The U.S. Department of Homeland Security might soon ask international students to pay an additional $100, in addition to visa fees, in order to add students to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

SEVIS is a computer database created to track all international students within the country and has been running since January.

A similar program to collect information from students existed in the past, said Bill Strassberger, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He said the major difference is that past files were on paper and often the government and universities did not have real-time information on students and were unable to determine their status quickly.

The Department of Homeland Security will soon announce regulations that will allow them to charge the fee to students, whereas it originally was covered by the universities or other sources.

Joyce Tolliver, University director of graduate studies and associate professor of Spanish, said she thinks the plan to ask students to finance the system that tracks them is insulting.

"Already the current tracking system is controversial," Tolliver said. "International students tend to resent the system in and of itself and now they are saying that all international students have the potential to be terrorists; it's not good PR."

Strassberger said the system was one of the first to counter terrorism because international students are admitted to the U.S. for an indefinite period of time.

"As long as they maintain their status as a full-time student, they can remain here," he said. "Other people are on specific time periods, like six months for tourists with their passports notating a date." He said until now, the government had no way of knowing whether students were maintaining their full-time status while in the country.

The system also allows schools to know which students have actually arrived on campus and which have not. This helps to ensure that people aren't using schools to enter the country, Strassberger said.

He said SEVIS was mandated in 1996 but was accelerated by the events of Sept. 11 because one of the hijackers was in the country on a student visa.

"The new system will allow us to have information on students coming to the United States to study, both academic and non-academic on a real-time basis," Strassberger said. "Many countries out there where foreign students go already have systems like this in place which, over all, are already more strict than the one we have in the U.S. So we're just catching up."

Tom Arkell, a lawyer from Bloomington who specializes in immigration law, said the $100 fee is unnecessary both as a business and educational component of higher education.

"Competition of foreign students between countries is already so fierce that the higher the fees and more barriers there are, the less likely they are going to come here (to study)," Arkell said.

Julie Misa, interim director of the Office of International Student Affairs, said in an e-mail that she is worried the fee will deter some students from studying in the United States.

Tolliver said the fee alone won't necessarily prevent students from studying here, but it doesn't help.  

International students who apply to Tolliver's department already must pay to take the TOEFL and the Test of Spoken English, in addition to the regular application fees.

"I do not look forward to informing potential international applicants that they will also have to pay an extra $100 to enable the U.S. government to set up a tracking registry of international students," Tolliver said.

Arkell said international students already pay three to four times the amount of tuition at state schools as other students. He said he thinks the additional fee will upset international students who already have limited budgets and are planning finances. He said the $100 has not been approved by the Department of Homeland Security and still has the potential to change between now and the Dec. 26 deadline.

Strassberger said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security does not expect the fee to deter students from studying in the United States as most students already have to pay at least $15,000 to $20,000 as well as many student fees.

"In some ways it is a small price to pay in order to come and study at some of the best schools and universities in the world," Strassberger said.