I study atmospheric science, as a graduate student, at MIT in the Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department. Some of my classmates study oceanography in my department, through a joint program with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, WHOI. Those people generally have to go on cruises to gather data, which sounds a lot less interesting to me than it does to my classmates in this program. Well, this requires going through ports and the like, and TSA makes you get a special card that allows you access.
Unless you are a security threat.
I got an email yesterday or the day before (I don't keep track of days of the calendar anymore; maybe I should sleep) from one of my classmates, a first-year like me, who sent the email to the entire program, in which he disclosed his status as a security threat:
I suggest you all refrain from interacting with me in the future and
act responsibly by exterminating me at the next possibility.
(I have no more to say about this.)
(his name, which I withhold)
F-1 Student Visa Holder sponsored by the Joint Program in Oceanography
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution and a security threat.
For those of you not familiar with this issue: There is a new security
regulation at US ports requiring people that need un-escorted access
to ships (e.g. research vessels) to hold a special ID card - the so
called "TWIC card". Therefore WHOI urged all its science community
including students to obtain such a card for $132.50 per card. A
subsidiary of Lockheed Martin did the technical support of the
enrollment procedure and received the vast amount of said $132.50 that
WHOI reimbursed for each of its employees. A couple of weeks after the
initial enrollment I received a letter from the TSA stating that "On
your application, you indicated you were born in Germany, however, TSA
has been unable to verify your immigration status from the information
you provided." I replied by sending them a copy of my passport and my
visa. Yesterday I was thrilled to receive the attached letter.
There's a letter attached, and I quote:
On (date), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) served upon you a determination that you pose or are suspected of posing a security threat pursuant to Title 49, C.F.R., Section 1572.5.
I have personally reviewed the Initial Determination of Threat Assessment, your reply, accompanying information, and all other information and materials available to 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). Specifically, your Visa status does not meet the criteria under the permissible Visa categories to hold a Transportation Worker Identification Credential.
Accordingly, you may not hold or exercise the privileges of a TWIC card. For purposes of judicial review, this letter constitutes a final TSA order pursuant to Title 49, U.S.C., Section 46110.
Sincerely,
John M. Busch
Deputy Director
Security Threat Assessment Operations
An article in the Tech, MIT's newspaper:
Government Declares Some Grad Students Are ‘Security Threats’
What this means specifically is unclear, though I think it's actually good news. I can see MIT's leadership being mobilized by this insult to my classmate by the TSA, and something may actually happen. When Harvard was forced to accept military recruiters at the Law School (via the Solomon Amendment), there was a big brouhaha over it that shed light very clearly on the idiocy that is Don't Ask, Don't Tell. MIT does not have as much clout as Harvard, but I think it's possible that big things could happen. I'm optimistic. (:
I have no intention of taking a cruise to the Arctic or the Southern Ocean or whatever remote and cold locations have data that needs collecting; I'd prefer to not take trips to the stratosphere to collect ozone samples or to the mesopause to measure temperature gradients, either. But to deny graduate students their research, or worse, to deny this country its research, is simply unacceptable. John M. Busch, you are an idiot.