Diversity on campus

IU might be one of the most culturally diverse schools in the Midwest, but how integrated are the students? Can we be doing more?

To put it in perspective, international enrollment has increased 6 percent in the last year. In the Midwest “heartland” schools alone, there has been a staggering increase in international students, especially at Big Ten universities. In a recent census, international students make up more than 15 percent of the student population, which is more than 6,000 students at IU alone.

IU has cut an overwhelming number of in-state and out-of-state U.S. students in favor of international diversity.

Upward of 4,000 U.S. residents were denied application here, and while Indiana has the capacity to accept and educate these American students, their reasoning is simple. If they are going to accept out-of-state students anyway, why not have them be international?

But more international students are struggling to fit in here and make it a home. Language and cultural barriers prevent them from really integrating themselves into our community, and many students leave before completing four years here in favor of going back home and learning at a university that will cater to their needs or at least understand them.

Why bother accepting international students if we won’t make a solid attempt to understand their culture, language and customs? It makes more sense to me to accept U.S. residents who will complete their four years and graduate instead of the international student who will leave after two years because they feel uncomfortable. This is all in favor of increasing our diversity on paper.

And more than diversity, many international students are not awarded financial aid, and will pay their full four-year tuition out of pocket. For every international student here, the University makes about $32,000.

In this economy, can we really blame IU for making that kind of financial decision?

Still, I can’t accept the disregard for these students’ personal well-being.

About 40 percent of international students at Midwestern schools polled said they had no American friends and nearly exclusively hung out with students from their respective countries, like they were little islands of China, Japan, India and others among a sea of American students.

I think if IU wants to increase their diversity, we should be doing more to really integrate our international population.

We should provide more multi-linguistic classes, initiate more study groups, create more cultural awareness and cultural identity, allow these international students to bring their culture to us and be willing to learn from them.

Otherwise, we should just chuck the whole thing and accept U.S. residents instead. If we’re not taking the diversification on paper and applying it to our actual college experience, we’re not really a diverse University.

We’re just a U.S. University with a bunch of segregated international students.

— ewenning@indiana.edu