The deadline for international students to pay their insurance has been changed to Friday, due to protests from students who said the information they received did not clearly state they also had to pay for dependents.

Sixteen international students currently have their registration on hold because they have yet to pay their premiums, said David J. Lindstrom, assistant director of Ritenour Health Center.

Jim Lynch, director of the Office of International Students, said the office is doing everything it can to study each case individually to determine if the students legitimately didn't understand the requirements.

"Nobody here is trying to remove the students from Penn State," Lynch said. "But this is University policy that they didn't comply with."

The mandatory health insurance policy was implemented in 1990, but wasn't strictly enforced until this year, catching many international students off guard.

The policy is a major point of contention among international students, and many believe that the issue was a factor in last year's 6 percent decline in international student enrollment, said Abbas Aminmansour, the International Student Council representative to the Student Insurance Committee.

Aminmansour said he received letters from faculty members saying they would lose good assistants if the policy is enforced.

International students will protest the mandatory insurance and the waiver requirements at Thursday's Student Insurance Committee meeting, said Craig Millar, assistant vice president of student services and chairman of the insurance committee.

William Asbury, vice president of student services, and James Wagner, vice president of business and operations, will also attend the meeting, Millar said.