Student Association seeks opinion on integration of international students
Zach Barlow | Staff Photographer
Student Association President Eric Evangelista started the meeting by offering an opportunity for SA members to speak about the incident at Ohio State University on Monday.
Evangelista said he reached out to Gerard Basalla, president of the undergraduate student government at Ohio State, and offered his condolences and prayers on behalf of the Syracuse University undergraduate student body.
After meeting with the Board of Trustees earlier in the month, the most important component was safety and security of the students on SU campus, Evangelista said.
SA Co-Chair of Student Life Anjani Ladhar then gave a presentation on the Internationalization Council that she is involved on campus. Representing the undergraduate student body, she spoke about the work that the council does to promote SU students to acquire international experiences as students and also welcome international students into the SU community.
Ladhar began a conversation with the voting members by inviting them to share their opinions on how SU can better welcome international students. Her plan is to use what was said and present it to the council, led by SU Vice Chancellor and Provost Michelle Wheatly. Some suggestions were to better associate different international organizations together and improve international orientation for first-year students.
About 19 percent of the student body is international, and even though international enrollment has increased by 154 percent in the past 10 years, resources have not developed at a rate to keep up with the increase, Ladhar said.
The co-chair also shared an SU BusTime application — offered through the SU mobile app — that provides real-time updates on the various buses offered. This may be offered as an alternative to providing more heat lamps around bus stops, as with the current infrastructure it is not feasible.
SA Comptroller Malik Evans thanked the SA assembly for their work regarding the semester budget allocation process. The finance board will be meeting with some of the organizations this week regarding their specific budgets.
“We are doing our due diligence on our side as we were only able to allocate a small amount of money,” Evans said.
Published on November 28, 2016 at 11:39 pm
Contact William: wgmuoio@syr.edu