Guy Reschenthaler, Wire Service Editor
The Behrend Beacon
Universities brace for tougher
controls on foreign students
by Jody A. Benjamin
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - When he came to the
United States on a student visa four years ago, Span
ish citizen Jose Antonio Canas knew there were strings
attached. He couldn't work off-campus. He had to pay
top tuition of $25,000 a year. And of course, once he
had the degree, he'd have to leave.
No problem, said Canas, 22, now a senior at Florida
International University hoping to graduate in Decem
ber with a degree in international business.
But with student visas coming under intense scru
tiny by legislators, Canas hopes it's not foreign stu
dents like him who suffer.
"I don't mind them making stronger rules on visas,
as long as I still have a chance," said Canas, who lived
in Africa and Central America before coming to
Florida. "I'm more concerned about the backlash in
society. I don't want that to burden me or anybody
like me."
President Bush last week said the United States will
tighten its policies for issuing student visas and begin
to monitor foreign students more closely while they
are in the United States. Officials have said that at least
two of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 at
tacks had overstayed their student visas.
A task force Bush ordered to come up with a plan
has yet to be formed, let alone decide exactly what
changes they will make to beef up student visa regula
tions.
But one focus is sure to be revving up an Internet
based data collection system that will help INS track
foreign students by giving it student information up
dated on a quarterly basis.
"It's something that needs to happen," said Teresa
de la Guardia, director of the University of Miami In
ternational Students and Scholars Service Office. "It
will be a lot easier for that information to be in a data
base."
After a foreign student was implicated in the 1993
bombing of the World Trade Center, Congress ordered
the Immigration and Naturalization Service to estab
lish the program, but implementation has been slow.
Legislators gave INS until January 2003 to do it.
Last week, in the wake of the second and much more
devastating attack on the World Trade Center, Con
gress slipped INS $36.8 million in the anti-terrorism
measure to make sure it happens, said INS spokesman
Bill Strassberger.
eed for safety creates hot new career tracks in security
by Michele Himmelberg
The Orange County Register
One of the few places workers might be able to find
job security these days is in the field of security.
The terrorist attacks that shattered the nation's sense
of safety on Sept. I I appear to have made security a hot
career, with heightened awareness of the need for physi
cal and information security. A week after the terrorist
attacks, recruiter Lisa Roberts could barely catch her
breath between applicants lined up at a job fair booth for
the Immigration and Naturalization Service. She talked
to candidates about openings for immigration inspector
and border patrol agents, officers charged with ensuring
that only authorized people enter the country.
"We've had more interest today than we've had in the
last six months, — Roberts said. "People are saying, 'What
can I do to protect my country?"
That surge of patriotism, coupled with layoffs in other
industries, drew Kelly Lewis, 23, to the INS table. She
and two friends who work in sales in Orange County,
Calif., liked the heroic aspect as well as the career op-
portunity.
"Security has to be a growth area," Lewis said. "There's
a lot more awareness about the vulnerability of the coun
try. That means security is going to be something impor
tant, something that has value."
In the days after the World Trade Center was destroyed
and the Pentagon damaged, physical security increased
everywhere, with extra precautions at airports, court
houses and office towers. Many companies reviewed
safety plans and increased their security staffs.
Already, private security officers outnumber public law
enforcement 2.5 to 1, according to the National Associa
tion of Security Companies, in Memphis, Tenn.
Ken Jacobs, president of JMG Security Systems in
Fountain Valley, Calif., got so busy last month that he
posted 10 job openings to help serve customers seeking
alarm systems, surveillance equipment and access con
trol systems.
"We're extremely busy, with lots of renewed interest
in projects that were only under consideration before,"
Jacobs said. "And in light of everyone's mood today, we
don't anticipate a slowdown."
American business also went into high alert to protect
the lifeblood of their companies: information. As tragic
as the attacks were, a widespread computer virus could
be more financially devastating in terms of lost data and
recovery time, said Bernie Cowans, director of security
consulting for Spectria, the consulting arm of Rainbow
Technologies.
"A concerted cyberterrorist attack could have far-reach
ing effects,"' he said. "Just look at how many hours it
took to recover from the latest worm (NIMDA).'"
