...come and enrich our culture and learning," he says. "We are losing interaction with people that have different cultures and views."

Down. Southern Illinois University professor Bodapati’s class includes fewer foreign students. (Photo courtesy of Southern Illinois University Edwardswille/Bill Brisbon)

At Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, the 9% falloff in engineering student numbers has already hurt. Construction department chair S. Narayan Bodapati says he had to table a pre-9/11 summer student exchange program with a university in India as visas became hard to get. "In my case, more students are being denied. What will happen in the next 10 years? We are a country of immigrants," says the India native.

Welford says university letters on accepted students’ behalf to overseas consulates are "repeatedly rejected." He adds that U.S. demands for indicators that foreigners will return to home countries after graduation, such as a family or real estate ownership, are tough for students to show. Visas can be rejected or stalled for that reason alone, observers say.

Faculty are not immune. One program head noted difficulties even in hiring those already approved by Canada, if they are of Arab origin. Foreign faculty hires now require more lead time. "I can no longer make an offer in March or April for the fall," says Jim Nelson, civil engineering department chair at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. "Now we must have the hiring finished nine months in advance."

Appealing to Congress

Educators’ concerns over student visas hit Capitol Hill in October when deans of some of the largest U.S. research and technical colleges testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Martin C. Jischke, president of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., says the fall 2004 foreign student drop is its first in 30 years.

Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) admitted that "higher education functions as a major export commodity that improves our trade balance." He also acknowledged problems in new federal security-oriented features such as the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which tracks foreign students’ location and academic status to find bogus applications. Student visa applicants are charged $100 extra for SEVIS, which is not refunded even if the visa is rejected.

State Dept. officials counter that the worst of the student visa logjam is breaking up as they expedite clearances with more staff and better databases. The interagency "Visa Mantis" security clearance system, which focuses on applicants in technical fields, including engineering, became a mess after 9/11. "They used to do 1,000 of these a year. After 9/11, it jumped to 20,000," says NAFSA’s Johnson. "The consulates were picking everyone because they were afraid not to."

A revamped Mantis has helped, says Angela Aggelar, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs. She says 98% of these visa applicants are now processed within 30 days.

Aggelar says State is also getting a grip on overseas consulates, some notoriously inefficient. "We’ve asked them to put in expedited procedures," she says, adding that the department’s main Website now tracks visa wait times in consulates. "Visa delays are far less problematic than in the recent past," says Curt DeVere, the University of Washington’s international services office director.

The State Dept. is "working on moving students and scholars up to the front of the line," says NAFSA’s Johnson. "But it’s not a long-term solution." Deans who testified on Capitol Hill advocated stronger visa changes, but observers wonder if the department soon to be run by Bush confidante Condoleezza Rice will consider them.

School officials worry whether perceptions about the U.S. will be permanent. "If we appear to be uninterested, many other countries...are putting out the welcome mat," says University of Maryland President C.D. Mote. Barbara Shouse, international student-scholar director at Western Michigan, sees more global demand for engineering students on her own overseas marketing trips. "England and Australia subsidize their universities. I have to go around campus begging for money," she says. "Even Indian universities are going to the Middle East." Shouse added an extra foreign recruiting trip this year.

England Beckons

U.K. colleges and universities are benefiting from their government’s more relaxed approach to border controls, says Neil Kemp, marketing director for the London-based British Council, which promotes U.K. culture overseas. Among factors attracting students is "the global perception that the U.S. isn’t a nice, friendly place for foreign students any more," he says. "We had significant growth in the Mideast."

Manchester University, Manchester, saw its quota of engineering students sponsored by one large Middle Eastern corporation double because of U.S. visa problems, says Mike Gibbons, deputy director of its international division. "[U.S. schools] couldn’t even get [some] returning students back in," he says.

As an extra motivation, Manchester provides cultural amenities for Arab students. "We have halal food, single-sex accommodations and, essentially, a mosque," says Gibbons.