AWISA Minutes

Winter Quarter 2006

City University, Bellevue campus

February 3, 2006

Meeting began at 9:00am with a welcome by Melissa Mecham, Vice-President of Admissions and Student Services. 70 attendees signed in.

Address by Betsy Abts, Director of Admissions & Registration/Registrar at North Seattle Community College.Presented current effort to form a Washington group of registrars and admissions officers. Currently there are several smaller subgroups, including ARC, ICORA and PROW. ARC (formerly WACRAO) is the Admissions and Registration Council, comprised of representatives from WA 2-year community and technical colleges. ICORA is made up of WA public baccalaureate institutions, and PROW covers WA private 4-year institutions. The goal is a group that unifies public 2- and 4-year institutions and private 4-year institutions, possibly as a statewide subsidiary of AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers), possibly to be called WAACRAO (to avoid confusion with Wisconsin’s WACRAO). Collaboration with other WA groups, like AWISA, will be beneficial in terms of better communication and understanding federal and state laws and issues applicable to both groups, such as House Bill 1079, FERPA, student database systems, etc.

Sessions

Session A: Conversation with an Attorney

Presenter: Machelle Allman, Highline Community College

Machelle presented concepts from the legal profession that could be useful to advisers. Concepts covered: Brightline Rule—a way of doing things; this saves time and ensures consistency when similar situations arise in the future. Remedy—some kind of compensation for a wrong done to someone. Notice—in the legal profession, if one submits information and there is no response within 10 days, it becomes true. Due Diligence—making an effort, to the best of one’s ability, to follow through on a situation, handling it appropriately and accurately. Full disclosure—Lawyers assistance is based on the information given. A favorite phrase is, “Based on what you’ve told me. . . .” Representation—An attorney will not speak to someone represented by someone else, unless about a completely separate issue. This should apply when advising students who have hired an attorney. Liability—attorneys are licensed individually and are individually liable, therefore open to malpractice suits or criminal charges. Advisors derive authority from the institution and are not liable, except for the I-20 signature, for activity normally related to the job. It was noted that advising on the law is not prohibited, but representation without a license is.

Session B: Activities Database

Presenter: Martha Koch, Green River Community College

The Student Activities Database, which tracks international students’ involvement in campus activities, was developed in response to the question of whether there’s a connection between student involvement and retention. It has proved useful for reference letters, transfer and scholarship applications, tracking of student leadership and participation, and marketing. It helps Martha, as a Student Activities Advisor, better plan for events and activities. Data is collected from activity sign-up sheets. Martha spends about thirteen hours per week on the database on regular days and forty hours during break. The database is funded by GRCC’s International Program, is supported by their IT Department, and is managed through Access. The question of legality arose, and Martha replied that the data is for internal use only. The data is not distributed, but is not hidden if students need it. Upcoming plans include collecting statistics about the correlation of activities and GPA, percentage attendance by year quarter, and student activity profile by schools they transferred into.

Session C: Change of Status

Presenters: Chanya Allen, Seattle Central Community College and Peggy Setoguchi,

Lake Washington Technical College

There are many challenges associated with change of status applications, and this presentation gave an overview of some of theproblematic factors. One problem is SEVIS glitches. A common issue is that the SEVIS record continues to show “COS pending,” even after is has been approved, in which case I-20s do not print with the “continued attendance” notation. Interagency communication/database interface issues also arise, as with CLAIMS not updating the SEVIS record. Training issues at the Service Centers can be problematic. It is common for adjudicators to move frequently between “lines” of application categories, and the learning curve for understanding all the different types of applications can cause errors and inefficient adjudication. Security checks, which may require interfaces between systems and databases including IBIS Interagency Border Inspection System, NAILS National Automated Immigration Lookout System, INDENT Automated Biometric Indenfication System, IAFIS Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, and FBI namecheckscan slow the process. USCIS challenges included the use of specific forms vs. national automated systems, no comprehensive record control and the unfortunate statistical fact of high error rates: 8% for I-765 applications, for example. Also discussed was the need to defer the start date on COS to F-1 applications not approved by the start of the quarter.

