UMass levies discriminatory fee against international students

[Bill McBlueState]

Hi folks,

UMass has decided that, in order to pay for the government's SEVIS program, which is an Orwellian surveillance system for international students and faculty, they're going to charge international students $65 per semester starting in the spring. So they're basically being forced to pay for their own surveillance, as though it's some kind of service the university's offering them. :grr:

GEO, our union for graduate students, held a press conference today denouncing this decision. The best analogy I heard put forth was, when the university had to make itself ADA-compliant, nobody suggested levying a fee only on disabled students. So why should only international students pay for this government mandate?

Anyway, for more information, you can visit http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~geo. There's also a petition you can sign at http://www.petitiononline.com/survfee/petition.html , but only if you're local to the Pioneer Valley.

I hear places like U. Wisconsin fought this successfully. Anyone have any stories about similar experiences at other schools?