Foreign Students a World Apart at County Colleges

Nearly three years ago, some skeptics doubted Community College Chancellor Philip Westin when he plunked down $300,000 to start an experimental program increasing the number of international students.

But the decision to transfer Oxnard College President Elise Schneider to a new job as the program’s provost and pay her more than $100,000 annually to travel around the globe has proved a sound investment for the Ventura County Community College District.

Last year, the program brought in $1.13 million, and the district expects it to generate even more this academic year.

This semester alone, international enrollment increased by more than 41% to 535 students at Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark colleges.

Declared the “shining star” of district programs, Schneider has surpassed the district’s expectations in attracting foreign students.

But once they arrive at the three colleges, many students say, basic services are lacking. In a foreign land without family, homes or, in many instances, full language skills--the students say they need extra support.

“Considering all the money we have to spend, we are not getting our fair share,” said Carolina Gonzalez, 20, a student from Madrid who attends Moorpark College.

“We have our special needs, and one advisor for us is not enough,” Gonzalez said. “We need a counselor who can talk to us about visas, English proficiency tests, host families or transferring units to schools back home. Most of the counseling staff don’t know these things.”

At $143 per unit, international students pay about 10 times as much in tuition as California residents, who pay $13 per unit. State taxes subsidize the majority of the community college enrollment fee for local residents.

And unlike tuition for California residents, which returns to the state to be redistributed, most of the money collected for foreign students goes directly to district coffers.

Each campus has one full-time international student director, but only Ventura College has an additional counselor who primarily helps foreign students.

Although students must be able to speak some English to enroll in classes, many who struggle with the language say they need a specialized counselor.

“I guess they think we are all the same, like the regular students,” said Toru Takahashi, 19, a student from Japan at Oxnard College. “But all of us speak English at a different level.”

Nationally, educators say adequate counseling is imperative for the foreign students.

“In order to recruit responsibly, you have to have adequate services for them once they arrive,” said Jeanne Marie Duval, a director at the National Assn. for International Educators, based in Washington, D.C.

Schneider, who said the Ventura district was off to a good start, defended the district’s commitment to the program.

“The fact that there is a full-time specialist at each of the colleges is good,” she said.

She said her hands were tied when it came to deciding what student services should be provided. After paying for her salary and her assistant’s salary, as well as her traveling expenses, the rest of the tuition money is returned to the three campuses.

Officials at the colleges then decide how the funds will be spent. Her budget for this academic year is $315,056.

“I was hired to recruit; that’s my job,” Schneider said. “Where the money goes is not my responsibility.”

Each semester, Schneider usually goes on a monthlong expedition abroad. Last spring, she traveled to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and China, pitching the colleges as campuses in one of the safest areas along the pristine coast of California. On Monday, she will take a weeklong trip to Hawaii, where she will attend international student conferences.

The program has advantages beyond the money it brings in, Schneider said. A multiethnic campus allows students to learn first-hand about different cultures and issues facing other countries.

Schneider said the fees generated by the international program benefit all the district’s 30,500 students.

“As the program grows, we will be able to buy new computers, build new buildings and offer better services,” Schneider said.

Paying More, but Getting Less?

Takahashi and others disagree. They say international students are paying the most and reaping the least.

At Oxnard, many key services are missing, such as an office in which to meet their program advisor.

After traveling thousands of miles to attend Oxnard College, students there are greeted by an advisor at a window, who they often must wait in line to see. Students say the window service is impersonal at best.

“It’s like they don’t care,” Takahashi said.

Also, students new to the country who are not yet acclimated and often know no one in the area, sometimes have personal, rather than academic, concerns.

One advisor recalled helping an anxious student with a traffic violation, while another remembered having to explain to an excited student who had received a letter from Publisher’s Clearinghouse that he had not won the Lotto. At times, students have problems with their host families.

Students say they would rather express their problems in a private setting.

Linda Calderon, program director at Oxnard, said she had an office until this past summer when the administration building underwent restructuring. She now sits with many administration secretaries in one noisy open room. If a student wants to talk privately, they go outside where there are tables and benches.

“Students ask me, ‘Didn’t you have an office before?’ ” Calderon said. “They wonder about the college’s commitment to the program.

“Regardless of where I’m sitting, I do love my job,” Calderon said. “I’m an advocate for the students; I care about the students. They are not just like everybody else. They’re a long way from home.”

