After more than a month of debate on the behalf of both the international and domestic student community and the administration, UW-Madison officials said May 7, the university will come up with $330,000 to pay the cost of the Student Exchange Visitor Information System for the next year.
SEVIS, which is mandated under the USA PATRIOT ACT, tracks the credits, majors and financial situations of international students. In April, UW-Madison administrators announced that foreign students would have to pay a $50 fee per semester for the fall and spring sessions, and $25 for summer courses in order to cover the costs of the tracking system.
More than 100 international and domestic students met on Bascom Hill April 29 to protest the SEVIS fee. Protesters called the fee a \surveillance tax"" and held up signed petitions with signatures of students and faculty members who wanted the fee eliminated or redistributed among all students.
According to Peter Spear, UW-Madison provost, international students felt that because SEVIS is part of the PATRIOT ACT, it meant they were perceived as a security risk.
""It implies this is surveillance to ensure that they are not and therefore they should not be asked to pay a fee for that. Furthermore, as a security matter, it benefits everyone and therefore everyone should contribute to paying the fee,"" he said. ""That's what I hear as the student concerns.""
As more UW-Madison students and faculty members began to oppose the fee, Ald. Austin King, District 8 and a UW-Madison senior, proposed a Madison City Council resolution to denounce the fee. The council voted 11-2, May 6 against the fee.
""This is a very important civil rights issue inside the city and if we stood idly by and our silence condoned it, that would have been wrong,"" he said.
The meeting became heated as both international and domestic students confronted UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, who represented the administration and their budget concerns.
Wiley explained that the university saw no other alternative to the fee than to charge international students to cover the costs, citing UW-Madison's budget dilemma.
""The council is insulting the university by saying that they care more about our international students than we do, understand our budget more than we do, know what's best all the way around and were elected by voters of Madison to take decisions on issues like this. Frankly, I don't think they were,"" he said.
A day after the meeting, UW-Madison officials announced they would fund the $330,000 using an anonymous gift given to the university for this specific cause and through donations from students, faculty and alumni.
While this only covers the cost of fee for next year, Spear said a committee is currently working on evaluating all the possible options for covering the cost in the future.
Spear said the student and faculty opposition to the fee played a major role in the university's decision to pay the fee.
""I think it is fair to say that the outpouring of concern that we heard from students, faculty and staff made us realize that this is something that people cared about and a lot of people felt that we should find other alternatives [to pay the fee],"" he said.
King said this incident shows just how much power the student body has in changing university policy.
""When students unite around an issue and take action, we can be a powerful lobbying force,"" he said. ""This was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of students and organizations and faculty members uniting with a common voice to say there was an injustice on our campus. If anything, it makes me excited for future victories.\
