passed the Patriot Act in October, moving the date to Jan. 30, 2003.

Parker said the Patriot Act was written with good intentions, but later deadlines would make using SEVIS on a regular basis easier.

“I understand the frustration [of the INS], and the need to feel safer, but cooler heads have to prevail,” she said.