When Katharine Xu first started at Syracuse University, it was difficult to get involved in campus life.

Late night college life doesn’t exist back in China. She couldn’t participate in conversations about sports including hockey or football, which aren’t popular back home. And sometimes it would take a while to realize she and a friend were talking about the same movie, because the title was translated differently.

“At first it’s so hard,” Xu said, “Because we grow up with different backgrounds, we watch different TV, we listen to different music, we watch different sports and we eat different things — and we name them differently.”

She has loved her time at SU and in the United States, though. Xu said she’s made great friends and is planning on getting her doctorate degree as well.

Xu, a second-year graduate student majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering, is one of 4,004 international students at SU. It’s a number that’s increased almost 130 percent during the last nine years and continues to go up. Most — just more than half — come from China.

Besides having to adjust to the expected cultural differences in the United States, most international students appear to enjoy their experience at SU. But some believe that the university should do more to help students from other countries connect with Americans.

Ring Yang, a sophomore film major from Guangzhou, China, came to SU after a company she paid $5,000 to help her with the application process guided her to the school. Though Yang imagined Syracuse — the fifth-largest city in New York state — to be completely different and at least comparable to Boston, she said the experience has been “very good” overall — even though she considered transferring at one point.

Communicating, however, proved to be difficult. And, she said, it became easy to stick with your own group.

“Because you can’t speak English well, so, people don’t talk to you — I mean, American people,” Yang said. “They talk to you. But they don’t really want to like spend too much energy to understand what you’re saying.

“So you stay in a certain circle and then you can’t improve.”

For Flora Zhou, a resident adviser in Lawrinson Hall and a mentor at the Slutzker Center for International Services, the transition was easy and her first two weeks on campus seemed “unreal.” She wanted to go to the best media school in the United States, and applied to SU and Columbia University, where she was waitlisted.

Zhou said she quickly fell in love with the campus, which reminded her of “a picture that you can find on all those SAT prep books” with students sitting on the Quad wearing college sweatshirts. She soon met a graduate assistant at the international center from her hometown who introduced her to other people.

She’s also seen a trend of international students sticking together. Though that’s not a problem, Zhou said, only hanging out with people who are from your home country partly defeats the purpose of traveling thousands of miles to go to college.

“I feel like some students — some American students — assume Asian people try to stick together and they are not welcome to talk with any of the Asian students. And I don’t think that’s particularly the truth,” said Zhou, a senior public relations, international relations and political science major from Harbin, China.

“But I’ve seen the pattern on my floor that the international students do tend to stick together and they don’t really want to participate with anything on the floor. That kind of hurts my heart a little bit. I’m an international student, I want them to enjoy the campus experience, I want them to enjoy being on the floor,” she added.

After starting at SU in the spring, Mingyue Chen, an undecided freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences from Maoming, China, said she experienced culture shock and had difficultly speaking English. Chen said she got at lot of support from the Slutzker Center, which suggested she attend activities including Mix It Up — an event at which international and American students can talk about culture.

The program is helpful, she said, but there are very few activities like it on campus that involve both American and international students.

“Yeah, there are many international students and there are many (supports) for international students, but I feel like that’s not enough,” Chen said. “Because culture is very different. How can you build a bridge between these two groups?”

Increasing enrollment

Dean of Admissions Maurice Harris said several factors are driving increases in international student enrollment. That includes a greater interest in studying in the United States and recruitment efforts by SU.

An April 16 report from the University Senate’s Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs brings up concerns that more students have been brought to SU without enough resources to support them — especially those from other countries. As international students do not get much financial aid, they help offset tuition costs for others, according to the report.

Harris said that’s not one of the goals, and it’s part of SU’s mission as a global research university to have a community that reflects the world. He also said there now is some merit-based financial aid available for international students.

“We don’t think of our international students as intentional students — that, they’re simply our students,” Harris said. “That kind of mentality — we want all members of our community to have.”

Twelve out of 16 colleges that SU considers peer institutions in a report from Bain & Co., a consulting firm based in Boston that analyzed ways the school can become more efficient and effective, provided data about their current enrollment.

Out of those schools, four have a higher percentage of international students in their student body than SU’s approximately 18.6 percent: Boston, Northeastern and Cornell universities, as well as the University of Rochester.

‘Inviting, welcoming and accommodating’

Not all international students at SU have had issues with the transition to life in the United States. Even those who did say they still enjoy being at the university.

“It’s just a learning experience when you go abroad and learn,” said Nour Taher, a second-year graduate student from Ramallah, in the West Bank, pursuing his master’s in business administration on a Fulbright Scholarship. “It’s not just what I’m learning; it’s not just about the MBA or business. It goes way beyond that, I think.”

Krishna Karthik Shivaram, a second-year graduate student in engineering management from Bangalore, India, said SU has been “inviting,” “welcoming” and “accommodating.” Shivaram said he chose the university because his program blends supply chain management and business analytics — and a scholarship he was given helped, too.

“It’s not been mundane. It’s not been set in stone,” Shivaram said. “The experience is very broad-based and it’s been very interesting — and it’s a new thing every time.”

For Babak Kasaee Roodsari, a doctoral student from Mashhad, Iran, majoring in hydrology and water resources, his program has been “practical” and he’s found the U.S. more welcoming than Europe. He was also offered a fellowship for his first two years at SU.

“I think I’ve chosen a very good university, and I’m happy with my option,” he said.

A commitment to international education

To Pat Burak, the director of the Slutzker Center, support for international students has to be an “institutional responsibility.” That includes everything from having cultural training for resident advisers to an understanding that some of these students are coping with turmoil back home, she said, citing the conflict in Ukraine as one example.

The staff at the center is often tied up with immigration work — a “completely regulatory-driven process that has to be 100 percent exact.” This August, employees had a stretch in which they worked 19 days straight.

But, she said, SU has turned a page with the new administration. Burak said Chancellor Kent Syverud has told her that he is committed to international educational.

“So,” she said, “I take great heart in that.”

Published on November 13, 2014 at 2:34 am

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum