life on campus

[Catherine Driscoll]

We are fairly regularly asked for information about international students 
which determine whether or not visas will be renewed or revoked, but at least 
it's generally academic -- are they passing or at least working (depends who 
you get on the other end). This always staggers me given that Australian 
students are often quite, um, blase about whether or not they're working. 
Asking central admin for information would be quite a different thing, even 
here, but I actually have no idea whether the govt has a right to contact 
information about international students. Probably. 

and, the article about 'no indoctrination'... presumably students can choose to 
withdraw from a course that doesn't suit them and take something else? In 
Australia I can imagine there being some furor over bias based on the fact that 
the government pays all Australian academics (except at BondU), and there are 
occasional rumblings, but it has never really come to head anywhere to my 
knowledge. Primarily, I expect, this is because a student can always choose 
another course, combined with the fact that most vulnerable courses are in H&SS 
where most students would not want to be identified as conservative or as 
unable to cope with contradictory political opinions. I very often have US 
students in my classes and while they are generally more conservative they seem 
just as aware that political opinions are voiced in H&SS subjects. Am I missing 
something?

Catherine

Quoting Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>:


> Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - November 26, 2002
> 
> Colleges Can Decide What to Tell FBI About Foreign Students, 
> Registrars' Group Says
> By MICHAEL ARNONE


> Web Site Lists Professors Who 'Indoctrinate' Students 
> By THOMAS BARTLETT