Five University officials, including Harvard’s top lawyer and top lobbyist, briefed the Faculty yesterday afternoon about the University’s responses to post-Sept. 11 national security legislation and its effect on everything from international travel to laboratory research.

The meeting in University Hall was called in response to concerns about academic freedom raised at last week’s Faculty meeting by Professor of Greek and Latin Richard F. Thomas and others.

University officials made a series of presentations about Harvard’s responses to new requirements facing foreign students, faculty members and researchers.

Each of the five panelists emphasized that many of the academic freedom issues facing the University have been exaggerated.

The University’s senior lobbyist said that restrictive legislation tops his agenda.

“Since Sept. 11 no issue has been higher on our radar screen, said Senior Director of Federal and State Relations Kevin Casey.

But Casey added that a lot of the national security legislation that affects universities is several years old.

For example, the federal government first tightened regulations on student visas when the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993.

But the events of Sept. 11 exacerbated “visceral” concerns for universities, he said, particularly because three of the terrorists hijackers had entered the country using student visas, he said.

“There was a general flavor post-Sept. 11 that universities represented a unique weakness in security,” he said.

But since then, the political climate has become more amenable for an institution such as Harvard, he said.

“People are willing to take a look at look at things from a different angle,” he said.

Director of the Harvard International Office (HIO) Sharon Ladd said her office has been working to comply with newly-enforced requirements that all educational institutions register international students in a national online database called SEVIS.

Although other schools have had difficulties with SEVIS, she said, the University has not yet encountered any major problems.

“What is really going to test the system is when large numbers of students enter this summer and this fall,” she said.