University president says she'll pay students' passport fees

By: Associated Press - | Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:47 PM PDT ∞

PHILADELPHIA -- The newly installed president of Temple University, citing the need for students to become global citizens, has pledged to pay their passport fees.

Speaking in her investiture ceremony March 22, Temple president Ann Weaver Hart urged students to study abroad or get a foreign internship.

"I am so convinced that this experience is essential to your education that my husband Randy and I will pay your passport fee," she said. "Internationalization will help you develop the point of view essential to contribute as citizens of the world and compete in the international marketplace."

The initiative, to begin this summer, will pay the fee for any Temple student getting a passport for the first time, said Hart.

New passports cost $97, according to the State Department Web site.

But whether you're a Temple student or any other American applying for your first passport, allow plenty of time for the paperwork to be completed.

The State Department has been swamped with an unprecedented crush of passport applications since new regulations were imposed in January. The new rules require U.S. airline passengers to show passports when re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean (except for the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

State Department officials say passport requests are pouring in at more than a million per month, with applications filed between October and March up 44 percent from the same period a year ago. In February alone, applications were up 25 percent.

Because of the glut, it could take 10 weeks instead of the usual six to process routine applications, according to the department. And expedited requests, which cost an extra $60 on top of the normal $97 fee, could take four weeks instead of two.

For more information, visit http://www.travel.state.gov/passport.

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