Many academic groups cheered last month when the University of Massachusetts at Amherst reversed an automatic ban on Iranian students studying certain science and engineering subjects. The State Department confirmed at the time that there was no need for an automatic ban and that security concerns could be handled case by case. But Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has written to the State Department to demand such a ban, The Washington Post reported.
"While I fully support a university’s commitment to provide wide access to educational opportunities, I strongly oppose the actions by the State Department to shift responsibility onto independent universities or to reinterpret the law away from its obvious intent," Vitter wrote. "To put it frankly, we’re still at war with terrorist organizations and we still need strong economic sanctions on Iran until they comply with nuclear nonproliferation agreements and stop their support of terrorism.”