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The Daily OrangeSmall World: SU Slutzker Center combats lack of funding to connect American and international students
By Jaimie Dalessio
Posted: 3/22/07, 11:29 PM EST Section: Feature
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."
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."
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