And there are equipment concerns. Calderon and Judy Arnold, the program director at Moorpark, work with antiquated computers that do not allow them access to the Internet.

Betty True, international program director at Ventura College, said she relies on the Internet for such crucial information as keeping abreast of changing immigration laws.

Although the program has been lucrative, officials say only a small portion is being reserved to benefit the international offices at the colleges.

Of the $220,726 Oxnard’s international student program brought in last academic year, the program received $58,235, according to district records. After salary and benefits, Calderon had $898 in her budget for operating expenses. This year, Calderon is expected to receive more--$61,486.

Moorpark collected $523,423 in international fees last academic year, and $65,430 went back into the program, including salary and benefits for Arnold and a seasonal assistant.

At Ventura, the program brought in $390,369. Of that sum, $76,779 was earmarked for the program, including $70,682 to cover the cost of True’s salary and benefits. True is a fashion and interior design professor on the district’s academic staff. Arnold and Calderon are classified employees.

At Ventura, a portable classroom is set up for international students. Inside the bungalow are offices for True and counselor Zeak Simmons and a room with oversized sofas where students can meet.

“This is a very important place for them,” True said. “The new students consider it like a second home. They know it’s a place where they came come and feel welcome. In the morning before class, sometimes they come in and sleep on the sofas.”

True said she was thrilled when the college announced it would hire a full-time assistant for her this year.

“Elise [Schneider] can do all the recruiting she wants to, but if we don’t take care of them here we’ll lose them,” True said. “That’s why we all think we need some help.”

Handi Hariadi, president of the International Students Club at Ventura, said the portable wasn’t good enough.

“The college should build an international student center or at least put us in a building,” Hariadi said. “That would be much better than a little trailer.”

Hariadi, who is Indonesian, also suggested that financial aid be available for students whose families are affected by the economic downturn in areas of the world such as Asia, where the majority of the district’s foreign students come from.

At Ventura, True said she has recently lost several Korean students whose families could no longer afford to keep them in a college in the U.S.

Hariadi also wondered why officials don’t earmark money for international student activities and functions. Currently, club members conduct fund-raisers and seek donations to hold activities such as the club’s upcoming Halloween party and international food festival.

Simmons, who is club advisor, agreed that a trailer did not go far enough.

“It’s more than, ‘You got a building,’ ” Simmons said. “That is something. It’s better than zero. But true commitment deems more than just the bare minimum.”

Santa Monica Sets Example

That is the philosophy of officials at Santa Monica College, which serves the highest number of international students in the state. Of the college’s 26,000 students, 2,440 have been recruited from overseas--paying fees that total about $11 million annually. Nationally, the college is second only to Northern Virginia Community College in international enrollment.

Elena Garate-Eskey, dean of international education at Santa Monica, said four full-time and eight part-time counselors are available solely for the foreign students.

Once they arrive, the students sit down with an advisor, map out an academic plan and register for classes. They attend an orientation meeting and must take an Introduction to American Education course.

If the students want to change their program, they must meet with a counselor first.

“We’re always guiding the students,” Garate-Eskey said. “We’re always keeping them on track.”

Throughout the year, the students receive funds for field trips to visit four-year universities they might want to attend.

Chancellor Westin said he prefers a decentralized management style, which means he runs the district office and allows college officials to decide matters at individual campuses.

“That means Elise cannot pick up the phone and call [counselor] Zeak and say, ‘You work for me, I want you to do this,’ ” Westin said. “He doesn’t. . . . I think those conversations should happen, but they need to happen at each of the colleges.”

Oxnard College President Steven Arvizu said he is aware of the dearth of services for international students at his college.

“It’s not adequate, and we need to build it up,” Arvizu said. “How we’ll be able to do that is the challenge. We have 100 other needs.”

The money is needed elsewhere on campus--the gym, library, cafeteria, for example--to serve the college’s entire student body of 6,800, he said.

He said the 95 students from overseas on his campus were providing a “great educational value to the students, staff and the community.”

“I’ve been here a year, and I have had international students at my home for dinner,” he said. “I make myself available for them and am supportive.”

He said he is waiting for the program to grow before he will invest more money in it. That can be a Catch-22, he said.

“You have to invest in a program before it can grow,” he said. “But I’m not going to take more resources away from other services to do that.”

That sentiment worried Simmons.

“I wouldn’t want the district to get the reputation that we are only interested in the money,” Simmons said. “We want to let them know that someone really cares. We care not just about your money, but about you as a human being.”