The Brown & White

Mamour Ba just wants to finish his degree. The Senegalese Ph.D. candidate came to Lehigh in 2003 to study electrical engineering. But when Ba decided to visit family in Senegal three years later, he began to learn what many other international students at Lehigh have: the United States immigration and visa process can be difficult and inhospitable.

Ba wasn't allowed to return to the United States. Almost three years of haggling with the U.S. State Department finally produced a new visa, but it was revoked again before he could restart his studies at Lehigh.

"I was shocked," Ba wrote in an email from Senegal. "I was thinking that it was a joke." When Ba asked for a reason, the State Department referenced a section of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act called "terrorist activities."

"This accusation is not only a big mistake but also it is so insulting," Ba wrote.

International students began having difficulties with studying at Lehigh and other universities after the passage of the Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002. A response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the law imposes stricter requirements on international students trying to study in the U.S.

Despite layers of paperwork and seemingly arbitrary bureaucratic decisions that international students like Ba have to wade through just to be able to enter the U.S., the administration wants to increase international enrollment. The Global Lehigh Advisory Council Provost Mohamed El-Aasser created last spring recommended that more money and focus be put into attracting students from abroad. But there was no mention of the fact that the average international student has to spend months, even years, preparing documents.

"It's so restrictive, it makes it almost impossible," said Colin Webster, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Education. Webster, a Canadian, studied at Washington State and Utah State before 9/11. He lived abroad for 13 years, but realized when he returned to the U.S. to begin his Ph.D., "it is much harder to be a student here now."

"There are so many applications, you don't know what you're sending," he said. "Every time you think you're done, they ask for one more thing."

According the U.S. State Department's website, students must submit at least one Homeland Security document, more if they are from a "state sponsor of terrorism," two basic application forms, transcripts, diplomas, acceptance letters, evidence of financial security and some proof that they plan to return to their home country after graduation.

These stricter regulations are difficult for individual students to handle, but total international enrollment at Lehigh since 2000 has remained around 7.5 percent of the total population. Laura Severin, director of international recruitment, said unreleased enrollment statistics will show the international undergraduate population doubling from 2007 to 2008.

"There has been more emphasis on beefing up our efforts [in international recruitment]," Severin said.

While Lehigh's international undergraduate population was shrinking over the last eight years, other schools were increasing their enrollment. A May 2007 report from the Global Lehigh Advisory Council said, "Lehigh compares unfavorably with schools that lead the pack in internationalization when it comes to percentage of non-American students in the total undergraduate population."

The council has made it a goal to reverse the trend and start increasing the number of international students at Lehigh.

There is little Lehigh can do about the visa process, but the University can change the amount of financial aid going to international students who would not have come here otherwise. This is one of the issues that the Global Lehigh Advisory Council investigated in its report.

"We could have admitted a much larger percentage of international applicants if we had more financial aid to offer them," said the council's May 2007 report. In 2007, only 20% of accepted international students who did not receive financial aid ended up enrolling, compared to 56% who did receive aid. The council hopes to close this gap by providing more aid.

Action has been taken since the release of this recommendation. Severin said that the budget for international student financial aid has doubled since 2007. There was no specific gift or donor, she said. The administration saw international enrollment as a priority and therefore allocated more money to international financial aid.

This is encouraging towards achieving a larger population of international students on campus, but reallocation of existing funds will just create friction, said Rajan Menon, professor of international relations.

"We can't deny qualified American students," said Menon, who is also the chair of the Global Lehigh Advisory Council. Plus, he said, money is only one part of internationalizing Lehigh; changing the culture to give Lehigh an international feel is just as important. Appointing Mohamed El-Aasser as vice president of international affairs was a big step in integrating the numerous international "silos" around campus, Menon said.

Reallocating funds and appointing vice presidents is good for the university, but why do foreign students still consider Lehigh with all the potential problems and guaranteed paperwork that they face?

"Getting into a U.S. institution is a status symbol," said Gisela Nansteel, director of the international students and scholars office. Americans also benefit from having numerous countries represented on campus because they can learn other cultures, she said. To achieve this diversity, though, it takes a profound effort from international students just to make it to the U.S., Nansteel said. "It's a hard, hard, hard road," she said.

The bumpy road is more than a figurative expression for Mamour Ba. Since he is stuck in Senegal, he has taken to traveling the interior of the country, where internet access is so scarce that he can only respond to email every couple of weeks. He has been trying to drum up business for a small renewable energy company he started. The company aims to help Africans living in rural areas that don't have electricity by providing wind, biomass and solar power.

Ba always hoped to use his education to help his country, but he suspects that his activities are what hurt him. During the last two years he has travelled to Saudi Arabia, Morocco and at least three times to China to buy materials for his company. Although all the trips were business-related and he got visas for them, Ba thinks the State Department may have revoked his visa because these countries raise suspicion.

Despite this, Ba displays the optimism that keeps international students coming to Lehigh in the face of all the difficulties.

"I think that the U.S.A. is a great country where there is a sense of justice," Ba wrote. "This is a mistake and I am sure that one day this issue will be resolved."