NEWS
Organization attempts to welcome international students
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Michael Gendall:
- School detox numbers highest in nation (October 20, 2005)
- Michigan fans claim UW students grossly inappropriate at game (October 20, 2005)
- Regent Walsh looks for swift committee findings (October 21, 2005)
- In-Depth: Criminalizing hate (February 2, 2006)
Related Stories:
- U.S.-bound students reverse declining trend (April 23, 2007)
- Enrollment up at graduate schools (September 19, 2008)
- Low international-student enrollment attributed to stricter visa requirements (November 11, 2003)
- Fewer international students enroll at American colleges (January 17, 2005)
- Study abroad enrollment increases, UW follows national trend (November 19, 2002)
Share This:
by Michael Gendall
Monday, February 28, 2005
In response to the steady decline of enrollment among foreign students at the University of Wisconsin throughout the past decade, UW is offering several programs designed to aid international students in becoming immersed in college life and, in a broader scope, with life in America.
The number of foreign undergraduates at UW declined during the past decade by 17 percent, according to Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Climate Bernice Durand.
Conversely, foreign graduate students have seen an increase in enrollment of 3 percent over the same time span, according to the UW’s Office of Budget, Planning and Analysis website.
Pap Sarr, director of International Student Services, said UW does not recruit foreign students, which may be a reason for the decreasing number of undergraduates hailing from other countries.
“The UW does not have an approach. It’s just word of mouth [with] no international-student recruiting,” Sarr said.
Sarr added that since the Sept. 11 attacks, the hassle to obtain a U.S. visa has discouraged international students from applying to the United States. Instead, students opt for countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand, countries that “have much lower visa restrictions and lower tuition.”
The UW organization Building Relationships in Diverse Global Environments (BRIDGE) is one attempt aimed at welcoming international students to the university.
BRIDGE, which started in the fall semester of 2002, works to offer programs that appeal to international students. BRIDGE pairs 50 international students with 50 American students and encourages the students to “share each other’s differences,” BRIDGE Director May Lee Moua-Vue said.
American students must meet with the international student assigned to them at least seven times during the course of the semester, in addition to more BRIDGE-planned events. Past events included pumpkin-carving at Halloween and a field trip to Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo.
BRIDGE is designed as “primarily an international friendship program,” according to Kristin Lenichek, an assistant at the organization. She said her group “helps to acclimate newly arrived international students to the Madison area.”
BRIDGE members visited an art museum in Milwaukee Saturday, Lenichek said, and in March, the organization will hold an event featuring desserts from various international cultures.
Nearly 4,000 international students from more than 100 different countries are currently enrolled at UW, ranking its international-student population among the top 12 in the nation, according to BRIDGE’s website.
The BRIDGE program serves well less than 1 percent of all international students enrolled at UW each semester.
“The reason why [enrollment] is such a small number is for staffing purposes,” Moua-Vue said. “We don’t have the funding [to expand].”
Lenichek said BRIDGE hopes to expand in the future to serve a higher number of international students.
“We would love to expand the program,” Lenichek said. “If we got more money, we’d love to include more students in the program and reach out to other campus departments.”
Other UW programs are also devoted to the welfare of international students on campus, Moua-Vue added. These programs include Global Connections and the Greater University Tutorial Service, which offers a conversational English program similar to BRIDGE, but “with a focus on linguistics and writing.”
Another organization — Madison Friends of International Students — pairs international students with a volunteering community member to aid in the development of English conversational skills.
