More than 100 student protesters lined up against the front of Bascom Hall late Tuesday afternoon opposing a fee beginning this fall for international students. The fee will be assessed to support the Student Exchange Visitor Information System, a new system created under the PATRIOT ACT to track international students in the United States.
Calling it a \surveillance tax,"" student protesters held a banner of signed petitions, affirming that at least 1,446 students and faculty members support the elimination of the fee or its redistribution among all students.
""This [fee] comes at the heels of an atmosphere of increased harassment for international students. This sends the wrong message to international students coming here,"" said Cesar Rodriguez, a UW-Madison graduate student from Colombia who participated in the protest.
Although many international students attended the demonstration, there was also a significant presence of American students.
Mike Quieto, president of the Teaching Assistants' Association, led the group of protesters as they sang ""Solidarity Forever"" and ""On Wisconsin"" and shouted chants demanding that ""these racist taxes have to go!""
""We put this [rally] together because this simply cannot stand. We cannot have such policies at the University of Wisconsin,"" Quieto said.
Thirty minutes after the rally commenced, protesters moved inside to participate in a listening session addressing concerns that the new fee is discriminatory. Representatives from International Student Services and student affairs administrators held the meeting after many voiced concern when ISS announced the implementation of the fee three weeks ago.
Many protesters said the passionate and personal nature of the issue contributed to the crowd's near-eruption as they relocated inside.
Dean of Students Luoluo Hong and Paul Barrows, vice chancellor of student affairs, cited the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Homeland Security Department's disorganization and unreasonable deadlines as culpable for the new fee.
""We're meeting with representatives from the Homeland Security Office and ... the Federal Government who are trying to implement this,"" Hong said. ""We're trying to ... say 'What is this about?' and trying to give them some sense of the impact that this is having on international students and scholars.""
This response, and others like it, failed to appease the audience who continued to demand change as they left the room.
