UWM Ensures SEVIS Compliance

Achieving compliance with the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) required establishing, on a very tight schedule, systems to track international students and share data about them with the federal government. At UWM, the collaboration, communiation and coordination among and between the Center for UWM Ensures Compliance Through Collaboration, Communication and Coordination SEVIS International Education, Provost Office, Student Technology Services, Information and Media Technologies, UW-Madison, and UW System were instrumental factors in UWM becoming SEVIS compliant by the national deadline.

SEVIS Overview
Each year, more than 500,000 foreign nationals enter the United States on student and exchange visitor visas. Though the federal government required record-keeping of international students and scholars in the United States for many years, in late 2001 Congress mandated that a fully implemented and expanded student and exchange visitor program, called Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), be put into service.

SEVIS, an Internet-based database, enables schools like UWM to electronically transmit information about international students and scholars, such as name, address, phone number, class schedule, enrollment status, off-campus employment and other "event notifications," via the Internet, to the Department of Homeland Security's bureau Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Reporting this information is required throughout a non-immigrant student or exchange visitor's stay in the United States.

SEVIS at UWM
The Center for International Education (CIE), through it's Office of International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS), provides international graduate and undergraduate admissions, as well as immigration advising for UWM.

Once the SEVIS compliance date was known, UWM, like all higher education institutions that host non-immigrant students and exchange visitors, moved quickly to implement SEVIS on campus. The CIE requested the Provost's assistance to secure campus resources and project management assistance to implement SEVIS.

Institutions could choose to interface with the SEVIS database by one of the two available methods, realtime interactive or batch transmission. The real-time interactive method would involve CIE staff interacting directly with the SEVIS Web site. Data would be added, one record at a time, in a person-to-system interface.

UWM chose to use the second method and batch transmit its SEVIS data. Batch transmission is the method of choice for large schools like UWM with sizable numbers of records. The campus selected PASS (Patriot Act SEVIS Solution), a PeopleSoft product, as its interface with SEVIS. Utilizing the batch method, PASS software communicates with SEVIS and uploads and downloads information system to system.

The Journey to SEVIS Compliance
The chronology of events leading to UWM becoming SEVIS compliant by the national deadline is given below. UWM began the journey in March 2002.

Spring/Summer 2002

• Request sent by CIE Technology Director Robert Beck to the Provost Office for campus help and project management assistance with SEVIS implementation.
• Beck and the CIE's Chuck Carerros, Kristin Cardinale, and John Hubert consider a number of technical solutions for UWM to become SEVIS compliant.
• Provost-level meeting about UWM and SEVIS compliance held.
• Preliminary federal rules published on SEVIS requirements.

September 2002

• UW System Collaterals Meeting hosts a formal presentation of PeopleSoft's PASS solution.

October 2002

• UWM chooses to implement PASS; PASS is cost effective and the PeopleSoft infrastructure is already in place on campus.
• I&MT consultant Justice Fellin and I&MT Administrative Applications Solutions Director Marge Waala are identified as key contact persons on the PASS/SEVIS project.
• Carerros and Fellin begin collaboration on data structure and collection.

November 2002

• CIE intern Titus Curtain becomes involved in data collection.
• Beck, Carerros, Fellin, and Curtain meet and then ask Karen Hartwig to serve as SEVIS liaison with the UWM English as a Second Language program, directed by Calum MacKechnie.

December 2002

• Extensive international student data collection and entry is done by wide range of CIE staff members, in and out of the ISSS Office.
• PASS software delivered to UW-Madison who then forwarded it to UWM.
• Fellin begins testing PASS for errors and to ensure that all current international students are in the system.
• Carerros and Fellin brainstorm batch testing procedures associated with implementing PASS.

January 2003

• UW System MILER Consultant David Thompson-Hall begins a three week period of onsite, full-time knowledge transfer with CIE.
• First file successfully submitted from UWM to the SEVIS test site.
• PASS implementation team begins testing the technical aspects of SEVIS, relying for the first time on the PASS software.
• PASS successfully generates properly formatted files for submission to SEVIS.
• A plan to test functionality of PASS is developed.

February 2003

• Functional testing by UWM's PASS project team scheduled and completed.
• UWM's PASS implementation successfully creates electronic files for submission to SEVIS.
• UWM's PASS implementation successfully receives electronic files for download from SEVIS.

Spring 2003

• Student Technology Services staff join in the effort to help ensure data accuracy before PeopleSoft version upgrade.
• UWM upgrades PeopleSoft from version 7.6 to version 8. PASS is updated.

Fall 2003

• Final deadline for full SEVIS compliance; all UWM students are reported.
• PASS/SEVIS implementation project details shared at September UW System Joint Meeting Conference. Charles Carreros participates in a compare and contrast presentation of what occurred at UWM and UW-Superior as each campus implemented PASS.

For more information about SEVIS, see www.ice.gov/sevis/. Visit www.peoplesoft.com/corp/en/ent_strat/articles/homeland.jsp for more information about the PASS interface used at UWM.

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