Questions from Designated School Officials: What is Project Campus Sentinel?
January 6, 2014
Questions from Designated School Officials is a blog series on Study in the States for designated school officials (DSOs). Each month, we will answer a question that will help you advise your F and/or M students. If you are a DSO and would like to submit a question, you can email us or ask us via social media, your Field Representative or the SEVP Response Center. We may edit questions for clarity and consistency and may not feature all submissions on Study in the States.
Question: What is Project Campus Sentinel?
Answer: As previously published on Study in the States, the Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit (CTCEU) initiated the Project Campus Sentinel outreach program in 2012. The purpose of this program is to build partnerships between DSOs at SEVP-certified schools and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents. These partnerships will make detecting and combatting school fraud and visa exploitation easier.
Project Campus Sentinel offers two primary benefits to DSOs:
- Provides tools to help them identify possible threats to national security within the F and/or M student population
- Offers the proper outlet to report this information
As a DSO, you know that the F and M students at your school must follow relevant regulations and federal laws to maintain nonimmigrant status. Hopefully, you can help identify a potential problem before it could become a national security concern.
Sharing information with the DSO community helps improve schools’ management system of their programs and helps prevent students from falling out of nonimmigrant status. Shared information between CTCEU, SEVP, DSOs and students provides improved strategies for identifying and prosecuting unlawful activity. HSI’s investigation of schools that do not comply with SEVP requirements helps uphold the integrity of legitimate schools and programs.
You can report any suspicious activity you see at your school by reporting it either with the HSI tip form or by e-mailing information directly to CTCEU at ctceu@ice.dhs.gov.