The database will include the student's current ad
dress, visa classification, full- or part-time status, and
whether school records indicate the student has been
convicted of a crime
Information collected in the database won't be pub
lic but will be accessible by the INS, the State and
Education departments, and possibly other law en
forcement, Strassberger said.
That's a big change from the current system.
Now schools rarely report even basic enrollment in
formation to the INS. "(It happens) usually only when
they ask us about a particular student," de la Guardia
said.
Under the new system, schools will be required to
report student information to INS. Students will pay a
one-time $95 fee to INS to defray the costs.
At the University of Miami, 1,500 students, a little
less than 10 percent of those on campus, are interna
tional students studying on temporary visas, de la
Guardia said. The largest number hail from China, 130
students, and Colombia, 120 students. Both Florida
International University and Florida Atlantic Univer
sity report similar percentages.
Student advisers said the overall system could use
tightening.
"The university is all out for diversity, and we do
encourage it, but we do need some guidelines in place,"
said Ingrid Jones, acting director of the International
Students and Scholar Services Department at Florida
Atlantic University in Boca Raton. "I think it's too
loose now."
One weakness in the system, Jones said, is the com
mon student practice of applying to several schools at
once. Such applicants receive several copies of the I
-20 form, the first step needed toward obtaining a valid
"For those that don't enroll, we ask that the 1-20 be
returned, but of course we don't get them back," Jones
said.
The new program will fix that by automatically can
celing unused I-20s, Strassberger said.
Canas applied for his visa from Guatemala, where
he was living. Normally, applicants stand in long lines
around the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City to apply
for visas. But Canas said a family connection helped
him get his visa faster.
"It wasn't corruption or anything like that," he said.
"If I didn't qualify for it they wouldn't have given it
to me. That's just the way things are done in Guate
mala."
Last year, the worldwide market for information secu
rity services grew to approximately $6.7 billion, and it's
projected to more than triple to $2l billion by 2005, re
ports IDC, a technology intelligence company in
Framingham, Mass.
The Computer Security Institute reports that 64 per
cent of survey respondents said they suffered financial
losses due to computer breaches in the past 12 months.
Those kinds of figures are breeding more of a security
mentality, which was only heightened by the events of
Sept. 11. Looking ahead, Cowans said: "Companies re
alize security has to be somebody's job, otherwise it just
won't get done."
SSP Solutions, Inc., in Irvine, Calif., helps companies
protect their information in the cyberworld. Although SSP
is not hiring now, Vice President Bob Gray expects the
increased focus on security will help him create jobs,
from software engineers to specialists in biometrics, a
science that combines biology and data analysis. Gray
thinks the public will be more willing to embrace tech
nologies once cast off as invasive.
With that in mind, here are nine security-related jobs
that might ease the rising unemployment rate:
1. Chief security officer: Many firms added a CIO
(chief information officer) or CLO (chief learning of
ficer) in the '9os, but the hot new title this decade could
be CSO, chief security officer. While "CSO" might be
used only at big corporations, the duties will belong to
someone in almost every company: Create a compre
hensive security policy, implement it and enforce it.
2. Data security: In the technology arena, service pro
viders help companies evaluate the security of their in
formation systems data, e-mail, Web sites, etc. They also
are responsible for virus detection. Job titles include data
security manger, systems engineer and information se
curity analyst. Skills required usually include knowledge
of hardware platforms; good organization and an under
standing of the industry's business and legal issues. Gray,
with SSP, says most of his hires don't have a security
background.
Instead, they're good computer programmers, self
starters and imaginative problem-solvers. "It's more of
an attitude I look for; someone who's willing to dig in
and create better ways of doing things," Gray said. "In
evolving technologies, you don't always have nice, neat
specifications to work from."'
Another job with growth potential is security techni
cal consultant, someone who can help companies select
the products they need to secure their information.
Technical training and related experience will provide
an edge over other candidates in data security, said Amy
Kessler, vice president for North American operations at
GROUP Software, an e-mail and content security com
pany in Boston. Salaries for security professionals aver-
IND
i g#,
I LA INE
Friday November 9, 2001
p Y
Initructors use creative techniques to allow students
to express themselves after attacks
by Christine Schweickert
Knight Ridder Newspapers
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Bruce Fryer used an exercise on
the subjunctive mood to have his Spanish 211 students
express their reactions to "the horrors of the day." Susan
Haigler-Robles worked with dancers and musicians to
show their feelings without words. And Pat Wolman ex
plained to nutrition students how hunger could ignite ter
rorism.
