Fresno State met today's deadline to file updated computerized information on its foreign students with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The federal department's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement requires all colleges and universities to supply contact and academic information on international students as part of the Homeland Security agency's post-Sept. 11 mission.

But there are questions nationally as to whether the system is fair to foreign students and effective in deterring terrorism. Critics of the system say it discriminates against students and international visitors and that it works most offensively against students from Muslim countries.

"It creates problems," says California State University, Fresno, student Seetharaman Sankaran, 22. "It is very, very annoying. Maybe for your security, you need to do all that. But the kind of people who get into this torture are students, and students weren't responsible for 9/11."

Carol Munshower, Fresno State's director of international student services, says the university reported 800 international students as required by the Student Exchange Visitor and Information System.

"This is crunch week," she says. "We want to make sure students don't slip through the cracks. We go online and put them into the SEVIS Web site."

The university has no problem with logging returning students, but a hypothetical student who registered last fall then dropped out in the spring for whatever reason "is no longer in our database."

That is all the more reason to have the SEVIS system, says Sharon Rummery, San Francisco spokeswoman for the immigration bureau. Federal authorities look for international students who have dropped from the university's records.

"Once they drop off the university's radar screen, the university advises us, lets us know they are no longer studying. ... If they drop away, it is something we want to know right away. SEVIS is a way of finding out."

Information from universities is checked against visas and other government documents. Munshower and immigration officials say the data collected through SEVIS are the same material they provided on paper before Sept. 11.

At Fresno State, an informal survey of international students found most accept the requirement as a natural effort against further terrorism.

Pritam Gawade, a student from India working toward his master's degree in computer science, says he and most Indian students have no complaints about SEVIS.

"I have no contact with SEVIS," he says. "Maybe they look at my documents. It doesn't bother me. I'm legal."

If he were Muslim, he might feel different, Gawade says, because Muslims draw more scrutiny. He thinks the move from paper to computerized record-keeping frightens some critics.

"In a matter of seconds, just by clicking a button, they can easily find and see. That's what makes some people nervous."

Mohamed Bahamid, last semester's president of the Muslim Students Association at Fresno State, is visiting from Saudi Arabia. He has no objections to SEVIS.

"As long as I'm in this country, I should obey its rules and follow the laws of this land," he says. "As long as I am doing all right, why should I be feeling bothered to answer these questions?"

Others find the surveillance more offensive. Several students say it makes no sense to single out students when the Sept. 11 terrorists were not students.

Bahamid says the SEVIS system is all right as long as it is applied equally to students from all countries.

Munshower says Fresno State's international students have cooperated with the program, but she sees a downside. She doesn't know if federal security officials have enough people to find those who disappear.

Beyond that, she says, "our international students will become the leaders in their countries. We want to build good relations with them so they have good feelings about the United States. This is critical for the foreign policy of this country."