In response to the mounting effort to tighten national security, U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee recently introduced a bill that would change the way educational institutions such as Penn State track their international students.

The proposed legislation would subject students from certain countries to a background check prior to issuing student visas and would provide guidelines for a more efficient method of tracking those students.

Those countries, determined by the U.S. State Department as possible sponsors of terrorism, are Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said he could not tell how PSU would be impacted since it has not been finalized.

Whatever the result, the administration would comply with the law while remaining mindful of its obligation to students, Mahon added.

"The university will follow the law, and we will continue to be an institution that prides itself on sending many students overseas to study and that also welcomes students from many other countries to study here," Mahon said.

Since 1996, when a major immigration reform bill was signed into law, colleges and universities have been required to report information to the federal government about foreign students from the same countries that would be affected by this legislation.

The new bill would make the process more efficient by changing the paper records system to an electronic one.

"There is nothing new here, except the attention being focused on completion of the system by the original deadline of January 2003," said Jim Lynch, director of International Students and Scholars.

The original bill had problems that made the process difficult for students and administrators, Lynch said.

"The 1996 law mandated that the system would be funded by fees levied on international students and the various proposals about how to accomplish that are cumbersome, inefficient and non-user-friendly," he added.

Since the legislation has yet to be approved, whether or not students will have a harder time getting student visas is difficult to say, he said.

According to a study by the Institute of International Education, those countries affected by the 1996 legislation have shown a drop in foreign student enrollment.

"No one really knows until it goes into effect, but it certainly will mean that the process will be slower by three or four weeks or more, and applicants will have to start earlier in order to obtain a visa to come to the U.S. for the desired semester," Lynch said.

The restrictions that exist deal with limitations on what fields these students can study and increased security checks, he said.

"To the degree that we can, we have prepared to deal with each of these eventualities," he said. "We're working with the Registrar and the Office of Administrative Systems to be prepared for the tracking system when it is implemented," Lynch added.

Mahon said he is confident the new bill will bring about positive change.

"Our lawmakers and law enforcement agencies have the difficult task of making good, reasonable decisions to protect the country but that do not hurt the innocent," Mahon said. "I think we recognize that is not going to be easy to do in a world where people fly planes into buildings."