New Rule Facilitates Internships for Foreign Students
source: AAAS Policy Alert -- July 02, 2008

A new State Department regulation [attached to this post, link provided below] that takes effect in late July will make it easier for U.S. colleges and universities to offer internships of up to 12 months to students who are foreign nationals enrolled in institutions outside of the U.S. The option has been available to American private sector companies since 2007. U.S. colleges and universities expect the new rule to encourage foreign institutions to reciprocate with internship opportunities for American students. Meanwhile, as George Will [link provided below] notes in a Washington Post op-ed, European countries are expediting recruitment of highly-skilled foreigners, including those who have obtained advanced degrees in the U.S. and are unable to get work visas here.

State Department Link:
http://www.info-aaas.org/util/link.jsp?e=2O_odGyng9kHXsR_lt2roFs...

Washington Post Link:
http://www.info-aaas.org/util/link.jsp?e=3HAdVkrSLcAEJ1VfAFh0qQB...

http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspicks/2008/05/us_declares_mit_...
Posted by Physics Today on May 13, 2008 11:13 AM

US declares MIT science grad students are security threats
The Tech: Eight MIT graduate students with student visas were denied a key credential by the Department of Homeland Security. After their department appealed the decisions on their behalf, the DHS declared at least two of the students “security threats.”

The troubles stem from a new homeland security program called the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, a plastic card which, like an MIT ID, contains personally identifying information and can be read wirelessly. Without the credential, the students will soon have a harder time boarding and leaving ships at U.S. ports, including the three research ships at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, where the students work.

The situation was well-known to WHOI, but it only came to MIT’s attention yesterday, when a German student forwarded to colleagues in the Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences Department a letter from the Department of Homeland Security. The letter said in part: “I have personally reviewed the Initial Determination of Threat Assessment, your reply, accompanying information, and all other information and materials available to the TSA. Based upon this review, I have determined that you pose a security threat and you do not meet the eligibility requirements to hold a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).” A British graduate student received a similar letter, said James A. Yoder, dean of WHOI.

Science 1 February 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5863, p. 556
DOI: 10.1126/science.319.5863.556b
News of the Week

NONPROLIFERATION:
Dutch Revise Policy Blocking Iranian Students
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

The Dutch government this week backed away from an antiterrorism policy that had led one university to reject applications from Iranian students and triggered a loud protest among academics. But researchers complain that the revised policy will still make it hard for Iranian scholars and students to study in the Netherlands, and they fear that such policies could spread throughout Europe.

The original policy was the government's attempt to implement a 2006 United Nations resolution that asks all nations to "prevent specialized teaching or training of Iranian nationals … [in] disciplines which would contribute to Iran's proliferation [of] sensitive nuclear activities and development of nuclear weapon delivery systems." Last fall, the Dutch education and foreign affairs ministers told all universities to exercise "vigilance" in admitting Iranian students. In December, the University of Twente in Enschede announced that it would no longer accept Iranian students because the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had asked for a guarantee that Iranians on campus would not gain any sensitive knowledge. Officials at the Eindhoven University of Technology said they would consult Dutch intelligence officials while considering Iranian applicants for admission.

Academics and students protested the new policy, calling it overly broad and discriminatory. Their objections were heard: This week, Twente officials said that INS has agreed to withdraw its demand for a guarantee and that the university would reopen its doors to Iranians. Robert Dekker, a foreign ministry spokesperson, says the government still intends to implement the U.N. resolution by barring Iranian students from admission to certain fields. (Students already enrolled face no such restrictions.) "The ministries and the universities are discussing which studies might fall under the resolution," Dekker told Science. The exclusion could include degree programs that are not directly related to nuclear technology but involve sensitive topics, he says.

Mehmet Aksit, a software engineering professor at Twente, wor ries that the revised policy could toughen an already restrictive visa policy toward Iranians. Although measures to stop nuclear proliferation are appropriate, Aksit says the Netherlands "should encourage intellectual exchanges with Iran."

http://www.english.uva.nl/news/news.cfm/697CA922-1321-B0BE-A416B...
http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article888392.ece/Veiligheid_oke,_m...

Robbert Dijkgraaf stands up for Iranian students
Published January 11, 2008

University Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf was cited in the NRC Handelsblad of 10 January 2008 in reference to the disquiet which has resulted from a request on the part of the Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs and Science to Dutch universities. The Ministry requested that the universities exercise vigilance and that they prevent that students from Iran in the Netherlands come in contact with nuclear technologies.

