Schools question plan to limit foreigners' access to equipment

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- Universities and scientists are protesting Bush administration moves to limit foreign students' access to research equipment that might be valuable to spies or terrorists.
Academics and scientists are scheduled to meet Friday at the National Academy of Sciences to discuss Commerce Department plans to write regulations governing use of the equipment. The rules could deny foreigners access to hardware involved in a broad array of research projects -- from microbiology to computer software.
University leaders say that moves by Commerce to impose business restrictions on universities are unworkable and will discourage foreign students from studying for graduate degrees at America's leading research universities. School officials say that new background checks required of students after of 9/11 should be sufficient to determine whether students are coming to the United States to learn or spy.
Enrollment
Foreign-student enrollment in the United States is already off more than 28 percent since the attacks, largely because of new visa requirements. There were more than 216,000 foreign students enrolled in graduate programs at American universities in the 2003-04 school year.
The Commerce Department announced in March that it was considering regulations that would forbid foreign students from having anything to do with the "operation, installation [including on-site installation], maintenance [checking], repair, overhaul and refurbishing" of machines that business is restricted from selling overseas.
The agency noted that Inspector General Johnnie Frazier said in a 2004 report that foreign academic researchers' using equipment in U.S. laboratories, or being involved in repairing it, could be considered a violation of export controls prohibiting the transfer of sensitive technology.