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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
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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.
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