International students are having a hard time getting here

By Sharon Salyer and Eric Stevick

Herald Writers

Hobbled by airline hassles, snarls at border crossings and worries over safety, local community colleges and state universities are facing international students arriving late, skipping fall quarter or packing up and leaving as a result of the recent terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

At Washington State University, 42 new students from the United Arab Emirates have announced that they are leaving. Most were transfer students who had attended community colleges in Washington, including those in Edmonds and Everett.

"The fact that they’re new to the community and don’t have a support network set up here yet, there was a feeling from many of their parents that it would be better to return home this semester," said Paul Svaren, WSU’s international enrollment manager.

Many hope to return spring semester, he said, and have demonstrated their intent by keeping apartment leases.

"The university has put a fair amount of effort into making the process quite easy for them so when they do come back their immigration status and enrollment will not be a problem," Svaren said.

At Everett Community College, which starts its fall session Monday, president Charlie Earl urged tolerance in a letter to all students.

The letter was translated into Arabic and mailed to local Middle Eastern students.

The school has about 50 international students on visas, but there are hundreds of other students, including about 40 from Middle Eastern countries, who are foreign-born American residents.

"In the aftermath of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, we want all students to know that we intend to provide a welcoming, safe and secure and friendly campus for everyone," Earl said in the letter.

"I ask for your help in this regard by being especially respectful and accepting of others regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality and religion."

Edmonds Community College, which has one of the state’s largest international community college programs, won’t know the exact impact on enrollment for two weeks. Some foreign students will choose to wait and see, perhaps enrolling later.

"I think some will defer, and I don’t really know how many at this point," said David Cordell, dean of EdCC’s international education program, which works with about 700 foreign students from 60 countries.

Cordell said it is not just students from the Middle East who might not show. It’s the same feeling many people in the United States have about not traveling right now, Cordell said.

In contrast to WSU, where classes started Aug. 27, classes at the University of Washington won’t begin until Oct. 1, so the impact there is still unknown.

"There’s lots of buzz about that," Gary Ausman, director of the UW’s International Services Office, said of the impact of terrorism on international enrollment.

The UW has students from 100 countries. Two-thirds of these foreign students are from Pacific Rim countries.

"The question is how many will show up," he said. "We don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see."

New international students began their 10-day orientation last week. The university has 586 new foreign graduate students this fall and 410 new international undergraduate students.

Overall, the UW had international enrollment of 2,148 students during the 1999-2000 school year, out of a total enrollment of 36,139.

One graduate assistant in the Germanics department already announced he wasn’t returning. He told university officials, "I’m not coming back. You’re going to war," Ausman recounted.

The final count of students who have decided not to return won’t be available until Oct. 17.

"We’re getting some concern from students in e-mails saying, ‘I may be a little late, ’ " he said.

Students are encouraged to come for fall quarter, but if they are unable to because of travel complications they will be admitted for winter quarter, said Tim Washburn, director of admissions and records.

"We have heard from a number of students in Asia who are having difficulty getting airplane connections," he said.

Starting winter quarter could cause multiple problems. Not only would they need to find a place to live, but they might be unable to take courses because they missed the prerequisites offered in the fall, he said.

Terrorism could linger beyond this fall and curtail international enrollment for fall 2002.

"I would guess that the effect of the tragedy will linger long enough to affect international study interest in the UW for next fall," Washburn said.

The terrorist attacks have affected other community and technical colleges in Washington.

North Seattle Community College, South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia and Highline Community College in Des Moines are expecting a small number of students to defer fall admission.

Long waits because of increased security checks at the U.S.-Canada border are also taking a toll. For British Columbia students, crossing times have increased up to two hours.

Most students are making the trip in time for class, but some say they may need to drop classes because of the delays, said Joann Linville, dean of students at Bellingham Technical College.

Overall, 515,000 foreign students are studying in the United States.

"We’re hearing a lot of rumor and gossip," said Victor Johnson, associate executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of International Educators, of the e-mail buzz among members.

WSU is not the only university where students from the United Arab Emirates, a country located between Oman and Saudi Arabia, have left.

Students at California State University at Fresno say they have been told by their embassy to return home, he said.

It’s impossible to know how long enrollments from international students might be affected by the terrorist events, Johnson said.

"You can play out a nightmare scenario that can cause people to reassess the long-term attractiveness of an education in the U.S.," he said.

"Hopefully it will be a short-term blip," Johnson added. "It’s too early to tell yet. I just don’t know."

You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486

or send e-mail to salyer@heraldnet.com.