Tilghman talks technology

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Tilghman joined Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in a panel about the effects of increasing global competition on higher education and scientific research in the United States.

At the panel, held Wednesday in the Library of Congress, Gates said the position of the United States as magnet for the "best people" from around the world was "eroding," adding that he was "concerned that the United States will lose its leading position in something that's critical for the economy."

Most of the best universities in the world are in the United States, Gates said, but universities abroad are conducting significant research while America is experiencing "disinterest in the sciences" and "declining funding for risky research."

Tilghman cited a "failing K through 12 education system" in the United States as a reason for fewer students being interested in the sciences.

"Too often, by the time [American students] come to [universities], they are math-phobic or science-phobic," Tilghman said. "So we rely upon attracting students from abroad who come here and ... do extraordinarily well."

She noted that fewer foreign graduate students are applying to the United States — a 25 percent decrease in applications last year and an additional five percent decrease this year — because of better job opportunities in their home countries and difficulty procuring visas after Sept. 11, 2001.

Gates advocated getting rid of the current caps on the number of H-1B visas — non-immigrant visas issued to professionals with bachelor's degrees who are temporarily employed in highly specialized areas such as engineering, physical sciences and medicine — saying it is "really questionable" to justify a policy that assumes "there are too many smart people coming [to the United States]."

Current U.S. law limits the number of H-1B visas issued per year to 65,000, down from 195,000 in previous years.

"In the long run, in the U.S., we'll always have a reliance on letting smart people into the country — there has been no time in our history when we haven't relied on this," Gates said.

In an interview with The Daily Princetonian following the panel discussion, Tilghman said, "The gap between the achievements of science in the U.S. and abroad is closing rapidly, and if it continues this way, not only will they catch up with us, but they will surpass us in these fields."

To further encourage international students to study in the United States, Tilghman said, "We have to do what I did in the fall — that is, have University delegations go to China, India and other countries and say that we're dealing with the visa issues, as we slowly are, and that the U.S. continues to be a place where such research exists."

The six-person panel also included Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), Microsoft Research Senior Vice President Rick Rashid and Phillip Bond, Under Secretary for Technology at the Department of Commerce.

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Leahy said there is "reluctance sometimes from members of Congress from both parties to put funding into pure sciences."

Bond argued that scientific research is a major priority for the current administration, saying that research funding had increasing by 20 percent under President Bush.

Tilghman denied this, saying that some of the statistics quoted by Bond were not directed at "research in any way that we understand it." Instead, she said, this funding went toward developments in the Department of Defense, rather than "fundamental research at universities."

Calling for increased funding for "fundamental scientific research," Tilghman said the single most powerful means of promoting creativity or "genius" among students is to "give young people independence ... and challenge them in the research center."

Tilghman added that funding for critical longterm issues, such as the development of alternate energy sources, is as important as the support of short-term ventures.

A country's perspective must be "long enough and vision-bold enough," she said. "Otherwise we're going to be doing things for the short term and then fall off a cliff."