To: All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff &
           All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students <everybody@illinois.edu> 
    From: "Chancellor Nancy Cantor" <chancellor@uiuc.edu>

Reply-To: chancellor@uiuc.edu
 Subject: MASSMAIL - Supporting International Students, Faculty & Staff

Dear Members of the Campus Community:

We have one of the largest enrollments of international students in the 
nation, 4,555 students among the 39,300 who registered last fall. These 
students, along with our international faculty and staff, are valued 
members of our community, contributing greatly to life on our campus.  

As you know, new Federal policies to promote national security have begun 
to affect the international members of our community.  I am writing to let 
you know how this is going and what we plan to do.

We have begun operating the internet-based record-keeping system called 
SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System), required by law 
of all colleges and universities.   

Ivor M. Emmanuel, director of the Office of International Student Affairs, 
and Carol Buss, director of the Office of International Faculty and Staff 
Affairs have worked closely with deans, program directors, department 
heads, and academic advisers to keep international students, faculty, and 
staff apprised of the new rules and ongoing requirements.  They and all 
the units that include them will need to be attentive to the demands of a 
newly intensified regulatory environment.

Earlier this year, the Federal government announced its fourth round of 
call-ins for international visitors to the United States. These now affect 
citizens of 25 nations. So far, 205 students and 20 faculty and staff from 
our campus have been called to register at the I.N.S. offices in Chicago. 
Staff members from the Office of International Student Affairs have 
accompanied some of the students. The Office of International Faculty and 
Staff Affairs has worked with the faculty and staff involved.   I am 
pleased by reports that these registrations have gone smoothly, without 
the difficulties so widely-reported elsewhere.

We are also consulting with other universities and scholarly organizations 
in an effort to assure that the new regulations arising from the 
government's legitimate concerns about security are approached in ways 
that are consistent with our academic mission and the individual rights of 
members of our community.  

We are concerned about a number of graduate students, faculty and staff 
who have found it difficult to return to the United States because they 
have been unable to obtain security clearances. Several Chinese students 
have been unable to return from China because of delays in the screening 
of students working in sensitive areas by the Interagency Panel on 
Advanced Science and Security, known as IPASS.  Others have encountered 
long delays in acquiring visas to study in the U.S. 

The Office of International Student Affairs now administers loan programs 
through which students may borrow small amounts for short periods of time 
in the event of an emergency.  There is a comparable Faculty-Staff 
Emergency Fund.  To these, as a demonstration of our concern and support, 
we have added an International Support Fund.   It will be administered by 
Earl D. Kellogg, Associate Provost for International Affairs, who will 
seek contributions from faculty and staff.  He will consult with an 
advisory committee in evaluating requests for legal or other emergency 
aid.     

When the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, accepted the Nobel 
Peace Prize two months ago, he said:  "We have entered the third 
millennium through a gate of fire."  In the aftermath of September 11th, 
we face a new kind of insecurity that seems to know no boundaries of 
status or geography. 

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is making every effort to 
insure the safety of members of our community.  We are working hard to 
fulfill our responsibilities to the Federal government in its effort to 
prevent any abuse of international visas.

We must work equally hard to insure that our university is a place of 
openness, empathy, and intense dialogue.  Our success as an institution 
that is focused on learning and research demands an academic environment 
attractive to, and receptive to, excellent students, faculty, and staff 
from all over the world. 

We are preparing future citizens who will find themselves in a world that 
is both increasingly diverse and yet fearfully inclined to polarization 
over that diversity.  Society counts on higher education as a proving 
ground for inter-group relations, for living with and learning from 
difference.  

Our international faculty, staff, and students are part of the solution to 
terrorism - not part of the problem. I hope you will join with me in 
expressing to them your friendship, your concern, and your continuing 
support.  

Nancy Cantor
Chancellor

This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

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