But administrators say they are already doing everything in their power to bring students back into the country.

Graduate Student Employees United, an affiliate of United Auto Workers Local 2110, delivered the policy on international student visa delays to University President Lee Bollinger's office on Wednesday morning. Members of the organization say that though the University has been dealing with the delays on a case-by-case basis, a formal policy is necessary for consistent treatment of each case.

The responsibility for bringing international students to the U.S. rests mainly with the International Students and Scholars Office, but GSEU is pushing for greater involvement from the University administration.

"The situation is rapidly reaching a crisis point," said GSEU member David Wolach, a student in the philosophy department.

"Our feeling is that Bollinger is the president of an international university and we expect him and the University to lobby on behalf of students on a national level but also in his own house."

Students face many problems as a result of visa delays, which can last up to several months; problems range from housing issues to lost research time to library fines. GSEU has proposed that the administration protect students from such problems.

"There's a lot of reasons you don't want to be stuck out of the country," said GSEU member Andy O'Neil, a student in the physics department from the United Kingdom. "When I changed [visa] status in the summer of 2002, I missed part of my summer research. If you're a researcher you need to maintain authorship."

O'Neil noted that despite the lack of an official process to deal with visa delays, the University has been "very good" on a case-by-case basis.

Wolach agreed that "the ISSO is doing good work," but emphasized that GSEU believes the administration should develop guidelines to support international students.

Yet, members of the administration question the necessity of such a policy.

"Columbia has moved heaven and earth to get [students] back in," said Henry Pinkham, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

He cited one case in which a student who faced a visa delay defended his thesis via videolink.

Pinkham said it is not clear to him why the University needs a policy like the one GSEU has recommended. He noted the role of the ISSO in handling the issues faced by international students and added that Columbia is among a consortium of universities lobbying the State Department so that new visa requirements apply flexibly to students.

"We're on top of this," he said. "We know what's going on."

GSEU's proposal, Pinkham said, does not differentiate between returning international students and incoming international students, but he said procedures for dealing with new students exist.

All academic departments have agreed to allow students to defer entrance if they have visa delays.

"For returning students, there have been very few problems," he said.

Problems that do exist, however, must be handled. In addition to the ISSO, international student organizations on campus, such as the Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association, have also been dealing with concerns of students with visa delays.

Jainbo Lei, president of CUCSSA and a student in the biomedical informatics department, said that Columbia has been doing well in dealing with visa delays. The CUCSSA has a database where students from hundreds of universities can report their visa delays; Lei noted that, of the 17 cases reported for Columbia, most students are already back.

"If the policy is there, we'll feel more sure we're protected," Lei said.

Though he said he agrees with the goal of GSEU's policy, Lei said he believes it will be difficult to implement it.

After GSEU approached him with the proposal, Lei said he e-mailed students in the database to see how they felt about it.

According to Lei, one non-Columbia student detained in China replied, "I don't want sympathy from the U.S. Can you send my stuff back to China?"

Although GSEU's proposal is Columbia-specific, GSEU and graduate student organizations at other universities are also advocating visa reform on a national level.

The Graduate Employees and Students Organization at Yale University has launched an academic visa reform petition to the U.S. government and university presidents.