sruptions by foreigners irk Clements 1y FEED KING 40U STOti 'oat Reporter AU Z=. `,3 1981 Gov. Bill Clements, angered by a demonstration he aw here, is trying to reduce foreign students' disrtip- ions of campuses and communities by tightening en- ollment procedures. "If an American demonstrated like some of these demonstrate here) in the streets of Tehran, he'd robabli be shot the next day: (Foreign students) are ere forisscademic learning and should conduct them- elves ticcbrdingly. If theysion't, we should ask them ) leave," Cements, who is on vacation, said through xecutive assistant Hillary Doran. OFFICLU.S OF SOME Texas universities said most " the demonstrators who have angered Clements real- ' aren't students. Or, if the protesters are students, sisside agitators" have manipulated and controlled em. An Immigration and Naturalization Service official the facts of at least some cases indicate other. se. Most arrested are students, the INS official said. The utiversity officials also said few if any foreign udents would be affected by tightened enrollment .ocedures at their schools because they already were )ing their best to follow procedures that matai. 1.",. lements-inspired suggestions. No assessment wa.s available from Texas Southern niversity, hich might be most affected since it has , many foreign students. TSU issued a statement am Wayne Carle, its vice president for development, .at said a committee of faculty, students and admin- trators was being organized to study the request and .ake recorranendations to the university administra- !is A RECENT SURVEY showed TSU had the fourth .ghest number of foreign students in the nation dur- :4s the iSt79-80 school year and the second highest per- mtage, 30.3, of foreign students among its students. The same survey showed six Texas-supported hooLs amorg the top 50 nationally in number of for- Lgn students. Clements' effort appears to rely on the INS, whic• h too overloaded to do much more, university and INS ficials said. The spark igniting the effort occurred when Cie- lents saw a demonstration in which people identified s mostly TSU students were demonstrating, said Jars 'Ls Miller, a special assistant to Cements. Kenneth Ashworth, Texas' commissioner of higher Jucation, said Clements called him after the demon- :ration and was "very concerned about the bad nage higher education was getting" because of smonstrations by people identified as foreign stu- snts. ASHWORTH STRESSED Cements is not trying to 3rsecute foreign students. Clements believes there is .due to having some at state schools since Texas is ?coming more cosmopolitan, Ashworth said. With the authorization of former Gov. Preston mith, a Clements appointee who heads the Coordinat- .g Board, Texas College and University System, Ash- orth drafted a letter to the chairmen of governing sards of state colleges and universities. Smith said he approved the letter after it was read ) him over the telephone. The July 14 letter noted "a number of unpleasant ad regrettable incidents involving foreign students in cent years," some of which could not have been pre- snted by the schools. But, the letter continues, "it may at least be possi- le to avert similar incidents . . . by tightening the reening mechanisms in the admission and enroll- ..ent of foreign students. "GOVERNOR CLEMENTS and I have discussed le increasingly tense situation in Iran and other :iints around the world. We believe that there are 'venal measures that institutions can take to improve le odds against campus and community disruption v foreign students," Smith's letter said. The letter suggested the schools, "along with the sod procedures already in use," take these steps: ▪ Make each foreign student fully identify himself and present conclusive evidence he has sufficient financial resources to cover all obligations during his course of study before accepting him for enrollment 111 Determine the student's presence in the United States for study has been authorized by the INS and the authorization is current and fully documented. • Be certain the student's correct address is on file with the school and the INS and require the student to keep it current during school. III Report any change or breach of conditions which affects the student's status to the INS immediately. The steps, "largely the suggestions and recommen- dations of the governor," will allow colleges "to be sure foreign students who are here are legally here, to know where they are living and (know) they are here under a valid visa," Ashworth said. Two weeks after Smith's letter, Cements wrote Ernest Sterling, chairman of the board of regents'at TSU, promising help in getting a special appropriation for the school and listing a number of changes and re- ports he wanted. Cements wrote that he was "concerned about the inordinately high percentage of foreign students en- rolled in the pharmacy school" (38 percent) and the "high ratio. . thoughout the university. I believe It is necessary and appropriate for your institution to re- duce the percentage of foreign students . to a rfiore appropriate level as soon as possible." TSU PRESIDENT Leonard Spearman was out of town and unavailable for comment, but the 1981-82 budget outlined plans for attracting more Texas and U.S. students, thus reducing the percentage of foreign students. Officials working with foreign students at the University of Houston Central Campus, University-of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University said their policies match the suggestions. However, LTHCC and Texas Tech officials said they did not have the staff to check addresses. When a college reports to the INS a student who has dropped below the minimum course load without a valid reason, and thus is a candidate for deporta- tion, it is a long time before INS sends an investigator to hunt for him, said Paul O'Neill, Houston district director, said. How long? "Months anyway. We may never get to it," O'Neill said. "Why send. an investigator to Nacog- doches to get six when you don't even have to start the car and wrap up 50 (illegal aliens) here? Where the hell do you begin?" O'Neill said. Vern Jervis, public information officer at the INS' national headquarters, said most of the demonstrators arrested in cases the INS gets involved in ate students. C plans7960-man rison unit S Novg AUG4 2 '81 Associated Press PALESTINE, Texas — The Texas Department of Corrections will build a 960-man prison unit about 3 miles south of the Beto Unit in Anderson County, prison officials said Friday. TDC officials said they hope to have the unit ready for occupancy by October 1982. The Texas Legislature approved an emergency $35 million appropria- tion last spring to erect barracks- style housing at three sites. The de- partment's original request for new construction was $281 million. In addition to the Anderson County site, the department will build similar 960-man units in south- ern Grimes County and near Sugar- land, a Lufkin contractor said. Rick Nelson of N&J Construction Co. said his company submitted the low bid to supply the prefabricated metal buildings for the three sites. His contract with the TDC is for $4.8 million, Nelson said. However, the TDC has not selected a general contractor for pouring the building foundations and making road and fence improvements, Taylor said. The new units will be steel struc- tures with insulated wall inserts, Nel- son said. He described them as "to- tally self-contained" — complete with facilities for dining, laundry, medical, recreation and administra- tive functions. The emergency funding request came after U.S. Dist. Judge William Wayne Justice of Tyler ordered the TDC to ease chronic overcrowding in the state's prison system. More than 2,200 TDC inmates were forced to sleep on the floors of state prisons at the time. The new construction, combined with an expanded work furlough pro- gram, was proposed as one solution to the prison overcrowding. The new Anderson County unit will be constructed on land already owned by the TDC, a department spokesman said.