Panel looks at impact on CU of the Patriot Act

By Bill Steele

The USA Patriot Act, designed to fight terrorism, has created difficulties for international students, hampered some research, generated ethical conflicts and made extra work for Cornell administrators, according to a panel of campus leaders.

Susan Murphy, Cornell vice president for student and academic services, speaks during the discussion on "The Impact of the Patriot Act on Cornell," March 9 in the Biotechnology Building. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

As part of a March 9 educational session in the Biotechnology Building, sponsored by the University Computer Policy and Law Program (UCPL), a panel composed of Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services; Robert Richardson, vice provost for research; and Sarah Thomas, university librarian, discussed the impact of the law on Cornell. Tracy Mitrano, policy adviser to Cornell Information Technologies and director of the Computer Policy and Law Program, moderated the discussion.

As a result of the law's restrictions on international students, Murphy said, the proportion of applicants to Cornell from overseas has gone down, even while overall applications are up. Undergraduate applications from international students are down about 9 percent and graduate applications are down about 18 percent, she said. There will be "a very significant change in what our student population is going to look like," she said.

Students who do come face challenges just getting into the country, Murphy added. As one example, she reported that a group of new students from Malaysia was unable to get visas in the fall of 2002. Students who already are here may not find it easy to go home in case of emergency and then return. This could cause a "serious disruption," she said, for a faculty member working with a graduate student who goes home for what is expected to be two weeks and then isn't back four months later.

The Patriot Act also has created additional work for administrative staff, Murphy said. The university must not only track students, post-docs and international scholars, but also their dependents, and must know what students are doing in the additional year they are allowed to stay in the country after they graduate. "It has shifted the focus of staff rather considerably," she said.

The university has so far received no requests for information about students, she noted. If it does, she said, the policy would be to respond only upon presentation of a subpoena.

On a personal level, Murphy said, "We can no longer say to students, 'Don't worry, you're in the United States, you're not going to be harassed or taken away.'"

"The Patriot Act is not an unmitigated disaster," Richardson said. "A great deal of thought went into it. Even the parts that are problematical have good intentions. There are bad guys out there."

Along with the new law, he noted, the research establishment must deal with stricter enforcement of previous laws and regulations. Taken together, the rules add up to restrictions on the movement of people, the handling of materials and the transmission of ideas.

For example, Richardson pointed out, pathogens such as anthrax or West Nile virus have always been carefully controlled and kept under lock and key, but now the rooms in which they are kept must also be secured and equipped with video surveillance, and people from so-called "terrorist-sponsoring" nations are not permitted to enter these areas. Until recently, Richardson reported, 37 faculty members were engaged in research on such materials; now there are only two, mostly because of the additional expense.

"If the national strategy is to find a cure for these pathogens," Richardson said, "this is counterproductive."

Scientists and scholars from the "terrorist-sponsoring" nations also are restricted as to the talks they can hear and the courses they can take. "That is going to come up one day [in connection with a course], "Richardson said, "and we're going to say, if one person can't take the course, there will be no course."

It is also, he reported, a felony for a United States citizen to assist in the publication of works by one of these visitors, and "assistance" includes editing or setting in type -- a provision intended to prevent income from being sent back to those nations. As a result, Richardson said, if such a person speaks at a conference, it will be impossible to publish the proceedings, and "If you can't publish the conference proceedings, you can't have a conference." It will take the United States out of the game, he said, since conferences will be held in other countries. The American Institute of Physics is suing the government over these rules, he reported.

For Cornell University Library there are fewer regulations to deal with, but Thomas has found that requirements to reveal information about what materials library users check out are in conflict with privacy principles of the American Library Association. "We're not going to engage in civil disobedience," she said, but she reported that the library has reviewed its policies on access and record-keeping and has greatly simplified the latter, so that, in general, records will be kept only until books are returned.

Richardson noted that he has brought many of these problems to the attention of legislators, and he has found a sympathetic ear in central New York U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-23rd Dist.), chair of the House Science Committee.

"The legislature has been using a very dull instrument for some very fine issues," Richardson said. "There's some level at which the restraints are worth it, but the question is, are the restraints reasonable?"

Streaming video of the discussion is online at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/oit/UCPL.html.