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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Professors As National Security Agents?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Part of the job of education lobbyists at the state capitol is fending off legislation their institutions find onerous, to put it nicely.
Last week, an interesting piece of potential public policy was filed that would force college professors to report any international students who miss too many lectures to federal homeland security agents. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Burke Day (R-Tybee Island), told my colleague Brian Feagans: “The idea is to use the university systems themselves as the keeper of passports… .”
The goal of Day’s bill is to force public and private institutions — including junior colleges, technical colleges and flight schools — to keep closer tabs on foreigners attending Georgia schools on student visas. State and federal funding could be withheld from institutions that fail to comply.
It’s still unclear how the Board of Regents, which already is cracking down on students who are illegal immigrants, and other institutions of higher learning will respond to the bill. But the idea raises a host of questions, not the least of which is: Even in an age of terrorism, should educators be used as an arm of the law?
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