The teachers are at different colleges - USC, Columbia
College and Winthrop. But all have grabbed in the last
six weeks what educators call "a teachable moment," the
twin tragedies of the World Trade Center and Pentagon
bombings, and the anthrax mail scare.
As a result, students have gained not just knowledge
but an idea of how to become better thinkers and citi
zens.
"I've felt more personally informed because of what
I've discussed in class," said Matthew Fluyser, a fresh
man at Clemson University who has discussed the events
in English and history classes. "I appreciate any class
that is willing to alter its curriculum to accommodate
world events and, in the process, offer an even more ben
eficial education."
Dan Berman is co-director of University 101, the Fresh
man Year Experience at USC, a series of seminar-like
classes that teach freshmen how to acclimate themselves
to college life.
University 101 cancelled events to allow students to
immerse themselves in the news, and changed the nature
of some classes to discuss the attacks.
"What 1 hear from our instructors and peer (student)
leaders is that they have had numerous, powerful and in
sightful class discussions on the issues of the day,"
Berman said. "The ironic positive side to what we are
dealing with is that the students who started college this
year will grow up or mature faster than any (other) group
in recent history."
Bridging the gap between past and current events is
logical for those who teach history or government, per
haps. But the events of Sept. 11 and beyond have showed
that almost every subject can be useful in teaching stu
dents to think.
In response to queries for this story, USC professors
Ramona Lagos and Margit Resch told how Spanish-
American and German literature on violence, war and
racial politics suddenly had more relevance.
Allan Lockyer, who teaches the geography of the
Middle East at Francis Marion University, said his stu
dents were paying "a lot more itentio6 to the subject
matter."
International affairs professor Chris Van Alley of
Winthrop said that "this year, I didn't have to jump up
and down quite as much to say This could happen to
aged $65,000 in 2000, reports the SANS Institute, an
association for information security professionals.
3. Linguist: The National Security Agency, in Fort
Meade, Md., advertises for a linguist specialist in Asian,
Middle Eastern and Slavic languages. It also looks for
cryptologists, someone who can write and decipher code.
The linguist ad, at www.intelligencecareers.com gives
this pitch: "You will he involved in activities that focus
on the expert translation. transcription, reporting, and
analysis of materials of national concern. You may also
be called upon to further your understanding of a culture
in which a certain language is spoken, expanding your
horizons more than a comparable career in business, com
merce, or academia normally would. In short, your lan
guage skills will make a world of difference here.-
4. National security specialist: This broad category in
cludes FBI agents, surveillance experts and foreign ser
vice workers. The latest push has been to develop more
scientists in this field.
In February, the U.S. Commission on National Secu
rity in the 21st Century proposed education grants for
math and hard science majors who could help develop
defense technologies. Scholarships also were proposed
for social science, humanities and foreign language stu
dents to counter the growing rate of attrition among for
eign service workers.
The commission recommended a national campaign
to "reinvigorate and enhance the prestige of service to
the nation," noting that foreign service no longer attracts
or retains the quality of people needed "to meet the dip
lomatic challenges of the 21st century."
5. Background investigator: Hireßight, an Irvine com
pany that helps employers screen potential workers, has
seen increased demand for its background checks. The
reseatch typically includes criminal record searches, em
ployment verification, Department of Motor Vehicle
records and personal reference checking. Lately, empha
sis has been placed on professional licenses, such as in
medicine, said Kim Gower, a spokeswoman for
Hireßight. Researchers need to be detailed, organized
and able to follow strict quality-control measures. CISCO
systems, which uses Hireßight's services, is implement
ing an international system, said Peggy Donatelli, pro
gram manager for CISCO's worldwide background in
vestigations.
"We had a great surge of interest in our background
program from managers around the country (after Sept.
11)," Donatelli said. "People are taking security issues a
lot more seriously."
6. Private security officer: Industry groups estimate
that between 1 million and 2 million security officers
work for private companies that contract them out to of
fice buildings, airports, conference centers, etc.
These officers patrol the premises, safeguard entry to
you"' when he taught about terrorism.