Dijkgraaf finds it important that foreign students keep coming to the Netherlands. ‘And Iranian students in particular. They have a fantastic tradition in mathematics and physics and a thriving culture. In addition, you need to make it possible for young people to come to the West and to escape a certain regime. They need to be able to acquire knowledge from our open scientific practice,' stated Dijkgraaf in the NRC. ‘Not every first-year student learns atomic secrets. Education and research on nuclear issues, and in particular on nuclear weapons, are separate in the Netherlands.'

See the attachment for the original NRC interview.

Radio Netherlands
February 04, 2008

By Ruben Temming

Iranian students are not welcome at the Technical University Twente in the town of Enschede. At the request of the Education Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the university has agreed not to admit any Iranian students. The government fears that Iranian students and workers would steal sensitive nuclear information to help their government develop nuclear weapons. The university's decision is the direct result of a 2006 UN resolution calling on member states to prevent Iran from gaining access to nuclear knowledge.

The UN has been concerned about the Iranian nuclear research programme for some time. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, says there is no evidence that Iran is developing its own nuclear weapon. However, at the same time Iran is accused of not providing sufficient information on its uranium enrichment programme.

The most recent US intelligence report on Iran also concludes that there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear arms programme, but it does accuse Iran of withholding information. Tehran insists that its enrichment programme is intended exclusively for domestic production of the fuel rods needed for a nuclear power plant currently under construction.

Psychology

Twente University is allowed to admit Iranian students on condition it guarantees they will not have access to nuclear information, a guarantee the university says it is unable to give. So far, three Iranian students have been refused. Iranians who want to study psychology would also be rejected. A spokesperson says students are free to wander around the campus, and 24/7 surveillance would be impossible. Iranian students already studying at Twente will be allowed to complete their studies.

Twente is the first technical university in the Netherlands to introduce such strict measures. The Delft Technical University says it first considers the subject that the applicant wants to study. In other words, Delft does not reject Iranian students on principle. The Eindhoven Technical University refuses to comment and refers all inquiries to the foreign affairs ministry.

Physics Today, June 2007
http://ptonline.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_60/iss_6/36_1...

Issues and Events: Chemical society reinstates ousted Iranian members

June 2007, page 36
Last December the American Chemical Society rescinded the memberships of 36 scientists in Iran and 1 in Sudan, claiming the move was necessary to adhere to US law. In mid-April the society applied to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for a license to provide membership services to scientists in countries under trade sanctions. Then, in a turnaround, ACS sent a letter in mid-May to the ousted scientists welcoming them back as members.

In a widely circulated letter dated 30 April, ACS executive director and CEO Madeleine Jacobs explains that lawyers reviewed OFAC regulations and consulted with OFAC before advising ACS that providing membership services to sanctioned countries violates US law. Surprisingly, Jacobs says she learned about the expulsions from a 30 March report in Science. "We had a serious breakdown in communications," she writes.

Some ACS members and members of other professional societies were upset that the Iranians were expelled and that Jacobs did not immediately reverse the decision. "A lot of people are getting a lot of letters and e-mails about this, from people in the US and outside," Zafra Lerman, chair of ACS's subcommittee on scientific freedom and human rights, said before the reversal was announced. They are asking, she added, why, if the government did not come to ACS, is ACS taking and standing by this preemptive action? Indeed, OFAC spokesperson Molly Millerwise said, "There hasn't been a new restriction announced by OFAC . . . [but] guidance can be open to interpretation."

Hamid Javadi, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and president of the Iranian-American Physicists Network Group, said, "We are worried that the action by ACS may force other scientific organizations to follow suit." Expelling people "is wrong," he added. "It dismisses the most scientifically educated, independent, critical thinking, and open-minded members of Iran as US OFAC tries to contain the Iranian government."

Other scientific organizations kept an eye on the matter. But Cecelia Jankowski, managing director of regional activities for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers—which was at the center of an earlier publishing battle with OFAC (see PHYSICS TODAY, May 2004, page 28)—said, "We have not seen anything new from OFAC related to membership activities in the past couple of years." Added American Physical Society associate executive officer Alan Chodos, "APS is not planning to do anything similar to what ACS did." Both IEEE and APS have members in Iran.

In her 30 April letter, it seemed Jacobs was not changing the ACS's course of action. But on 11 May, ACS reinstated the 14 ousted Iranian scientists who had been paid-up members. "To express our regret over the disruption of your membership, we are reinstating your ACS membership, and your ACS membership dues for the next 12 months are being paid for you," the society wrote to the former members. The other 22, and the scientist in Sudan, can renew their memberships.

