Unlike most of the Class of 2016, Mehak Ali will not experience Juice Jam, late-night trips to Kimmel Food Court and basketball games at the Carrier Dome during her first semester at Syracuse University.

Rather, Ali will be living near Florence, Italy’s historic city center –– 4,163 miles away from SU’s main campus –– as part of the university’s Discovery Florence Program.

“When I applied to ‘Cuse I was like, ‘This is my No. 1; if I get into this school and get into this program, I don’t care if it’s a money issue, I don’t care if it’s a separation issue — I’m going,’” said Ali, a freshman earth sciences major with a focus in environmental sciences.

The 32 students participating in Discovery Florence this semester is an all-time high for the 4-year-old program, but this is not the only demographic record the Class of 2016 has shattered.

This year’s freshman class contains the smallest proportion of students from the Northeast, 63.9 percent, in SU’s 142-year history.

This shows that SU’s vision of diversity is not limited to socioeconomic, racial and ethnic measures, said Don Saleh, vice president for enrollment management.

“We have a goal of continuing to build a diverse student body, and one of the ways we measure that diversity is by looking at the geographic distribution of our students,” he said.

This 4.6 percent drop from the 2011-12 academic year is balanced by upticks in students from other areas, Saleh said. Students from both the South and the West, for example, are up by more than 2 percent.

SU received 25,781 applications and about 51 percent of them were accepted, Saleh said. As of Aug. 12, approximately 3,430 students were enrolled and the male-to-female ratio remained unchanged at 44 to 56 percent, respectively.

Like students from outside the Northeast, the number of international students at SU has steadily risen during the past several years as well.

About 9.4 percent of the Class of 2016 is international students, including Diane Danneels, who is Hungarian and Belgian but has lived in Switzerland for the past nine years.

The decision to study 3,872 miles away in Syracuse started to come together several years ago for Danneels, a freshman advertising major.

English is one of her better languages, and she was drawn to SU’s communications program after researching online and talking with a college adviser from the United States.

“America just stood out to me because it’s kind of like a menu,” she said. “You take the classes you want and all the ones you’re obligated to take and everything.”

The trend of increased geographic diversity of the student body isn’t coincidental.

Brian Spector, president of SU’s Alumni Association, said the university recognized the applicant pool in the Northeast was shrinking several years ago and amped up its recruitment efforts in cities such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco and other “geographies of opportunity.”

There has been synergy among SU officials, Alumni Association board members, trustees and other graduates on this front and different initiatives, he said.

This trend is positive, Spector said, because it helps with the national reputation of SU, and enhances the college experience by having students with different perspectives.

“It doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the Northeast, we’re still heavily involved,” he said. “We’re New York’s college team.”

Changes to the way recruitment was conducted for Discovery Florence this year also helps explain its increased participation.

Nancy Rothschild, associate dean of admissions, said in an email that this semester marked the first time students did not have to initiate the application. Many who were deemed good candidates were encouraged to apply by admissions staff members.

For both international and domestic students, there are many services available on campus to help adjust to life at SU.

Pat Burak, director of the Slutzker Center for International Services, said an orientation that pre-empts Syracuse Welcome Week helps international students get up to speed on many topics, such as academics, safety and culture.

The center also received funding for another full-time international student adviser –– something that was approved three years ago but was never funded.

Though it’s likely the Slutzker Center needs more full-time help, it’s a start, Burak said.

The Division of Student Affairs provided a “substantial” allotment from the undergraduate co-curricular fee to help with international student orientation this year.

The Slutzker Center is a resource that can either help with international students’ problems, or direct them and help familiarize them with the correct place to go, like the Counseling Center, Burak said.

“Going to a counseling center is not common around the world,” she said. “People generally keep their problems in their family or under the roof, so to speak.”

For domestic students, the programming of Syracuse Welcome Week aims to get students acclimated to their new surroundings through a mix of social and academic events, said Carrie Grogan Abbott, director of the Office of First Year and Transfer Students.

And though not all of the orientation events are mandatory, students should attempt to attend as many as they can, she said.

Said Abbott: “When students come to Syracuse University, they should be open to everything that our diverse community has to offer, especially Syracuse Welcome.”

 

Published on August 21, 2012 at 11:08 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum