Student services adapt to international students
By Elisabeth Willner
What if
they need a place to pray?
In Morgan Library, international students sometimes tuck themselves into quiet corners of the library under stairwells and around corners to say their daily prayers before they get back to studying.
Morgan Library Help desk employee Cathy Cranston started noticing more and more students praying this semester, and that got her wondering – what kind of new resources does CSU need for international students? Would a room to pray be too far off?
The influx has other CSU employees thinking about what they need to do to support international students, too.
The corporate website for INTO claims that international students at CSU students will benefit from “high levels of student support, and exceptional facilities.”
“These students pay all the fees, use all the same services,” said Sagarika Sarma, the student care coordinator for INTO, adding that it’s important to make sure the options are equitable.
As more and more students arrive every year, CSU student services are looking for a way to adapt to their needs. Here are a few areas of campus and how they’re preparing.
In Morgan Library, international students sometimes tuck themselves into quiet corners of the library under stairwells and around corners to say their daily prayers before they get back to studying.
Morgan Library Help desk employee Cathy Cranston started noticing more and more students praying this semester, and that got her wondering – what kind of new resources does CSU need for international students? Would a room to pray be too far off?
The influx has other CSU employees thinking about what they need to do to support international students, too.
The corporate website for INTO claims that international students at CSU students will benefit from “high levels of student support, and exceptional facilities.”
“These students pay all the fees, use all the same services,” said Sagarika Sarma, the student care coordinator for INTO, adding that it’s important to make sure the options are equitable.
As more and more students arrive every year, CSU student services are looking for a way to adapt to their needs. Here are a few areas of campus and how they’re preparing.
Morgan Library
Cranston, the library employee who noticed students praying in the library, has begun a research project to find out how Morgan Library can prepare to serve students that speak English as a second language.
She had the idea after working with an international student at the help desk. She discovered that it took her twice as long to help the international student because of the language barrier.
“Right on the heels of that I was starting to hear about INTO. I thought ‘What are we going to do about that?’” Cranston said.
Cranston teamed up with other library employees to interview library employees at other universities with the INTO program to find out how to prepare.
So far, they’ve found that the help desk will probably be the most impacted portion of the library.
Tucker Lehman, a junior performing arts major and help desk employee, said that he hasn’t helped a lot of international students yet, but that he expects to see the number increase.
“Of any department in the library, I think we would get the most involvement,” he said.
Cranston thinks that INTO has spurred an awareness that will help all students, since it will encourage the library to develop different kinds of resources.
She said she looks forward to her future interactions with the growing population of international students. But as she prepares to best serve them, she wonders about all the other international students who didn’t get assistance until now.
“The sad thing is that we’ve had international students all along – we should have been doing this for them,” she said.
She had the idea after working with an international student at the help desk. She discovered that it took her twice as long to help the international student because of the language barrier.
“Right on the heels of that I was starting to hear about INTO. I thought ‘What are we going to do about that?’” Cranston said.
Cranston teamed up with other library employees to interview library employees at other universities with the INTO program to find out how to prepare.
So far, they’ve found that the help desk will probably be the most impacted portion of the library.
Tucker Lehman, a junior performing arts major and help desk employee, said that he hasn’t helped a lot of international students yet, but that he expects to see the number increase.
“Of any department in the library, I think we would get the most involvement,” he said.
Cranston thinks that INTO has spurred an awareness that will help all students, since it will encourage the library to develop different kinds of resources.
She said she looks forward to her future interactions with the growing population of international students. But as she prepares to best serve them, she wonders about all the other international students who didn’t get assistance until now.
“The sad thing is that we’ve had international students all along – we should have been doing this for them,” she said.
Resources for Disabled Students
The
Resources for Disabled Students office has already felt the crunch which
international students can bring, although not through the INTO program.
The semester before INTO signed a contract with CSU, the office began seeing an influx of international students struggling in their classes, according to Karin Bright, a counselor for RDS.
“We were noticing on specific coursework, we would get a number of students, who would fill out the intake form with ‘ESL’ (English as a Second Language),” Bright said.
Resources for Disabled Students or RDS provides accommodations for students with registered disabilities. Accommodations include extended test times for those with learning disabilities and extra time on assignments.
In order to receive help, a student must have a medically-diagnosed disability and the paperwork to prove it. The students arriving in spring 2011 didn’t. It turned out that professors, advisors and other students were misdirecting students to RDS.
“They know we provide extra time on exams,” Bright said of those who still mistakenly send students to RDS. “They may not know the reason or the purpose behind it.”
The office made an effort to serve the international students sent to them. Bright and others went back to professors to work with them to create accommodations. They then contacted INTO, which was a newly instated program at that point, and asked for help.
Since then RDS has stemmed the stream of international students that seek them out for test accommodations, according to Bright. Only a few students have come to the office this semester and once they’ve arrived, they’re re-directed to different resources.
Sagarika Sarma, the student care coordinator for INTO who helps students with disabilities, said that students who struggle because of a second language don’t receive accommodations, but INTO can support them as they learn the language.
The semester before INTO signed a contract with CSU, the office began seeing an influx of international students struggling in their classes, according to Karin Bright, a counselor for RDS.
“We were noticing on specific coursework, we would get a number of students, who would fill out the intake form with ‘ESL’ (English as a Second Language),” Bright said.
Resources for Disabled Students or RDS provides accommodations for students with registered disabilities. Accommodations include extended test times for those with learning disabilities and extra time on assignments.
In order to receive help, a student must have a medically-diagnosed disability and the paperwork to prove it. The students arriving in spring 2011 didn’t. It turned out that professors, advisors and other students were misdirecting students to RDS.
“They know we provide extra time on exams,” Bright said of those who still mistakenly send students to RDS. “They may not know the reason or the purpose behind it.”
The office made an effort to serve the international students sent to them. Bright and others went back to professors to work with them to create accommodations. They then contacted INTO, which was a newly instated program at that point, and asked for help.
Since then RDS has stemmed the stream of international students that seek them out for test accommodations, according to Bright. Only a few students have come to the office this semester and once they’ve arrived, they’re re-directed to different resources.
Sagarika Sarma, the student care coordinator for INTO who helps students with disabilities, said that students who struggle because of a second language don’t receive accommodations, but INTO can support them as they learn the language.
Elsewhere on Campus
Long
before the Fall 2012 influx of international students, Cindy Swindell had
international students arriving in her office.
Swindell, who works as a counselor for the CSU Health Network, has screened for learning disabilities at CSU for the past 24 years, serving all of the CSU population, including international students.
When working with students from abroad she faced a specific challenge: figuring out whether the struggling student really had a disability or was just adjusting to a new country.
“There’s always some working with the question ‘Is it language or is there something more?” Swindell said.
Swindell said that working with international students is challenging, but she doesn’t expect for her job to change very much. She said that INTO is just a new incarnation of efforts to bring international students to campus that she has seen over her 24 years of working at the university.
“I’ve had a lot of interaction with them (international students) before, just a larger portion of them have been graduate students,” Swindell said. “INTO is just the latest version.”
The employees of the international office in Laurel Hall had similar expectations.
Lisa Pappas, the associate director of International Student and Scholar Services, said that INTO will handle the specific needs of the international students it brings. They will only be impacted if INTO students decide to progress to seeking degrees at CSU.
In the meantime, they have considering adding extra positions. Pappas said they will continue to make sure that they can meet the needs of the populations they serve.
“I think as that (the increase in international students) is occurring, we’ll have to stay ahead of the curve,” Pappas said.
With a 10 percent increase of international students on the way, other areas of campus may be thinking the same thing.
Swindell, who works as a counselor for the CSU Health Network, has screened for learning disabilities at CSU for the past 24 years, serving all of the CSU population, including international students.
When working with students from abroad she faced a specific challenge: figuring out whether the struggling student really had a disability or was just adjusting to a new country.
“There’s always some working with the question ‘Is it language or is there something more?” Swindell said.
Swindell said that working with international students is challenging, but she doesn’t expect for her job to change very much. She said that INTO is just a new incarnation of efforts to bring international students to campus that she has seen over her 24 years of working at the university.
“I’ve had a lot of interaction with them (international students) before, just a larger portion of them have been graduate students,” Swindell said. “INTO is just the latest version.”
The employees of the international office in Laurel Hall had similar expectations.
Lisa Pappas, the associate director of International Student and Scholar Services, said that INTO will handle the specific needs of the international students it brings. They will only be impacted if INTO students decide to progress to seeking degrees at CSU.
In the meantime, they have considering adding extra positions. Pappas said they will continue to make sure that they can meet the needs of the populations they serve.
“I think as that (the increase in international students) is occurring, we’ll have to stay ahead of the curve,” Pappas said.
With a 10 percent increase of international students on the way, other areas of campus may be thinking the same thing.