The letter—which ACS officials declined to share, but which was disclosed to PHYSICS TODAY by another source—goes on to say that the reinstatement follows additional contact with OFAC "and our own rigorous review of federal requirements." As for the license application ACS submitted to OFAC, it's still pending, says Jacobs. She adds that ACS "is planning to work with the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific societies to get OFAC to clarify what is and isn't allowed in terms of scientific membership services."

"I can't believe it took so long," Lerman says. "But what ACS did is the right thing. And I am very happy with the solution."

Toni Feder

I (and supposedly many other who had written emails to ACS expressing their concerns regarding the expulsion of Iranian members) received the following letter from ACS a couple of days ago. It carries two main points with it:

1. That ACS will not be providing its members in sanctioned countries with two of the membership services (career development and subsidized attendance of ACS meetings)
2. ACS's future coordination with National Academies regarding scientific collaboration.

The PDF file was sent from ACS's president's email account and is password protected.

===============================================

[ACS Logo]
American Chemical Society
[ACS Address]

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Catherine T. Hunt
President-Elect, 2006
President, 2007
Immediate Past President, 2008

May 19, 2007

[Deleted Name]
[Deleted Address]

Dear [Deleted Name],

Thank you for your recent communication regarding the American Chemical Society's (ACS) action affecting its members residing in Iran. We have carefully reviewed all of the comments from concerned ACS members and others on this complex issue. In addition, our General Counsel and his staff have innitiated additional contacts with the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and have conducted a further legal review. We are pleased to inform you after considering all of these factors we have reinstated these chemists from Iran as ACS members.

The ACS will now be offering members in OFAC sanctioned countried our member benefits, with two main restrictions: these members will not have access to services relating to career development and they will not be able to register for ACS national meeting at discounted rates. As you may know, the ACS has for many years pursured policies to foster freedom of scientific exchange and collaboration. We are continuing our efforts, through an OFAC licensing application, to be able to provide these members with all ACS member services. In addition, we are coordinating with the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific societies on broader OFAC issues relating to scientific collaboration.

Again, thank you for your valuable input on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Caterine T. (Katie) Hunt

CTH:ds

ACS Vision: Improving People's Lives through the Transforming Power of Chemistry

The American Chemical Society -- with more than 160,000 members -- os the largest scientific society in the world. ACS is a nonprofit membership organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research.

After outcry, ACS restores members
36 Iranians and one Sudanese had been expelled

By Jonathan Zebrowski
Princetonian Senior Writer

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/05/16/news/18478....

In the wake of complaints from scientists worldwide, the American Chemical Society (ACS) announced Friday that it would reinstate chemists in Iran and Sudan whose memberships it had previously revoked on legal grounds.

The organization had initially barred 36 Iranian members and its one Sudanese member on the grounds that their membership violated U.S. trade sanctions on those countries. Of the Iranians, 22 did not receive membership renewal notices and the others, whose memberships were not up for renewal, were informed that their memberships had been terminated, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Monday.

But when ACS officials later consulted with the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees the enforcement of those sanctions, they decided to reverse the earlier decision, an ACS press release said.

After the expulsions took place, "the [ACS] board received a number of letters from concerned ACS members who wanted their Iranian colleagues reinstated," the press release added.

On campus, the news of the expulsions spread swiftly through the scientific community. An email, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Princetonian, circulated among academic departments, criticized the organization's move and asked recipients to contact ACS officials and lodge complaints.

"It is understandable that the ACS's board of directors would try to protect the society against the fines predicted by the sanction laws, but the way the ACS has managed the issue is not what other societies have done in the past," the email said, adding that "the common procedure among scientific organizations" has been to ignore the provisions of sanction laws while applying for an exception in the meantime.

"I think that barring foreign members or any members from a society like this is outrageous," chemistry department associate chair Michael Hecht said in late April. "We don't penalize people for the opinions of their governments. Scientific or academic organizations should know better than to do this."

According to the latest ACS statement, the association will now offer memberships in all sanctioned countries, though it won't provide career development services and discount registration fees to national meetings.

The members who were barred were sent an email Friday inviting them to rejoin, and their membership fees and annual postage will be paid by an anonymous donor, ACS executive director Madeleine Jacobs told the Chronicle.

The ACS has over 160,000 members worldwide and provides "a broad range of opportunities for peer interaction and career development, regardless of professional or scientific interests," according to the organization's website.

Chronicle's coverage of the ACS incident is by far the most complete version of the story I know of. I expect it to have some inaccuracies though. read below:
http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/05/2007051403n.htm

American Chemical Society, in Reversal, Reinstates 36 Iranian Members

By BURTON BOLLAG

The American Chemical Society announced on Friday that it had reversed an earlier decision to expel its members in Iran and will allow all 36 scientists in that country to rejoin. The group had earlier said that having such members put the society in violation of U.S. trade sanctions against Iran.

