An International Student Fee Town Hall on Thursday night allowed students to express questions and concerns about a new $125 per-term fee for international students. The fee will incrementally increase over the next four years to reach a cost of $200 per-student, per-term in the 2016-2017 school year.
Though the new fee is not imposed by the student government, the ASUO facilitated the town hall between international students and the UO department of International Affairs. ASUO International Student Advocate Kevin Ma and Vice President Azia Calderhead started working on the event intended to address confusion and misconceptions about the fee at the beginning of winter term.
At the event, Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes and Vice Provost of International affairs Dennis Galvan explained that the intent of the fee is to address the increased cost of service for international students that accompanies their increased enrollment numbers at the UO.
According to Abe Schafermeyer, the director of International Student and Scholar Services (ISS), there were roughly 980 international students at the UO in 2002. This year, there are 2,925. That’s an almost two hundred percent increase over the past twelve years.
At the town hall, Schafermeyer addressed the services provided by the fee, which include the international student orientation (ISO), expanded advising staff, improved immigration compliance and improved communications. In addition Schafermeyer pointed to upcoming communications efforts in the works, which include improving the ISS and office of international affairs (OIA) websites and pre-arrival online orientation modules to give students access to better information before arriving at UO. Both new developments are set to be implemented in the fall of 2014.
The main issue that students addressed is that the program is that they’re paying for a future investment that they may not even get to experience before graduation.
“We are paying right now and we are not actually benefiting.” Tony Zhang, international student association coordinator, said.
“You’re getting value but you’re not seeing it in the form of flashy new programs. That’s coming, but it’s incubating.” Galvan said in response to that concern.
Another issue is whether or not international students will utilize the very programs they’re paying for.
“A lot of the students don’t take advantage of services we provide. But as an educator I’m not going to stop providing beneficial programs.” Schafermeyer said.
According to Schafermeyer, upcoming course of action will be finalizing the actual programs by building their infrastructure, which include structures like an advisory board, a yearly survey and improved communication with international student leaders on campus.
“The students had awesome questions,” Schafermeyer said. “They want to know where the money that they’re being charged is going. I think that’s exactly the right approach.”