Small World: SU Slutzker Center combats lack of funding to connect American and international students

By: Jaimie Dalessio

Posted: 3/23/07

Lindsay Speicher can belly dance.

Dancing is the reason she's involved in the community of international students at Syracuse University. She performs at events like the World Festival, held on March 6 in Goldstein Auditorium.

The freshman sociology major, from Rochester, N.Y., said she notices interaction between the international and American students, and also among the international students, but admits she has friends who would disagree.

"If you just want to hang out with people like you, you won't see that much (interaction)," she said.

But when Speicher performed at the World Festival, presented by the Association of International Students in Syracuse University (AISSU), it was for an audience filled with few American students.

Diversity is a popular issue at Syracuse University. It was one of the three key issues discussed at both the Student Leader Summit, held on Jan. 31 and the Student Association's open forum on March 5.

Syracuse University has a diverse campus- 9 percent of students at the university are from foreign countries, according to the Syracuse University FACTS Brochure for 2006-2007. The issue is many students practice voluntary segregation.

Senior biology major, JinAm Seo, an international student from Saipan, attended the International Thanksgiving Dinner in Goldstein Auditorium last fall. He enjoyed it, but noticed international students only talked to people from their own countries.

"The thing is, even though they are international, they don't really mix together; they just stay with their own country," Seo said. "If they know each other, they'll talk, say hello. But most stay with their own."

Dr. Patricia Burak, director of the Lillian and Emanuel Slutzker Center for International Services said international students rarely make connections with American students.

Roberto Perez, senior international relations major, said he notices the lack of connection between American and international students.

"There's none," he said. "Very little. American students aren't interested."

But why is achieving interaction among students of different races so difficult?

It may be because most international students at SU are graduate students. International students make up only 3.2 percent of the entire undergraduate population, but they make up 28 percent of the graduate population, according to the Slutzker Center's most recent snapshot report.

Finances cause the unbalance, Burak said. The university's tuition and the cost of living in the United States are expensive. Most graduate students support themselves as paid teaching or graduate assistants, or are sent to the United States by their employers. Undergraduates, however, are often supported by their families.

International students rarely receive financial aid from the U.S. government and 15 percent, mostly athletes, receive financial aid from SU, Burak said.

Karen Bass oversees international undergraduate recruitment at SU and said students who can afford to study here are usually the ones they target.

"There are a good number of students who can afford it," she said.

Burak started as a counselor at the Slutzker Center in 1977 and became director in 1989. She can remember when most international students lived on South Campus, some with their families. It was a "wonderful international village," Burak said, where students gathered together, cooked meals and shared stories.

That environment no longer exists.

Now, most graduate students live off campus, and even the international undergrads move off campus after they fulfill the two-year housing requirement.

The Slutzker Center does its best to combat the segregation. It offers programs and events that not only bring international students together, but also merge them with American students, in addition to its other services. The center is a home away from home for international students. Its employees, who represent five religions and 13 languages, help students cope with transitional issues. These include safety concerns, making friends and even adjusting to the change in weather.

Bass said the center makes her job recruiting students easier.

"Parents love that we have a center like that," she said. "Superlatives can't really tell the story. It's the best thing in the world."

Burak said the Slutzker Center doesn't receive as much attention as the Syracuse University Abroad program, but is just as important. She called the current situation "benign neglect."

The center could promote diversity on a personal level, opening students' eyes to the global community across from their dorm rather than across the ocean.

"Globalization starts at home, right here on our own campus," she said.

Burak said she was disappointed there is no course tied with the International Learning Community this year. She's trying to organize a group activity, hopefully a movie night, but said it's hard to find time.

Government regulatory changes following Sept. 11 complicated the process for international students who want to study in the United States. Employees at the center must spend a lot of time handling the paperwork necessary for students to maintain legal status.

This limits their time to organize social functions for the students that could help promote diversity within the campus.

It's a difficult situation, Burak said. She needs her employees to process students' paperwork and also make time for counseling,

"I can't expect them to pick up falafels and plan dinners as well," she said.

With more resources from the university, Burak could hire more staff members and provide more for the students. The center could host more events like it did last summer during the World Cup.

The 42-inch plasma-screen television in the center's living room was a magnet for international students. More than 100 students came to watch games each day of finals week, Burak said. Students have asked the center to do the same for the Cricket World Cup.

Shiuli Mahmud, an international graduate student in the State University of New York College of Environment Science and Forestry, is studying paper science and bioprocess engineering. She came to the United States from Bangladesh in June 2005.

She has volunteered at the center and attends most of the events it holds. Mahmud said she meets many American students, both graduate and undergraduate, through events in which the Slutzker Center participates, such as the Winter Carnival in February.

"When we come to know each other, I often become better friends with American students," she said.