The decision to remove the Iranians drew protests from academics, especially from Iranians living in the United States.

But a statement placed on the society's Web site on Friday said that, after further reviewing its legal options and after consulting with the federal agency overseeing the trade sanctions, the society's Board of Directors had decided to reinstate the Iranians.

They will, however, be denied two benefits that other members receive: the group's career-development services, and reduced-price admission to the society's twice-yearly national meetings.

The society's one member in Sudan -- another country under U.S. trade sanctions -- had also been removed and was being invited back with the same restrictions. The society, which has 160,000 members and calls itself the world's biggest scientific association, would not disclose whether its members in Iran and Sudan work for academic institutions, government agencies, or industry.

The society's executive director, Madeleine Jacobs, said the original decision to remove the Iranians and the one Sudanese had been made by midlevel staff members without her knowledge or that of the society's board. She said no employee would be penalized for the action.

"We had a snafu, a breakdown of communications," Ms. Jacobs said in an interview. "We would not have rescinded membership if it had come to my attention." Although the expulsions were carried out in January, Ms. Jacobs said she and the society's other senior officials had learned of the move from an article in the journal Science only at the end of March.

Ms. Jacobs said the whole affair started almost a year ago, when the unidentified member in Sudan inquired about his or her eligibility for all membership benefits despite the U.S. trade laws barring American organizations from doing business with people in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan, among other countries. The society's assistant general counsel, identified in the Science article as David T. Smorodin, conducted a review of U.S. government regulations and determined that the society was prohibited from having members in countries under trade sanctions.

The society then had an outside lawyer contact the agency overseeing the sanctions, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, and, without identifying the chemical society, inquire about restrictions on foreign membership. That inquiry appeared to confirm Mr. Smorodin's conclusion, Ms. Jacobs said, and the midlevel decision was made to rescind membership for the 36 Iranians and one Sudanese.

The decision harked back to a 2003 controversy in which the Treasury Department said it was illegal for American research journals to edit papers from scientists in countries under U.S. trade sanctions -- a policy that was latter rescinded. Since then, the chemical society appears to have been the only scientific group to drop members in those countries, Ms. Jacobs said. But another group, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, cut off nearly all services to its Iranian members to comply with the trade embargo in 2002, leading all but a few hundred of its 1,700 Iranian members to quit (The Chronicle, October 17, 2003). Acting under guidance from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the institute was later able to reinstate most of those services.

Ms. Jacobs said it was understandable that staff members at the society would be concerned about compliance with the law because her group offers a wider range of services than do most scientific societies.

Still, when the chemical society's senior officials and board members learned about the decision, at the end of March, Ms. Jacobs said, they immediately arranged to meet with representatives of the Office of Foreign Assets Control. From those contacts, they concluded that the Iranians and Sudanese could be members if they were denied the two membership benefits from which they are now excluded.

The society has now applied to the Treasury Department office for a license to extend full membership to scientists in countries under trade sanctions. "We want to obey U.S. law while promoting scientific cooperation," said Ms. Jacobs.

The society said it had joined other scientific associations in working with the National Academy of Sciences to try to get clarification from the U.S. government about "what is and what isn't allowed" in terms of academic cooperation with scientists in embargoed countries, said Ms. Jacobs.

As for the Iranians, 22 had simply not been sent membership-renewal notices this spring. But the other 14 Iranians, whose memberships were not up for renewal, had received notices of expulsion. As a gesture to make up for the "personal distress and hardship" that step may have caused, Ms. Jacobs said, the $136 annual membership fee and the $58 annual postage fee for the society's magazine were being paid by an anonymous donor for one year.

Ms. Jacobs said the Iranians and Sudanese were all invited to rejoin in an e-mail message sent on Friday.

http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2007/May/Chemical/index.html

May 1, 2007

Dear Members of the American Chemical Society:

On behalf of the Iranian academic community and the Iranian American Professional Associations we are writing you to ask your assistance in reversing the unilateral decision of the Board of ACS to terminate the membership of chemists living in select countries, mainly in Iran, and mostly university professors.

We are Iranian Americans adhering to moral and ethical values. We would like to offer our strong support to our colleagues in Iran who need our help, not punishment motivated by irrelevant and unjustified intentions.

