ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: DEB RIECHMANN ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW LANGUAGE IN A DEFENSE appropriations bill requires students to go into defense or intelligence work after graduation. It became law last month.
New students in a federally funded foreign-study program will be required to commit to government defense or intelligence work after graduation, a condition critics say threatens the program by branding the students as spies-in-training.
Since summer 1994, almost 1,000 American collegians have studied in foreign countries under scholarships or fellowships from the National Security Education Program.
Previously, recipients repaid the grants by taking jobs in the federal government or in the field of education. But new language in a defense appropriations bill that became law last month requires recipients to agree to be ``employed by the Defense Department or the intelligence community.''
``The new language threatens to identify undergraduate students as operatives of intelligence agencies,'' said Thomas Farrell, vice president of the New York-based Institute of International Education. The institute has administered the undergraduate scholarships but says it will quit the program if the new provision is not revised.
Christian Wenger, 23, of Harrisonburg, Va., said he would not have applied for a scholarship if the employment provision had been attached.
``I think covert work is completely against the tenet of sharing knowledge,'' said Wenger, who returned in July from a year's study in Moscow and hopes to work on space projects with Russian engineers.
The program develops students' language skills and imparts knowledge needed for future jobs as diplomats, engineers, computer scientists or in other positions related to foreign policy, national security and international business. The program is financed with earnings from a $75 million U.S. Treasury trust fund created with Defense Department money.
Robert Slater, program supervisor in the Pentagon, denied that the new language requires students to work in the defense and intelligence communities but only to agree to be employed there.
He also said the idea that defense or intelligence agencies would use these students as ``spies-in-training'' is farfetched, but he admitted it is possible that foreigners might get that impression.
Defense and intelligence officials are not thrilled with the congressionally dictated language, Slater said.
He said, however, that because the Pentagon provides money for the program, ``there ought to be a direct payback. But requiring them to sign an agreement halfway through their undergraduate work? They're not at that point where they can make those career decisions.''
He suggested internships or information on career opportunities might be a better way to woo the students into defense or intelligence jobs.
Amanda Greene, 21, an undergraduate at New York University who studied in Japan on a scholarship in 1994, said the new agreement will deter future students from applying.
``Knowing up front that this person might be working for the CIA could put [the student] in a tenuous situation - especially an undergraduate,'' she said.
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