''I don't want to become a target,'' said Mr. Saad, sitting outside the University of Georgia's Tate Student Center. ''I've heard several slurs and racist things. I understand people are very angry right now.''

University officials and advocates who govern international students are voicing the same fears about federal regulations, worried that last week's terror attacks will lead to a clampdown on foreign student visa applications and more monitoring of some 500,000 foreigners seeking an education in America.

College lobbyists also have been fighting a plan by the federal government to collect a $95 fee for financing a national information-gathering system on foreign students.

''Pay a huge fee for the privilege of being tracked by the INS,'' said Terry Eisland, an associate director of International Student and Scholar Programs at Emory University. ''I'm not a huge fan.''

Concerns about profiling foreigners and imposing a financial hardship on students have been stalling plans for a nationwide tracking system, which would give foreign students electronic ID cards, storing each student's home country, academic eligibility, and study and travel plans. The plan, conceived after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was approved by Congress in 1996 and will be launched once the Immigration and Naturalization Service determines how to administer and pay for it.

Supporters say the system will provide foreign students better mobility while bolstering national security.

''In light of the attacks on September 11th, it is inconceivable to me that those of us closest to this system could do anything other than urge the federal government to move forward with a system ... which could be used to protect the nation,'' said Todd Davis, a director at the Institute of International Education, a New York-based education exchange and training organization.

''As we have seen from early news reports, a number of the terrorists had used U.S. institutions ... as entry points and training grounds,'' Mr. Davis wrote in a Tuesday e-mail to colleagues. He estimated that 40,000 students from the Middle East and North Africa are enrolled in accredited U.S. colleges.