Brzezinski at Purdue said his office receives about 15 e-mails each day from students overseas panicking that their records are incomplete.
At Michigan State University, Rosemary Max, assistant director of the Office for International Scholars, said her office has been bombarded with phone calls from distressed students.
"These students are anxious and angry with us ... and wow, it's killing us," she said.
Max said Michigan State has had several visas denied, adding she knows of some students who are now looking to Canada, Australia and the UK for an education.
Purdue's Brzezinski is not alone in observing governments shying from sending students to the US, though some of the resistance may reflect broader political problems rather than unhappiness with the SEVIS system.
A survey last year conducted by the Institute of International Education showed that some colleges reported a 30 percent decline in students from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, although 41 percent of schools surveyed said their total number of international applicants had increased.
RSS