THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 13,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Voting
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tem because it still required students to vote at polling sites.
"If people don't care about Student Senate, then having an online voting system in place won't change that," she said.
Wachal said she expected voter turnout to increase significantly if the system expanded further next year to allow online voting from any computer.
This spring's polling sites have increased 150 percent with the addition of sites at computer labs in Learned and Summerfield halls, Brauer said.
Brauer and Kyle Johnson, engineering senators, have worked with the elections commission and Computing Services to monitor and develop the system. The group will continue to work out possible glitches before the online voting system is put to the real test by students.
"I was very impressed with the work that the elections commission has done with it," Bell said. "It's good to go for this year."
-Edited by Julie Jantzer
Visas
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cants are assumed to be intending immigrants until they are proved otherwise to the satisfaction of a consular officer," she said.
The ambiguity of the state department's language — Shannon would not elaborate on what constituted the "satisfaction of a consular officer" — has left international students befuddled and waiting.
"I went and applied for a visa, and they told me five weeks," said Raed al-Bilbissi, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, senior. "I thought it might be good, a nice excuse not to take summer school."
In the end, al-Bilbissi might have been better off with summer school. Like Dashti, al-Bilbissi left the Middle East for an opportunity at a different type of education.
"After five weeks had passed I went to Jeddah, and the woman at the consulate told me my visa was not ready. And then she just said 'next' without explanation."
After receiving a full-scholarship to attend school in the United States from the Saudi oil company Aramco, al-Bilbissi applied for and received a visa to attend school in the United States.
Raed al-Bilbissi
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, senior
Upon arriving in Kansas, al-Bilbissi had no plans of returning to Saudi Arabia before receiving his degree, but a family illness forced him to change his plans in May 2002.
Al-Bilbissi's decision to return home for the summer would prove fateful.
"After five weeks had passed I went to Jeddah, and the woman at the consulate told me my visa was not ready," al-Bilbissi said. "And then she just said 'next' without explanation. I told her 'Wait, wait,' but she just said she would call."
Eventually Aramco told al-Bilbissi and others with visa troubles that they would have to work for the company because they were still being paid by the company.
Working long days in the sweltering factory, al-Bilbissi said he never lost hope. He simply grew more impatient.
"I was basically waiting for my life to start," he said. "I had my car, my apartment, my girlfriend, my life in Kansas."
It took five months and more wrangling at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, but al-Bilbissi was finally granted a visa. He considers himself lucky.
"I think that certain measures, if you work within the mandate, will point you to certain things. However, we're not trying to target anyone because of their race or religion. That's simply not the goal."
Kelly Shannon Representative in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs
"I think in my company there were 70 people who went back," al-Bilbissi said. "Only 17 have returned to school."
In attributing blame for their visa delays, both al-Bilbissi and Dashti said discrimination contributed to the wait.
Aracistpolicy?
"I believe the government's policy is racist," Dashti said. "It focuses on the Middle East."
Shannon said the State Department did not differentiate between races when asked about Middle Eastern students' longer than typical delays in the visa application process.
"I think that certain measures, if you work within the mandate,
will point you to certain things," she said. "However, we're not trying to target anyone because of their race or religion. That's simply not the goal."
Whether the policy is intentionally racist or not, the number of visa applications accepted from the al-Bilbissi and Dashti's home region has sharply declined since Sept. 11.
According to Shannon, the state department issued 11,823 F1 student visa applications from the what the State Department classifies as the Near East, which includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, during the period Jan.1,2001,to Aug.31, 2001.
In the same time period in 2002,4,764 applicants for F1 student visas were accepted,a 60 percent decrease from the previous year. Comparative data for a group of Western European countries, including Great Britain, Germany and Italy indicate Sept. 11 has not affected that region's F1 student visa issue rate nearly as much: There has been only a 13 percent drop in visa issues from this region since Sept. 11.
In the coming months, neither Dashti nor al-Bilbissi has plans to return to their home countries because they are afraid they won't be able to return. Al-Bilbissi said
Difficult Decision
"War-wise, or anymore pressure on me, if I feel like I'm under pressure. I'm going to go back home."
Ahmed Dashti
Al-ardhyah, Kuwait, sophomore
he would stay in the United States until he received his degree and then returned to Saudi Arabia to work for Aramco.
In the meantime, he said, he worries about friends who are in the same situation but haven't been able to come back to school vet.
For Dashti, another incident could persuade him to give up his dream of an American education once and for all.
"War-wise, or anymore pressure on me, if I feel like I'm under pressure. I'm going to go back home." Dashti said.
He's thought seriously about going home twice, he said, and he's already recommended to his 16-year-old sister that she not come to study in the United States, although she has U.S. citizenship and would not need to apply for a student visa.
"I don't want her to come here and have problems," Dashti said. "She's planning on staying home. She doesn't want to come here."
Edited by Todd Rapp
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