We believe that this decision is ill-conceived and misguided, without justification, and is gravely undermining the integrity of ACS as a prestigious scientific organization that we have collectively worked very hard to achieve. In this regard please note the following:

ACS decided to not renewthe membership of its Iranian members starting January 2007 without disclosing it to the public. ACS Members heard of this decision only when it was reported in the March 30, 2007, issue of the Science Magazine (1).
On April 9, ACS decided to go public, and at the same time file for an Exemption License with the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) (2). In its News Release of April 16, 2007, ACS actually makes reinstatement of these members conditional to the approval of its application by OFAC (3).
We believe that termination of Iranian membership was against the ACS Bylaws (4) that provides dismissal of members only for:
Sec. 3- Article 4:

“A member may be dropped from membership for nonpayment of dues or for conduct which in anywise tends to injure the SOCIETY or to affect adversely its reputation or which is contrary to or destructive of its objects. No member shall be dropped except after opportunity to be heard as provided in the Bylaws. (1/1/63)”

None of the reasons stated above apply to this mass termination case, and due process was most certainly violated by this ACS decision.

ACS asserts that the dismissal was according to the advice of lawyers, both in-house and external, and intended to follow the rules governing the Sanction Law and Iran Trade Restrictions. ACS further claims that this decision was at the advice of OFAC (5).
Berman Amendment to the Sanction Law excluded Information Exchange from this law, and OFAC actually recognized this in its November 3, 2003 ruling (6), in which it makes a statement in favor of professional membership:
“The prohibition in ITR § 560.204 on exports to Iran or the Government of Iran does not apply to the exportation to any country of information and informational materials. ITR, § 560.210(c)...

The extension of membership to and acceptance of annual dues from Iran in connection with receipt by Iran of the U.S. Entity’s association publications and information would not be prohibited by the ITR.”

If ACS has a ruling by OFAC that explicitly prohibits the membership of Iranian nationals in US professional organizations, then it has the duty to disclose such document to its members.
Paradoxically, no other professional organization has terminated its Iranian members.

ACS Executive Director and CEO, Ms. Madeleine Jacobs, even in this week’s C&EN (7), emphasizes that she was made aware by the lawyers that not dropping Iranian members would result in heavy fines of $500,000, up to 20 years jail sentence for key officers, and the danger that ACS would lose its tax-exempt status. This advice that was also given to IEEE in 2001 appears to us more like ‘scare tactic’ and is unfounded.
OFAC does not prohibit Information Exchange and Membership of nationals from Embargoed Countries in U. S. Professional Organizations, and to our knowledge it has never prosecuted or penalized any US professional organization, or its Board members, for violating US Laws by having Iranian members.

After having Iranian members for many years since passing of the Sanction Law, if ACS was still concerned about legality of having Iranian members, it could have applied for Exemption and exclude its Iranian members if its application was rejected by OFAC, and not use the ‘Shoot first, ask later!’ strategy. This sort of action is not expected from a scientific Organization that believes in its own Constitution and the ‘Universality of Science.’
Many US professional organizations have not even applied for Exemption license with OFAC to have Iranian members, because they believe that Sanction Law does not require them to do so.

Since the disclosure of the ACS decision many members of ACS and concerned members of other professional organizations have written to ACS and have expressed their dismay about the exclusion of Iranian members.

Please contact the President and Board members of ACS via secretary@acs.organd ask them to repeal this unjust decision and reinstate the Iranian members. Comments

With best regards,

Fredun Hojabri
Professor of Chemistry & former Academic Vice-President of Sharif (Aryamehr) University of Technology,
hojabri@aol.com

David Rahni
Professor of Chemistry, Pace University
Adjunct Professor of Dermatology, New York Medical College
Former Chair of the ACS New York,

Prof. Fazlollah Reza
President and Founder of Iranian Academic Association of North America
dr.freza@sympatico.ca

Fariba Aria, Ph. D. in Chemistry
President, Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA)
kimia@ix.netcom.com

Mohammad Behforouz, Professor of Chemistry
President, Shiraz University Association (SUA)
mbehforo@bsu.edu

Ali Banijamali, Ph. D. in Chemistry
Chair, Iranian Chemists' Association of the American Chemical Society (ICA-ACS),
banijamali@yahoo.com

Ali Akbari, Professor of Economics, California Lutheran University
President, Association of Professors and Scholars of Iranian Heritage (ASPIH)
akbari@clunet.edu

Hamid Javadi, Ph. D., Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Iranian-American Physicists (IrAP) Network Group
(c/o Hamid Javadi, IrAP Network Group President)
hamidhjavadi@sbcglobal.net)

References:

Science, Vol. 315, 30 March 2007, page 1777
Chemical & Engineering News, April 9, 2007, page 11
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/85/i17/8517news1.html
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/resources/ACS/ACSContent/bulleti...
Flint H. Lewis, ACS Secretary and General Counsel, Letter to Prof. D. Rahni
http://treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac
Chemical & Engineering News, April 23, page 9