During her Sept. 12 marketing class at USC, Ellen
Moore guided her students through the topic "learning
and memory." She constructed a quick survey about the
events "to learn students' feelings about the tragedy (and)
show the significance of the event,"
"As a result," she said, "the camaraderie seems to be
greater among the students. Since the event, each lec
ture topic has in some way related to something about
the attacks, the terrorists, the people - from lifestyles to
attitudes to decision-making processes."
At Winthrop University, Wolman's senior seminar in
human nutrition has explored the links between hunger
and terrorism.
The students explored whether food drops were an ef
fective way to allay hunger, since they dropped only one
day's rations at a time over very rugged terrain. They
discussed the possibility of introducing anthrax into
America's food or water supply.
At Columbia College, history professor Tandy
McConnell undertook an exercise that will change his
teaching methods 20 years from now. He asked students
to write journal entries on their reactions to the tragedies,
plus "whom they called, who told them about it ... what
they had for breakfast even."
He will use these "frozen moments" to teach about
Sept. 11 in later classes "so that people not now alive
will have an immediate ... picture of what we were do
ing and how we felt in Columbia on a day in September
when, perhaps, everything changed."
Some professors have refused to stray far from their
syllabi and received thank•yous for preserving normalcy
or criticism for missing the moment.
"My plant form and functions (professor) felt the im
portance of the situation, and he just wanted us to talk,"
said Nikki Randle, a junior and biology major at USC.
"On the other hand, I had a physiology professor, and he
said, `We have to talk about muscles today."
USC finance pfofessor William Moore said his stu
dents expressed gratitude that he had "stayed the course."
But students also seem happy when professors stray.
Molly Dilbeck wasn't all that excited about Jim
Bradley's economics classes before the tragedies. A jun
ior and political science major at USC, she took the class
because she had to.
But after Sept. 11, Bradley "related it (the attack) to
economics, and gas prices. I've been a lot more informed
and a lot less afraid."
Clemson freshman Kelly McCarty is in Pam Mack's
History 122 class, which has discussed the effects of tech:
nology on society and:world events, She has praised the
discussions because they have "helped me become more
informed as a student and as a citizen (and) helped in
having better discussions with fellow students and fam
ily."
an area, write reports on security incidents and assist in
emergency situations. Most are unarmed (see
www.asisonline.org). In California, officers hired by se
curity agencies must be licensed, said Tom Devlin, a
spokesman for Allied Security in Orange. Allied already
has begun training officers to meet its increased demand.
At Allied, candidates who pass the background check
are provided with training and assistance in acquiring
their state guard card. Starting pay is $9 to $lO an hour.
plus benefits and advancement opportunities.
Some companies hire their own security staff.
Disneyland, for example, is hiring officers. They must
pass a background check. but they are not state-licensed,
a spokeswoman said. They're expected to have strong
communication skills and be able to stay on their feet
for long periods of time.
In the aftermath of Sept.ll, industry leaders have
called for better training and higher pay for private se
curity officers. Their median annual salary in 1998 was
$16,240, according to U.S. Department of Labor.
7. Police officer/sheriff: Most law enforcement agen
cies have been in a hiring mode for some time. They get
many applicants but few who can pass the stringent ap
plication process that includes a written test, a physical
agility test and thorough background check. Those who
make it can start at $25,000 to $49,000 a year in Califor
nia. Most agencies have Web sites with application in
formation.
8. INS agents: The INS is hiring border patrol agents
in the Southwest and immigration inspectors in San Di
ego and San Francisco. The application process begins
by registering for a written test.
Immigration inspectors prevent ineligible persons from
entering the country at airports, seaports and land ports.
Requirements include the following: enjoy meeting
people from around the world, have an analytical mind
and keen sense of detail. You must be a U.S. citizen.
Salary ranges from $24,000 to $36,000. You can ap
ply online at www.usajobs.opm.gov.
9. Security alarm and access technicians: Installation
technicians and trainers, service technicians, fire testers
and sales agents are among the vacancies listed at JMG
Security (www.jmgsecurity.com) in Fountain Valley, one
of several security alarm companies experiencing a boom
in business.
Installation and service technicians need an aptitude
for electronics and a willingness to learn, with most train
ing done on the job. Duties include installing electronic
systems in homes and businesses, with a starting pay
rate of about $lO an hour. More advanced work includes
closed-circuit television, camera surveillance in larger
buildings, card access and evacuation systems.
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