Session D: Systems Roundtable

Presenters: Sally Sprenger, University of Puget Sound

The discussion began with each participant introducing himself/herself and giving background about their work, number of staff in their office, and number of currently registered international students. Questions were presented, with suggested answers from the group.

Question 1: What do you do when students don’t contact you? Responses: go to their class and see them personally; contact them by cell phones, directly or through friends—“students’ network;” put a hold on their transcript or make use of other institutional control.

Question 2: How do you manage your emails? Responses: time management (8-9 desk time, 9-5 students, 1-2 drop-ins); clear them up right away to avoid accumulation; make use of Outlook meeting function; make it a policy to just see the person if you’re writing emails for 2 times or more; if you don’t need to be copy furnished, let the source know so you name will be deleted from “cc” list; color-code your email.

Question 3: What to do when students get so many emails from school they disregard them?

Responses: GRCC has put up a sign-sheet in their lunch area to find out the students who do and don’t want to receive school emails; encourage students to just read international student website for updates and important information rather than sending emails; tag emails “Immigration;” GRCC puts a flag in their database for returned email and labels them “bad email;” GRCC gives away prizes for students who return their emails.

Business Meeting:

  • Fall quarter minutes were approved without change. Motion to approve by Kelley Osmanbhoy, seconded by George Moore.
  • Treasurer’s Report: Current balance of $2,515.07. $750 in dues received so far. $250 returned for Best of AWISA that was unable to be used.
  • Membership Roster: Discussion and agreement to distribute membership contact list to AWISA members. Leana will email updated list with minutes.
  • Next meeting:

Spring: Friday, April 28th, Western Washington University

Announcements: Welcome to all the new attendees!

Adviser to Adviser:

  • George Moore gave an update about the training conference call for SEVIS release 5.1. Confirmed that it was basically a reading of the slides with little supplementary information. Emphasized that the 15 day period beyond the program end date during which a PDSO can extend the program is not a grace period, but an opportunity to correct a late error on the part of the DSO. It is not a regulatory change, and the student must still apply on time for the extension. PDSOs also have 15 days to fix an erroneously cancelled record back to initial status, along with various other correction capabilities.As with a data fix, the reason for the correction must be documented and the documentation must be kept for one year beyond the program completion. Sabine from City U. remarked that she has not had luck with the new transfer option, which should allow a PDSO to transfer a Transfer-In record in Initial Status.

See for complete training slides.

  • Kelley Osmanbhoy, CIPP’RR, announced that CIPP’RRs are now called Regulatory Ombudsmen, or Regulatory Ombuds for short.
  • Reminder about the recent Department of State cable that clarified consular practice regarding student visa validity after a break in studies. While some consulates in Korea and Japan have already been following this guidance, it is now uniform among all consulates. Basically after a break in studies longer than five months a student’s visa, even if it has not expired, is no longer consider valid. The specific examples cited are: (1) a student in the U.S. who, after not transferring and beginning studies within the required 5-month period, applies for reinstatement and is denied and (2) a student who has left the U.S. and does not maintain registration/studies while abroad, consequently needing a new I-20 to return. For complete text see:
  • Kelley called for volunteers for projects to help the Regulatory Ombuds (ROs). Possible projects include compiling an updated mentor list and organizing regional training opportunities for those who can’t make it to Montreal. For more information, please contact Kelley at or Abe Schafermeyer at .
  • Transfer issues. SEVP is working on transfer FAQs and will post soon to ROs. For students on OPT who plan to transfer, the trigger that cancels the OPT is the transfer release date. This is different from previous guidance; it was addressed in a conference call and also the SEVP FAQ draft.
  • If an initial student wants to transfer, are they required to complete a term? No—not in the regulations.
  • SEVIS “OPT-pending” problem. Let Kelley know how many cases your school has for statistical purposes. A data fix will be required to correct the problem.