College partners with Africa program as international enrollment declines
Elizabeth Cotner
Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: News
Red push pins scattered on a world map in Admissions Counselor Mary Bailey's office mark the locations of international applicants to Hillsdale College. Nearly half of the pins cluster in the heart of Africa - a sign of the new program that will bring three young Kenyan women to campus in fall 2008.
The college partnered with the Zawadi Africa Education Program, a nonprofit organization that brings women from Africa to universities in the United States, when program founder Susan Mboya asked Hillsdale to renew the relationship her father began with the college in the 1960s, Assistant to the President Mike Harner said.
The Kenyan women will arrive as many administrators and faculty note a shrinking international presence on campus. Although the college has never formally recruited internationally, complicated variables - including political crises, strict admissions standards and financial burdens - may contribute to declining international enrollment.
According to the admissions department, the number of international students attending Hillsdale has fluctuated in the last 10 years between 13 and three each year. Since Sept. 11, when visa permissions became rarer, the number lowered to between three and seven international students.
Harner said the Zawadi agreement was not a reaction to the enrollment decline.
"There's no real concern. It's more just a chance to give deserving students an opportunity to learn," he said.
Links to the past
The history of foreign students at Hillsdale indicates many students come to the college through connections with private programs, other U.S. schools and professors with foreign ties.
Three African students arrived at Hillsdale in the 1960s through the African Student Airlifts program. Mboya's father, Kenyan independence movement leader Tom Mboya, founded that program, which brought about 1,000 African students to the U.S.
Associate Professor of Spanish Carmen Wyatt-Hayes, adviser for the International Club since 1995, investigated the history of the club on campus in 2000 and found that the group's mission and leadership changed as the number of foreign students fluctuated.
According to her report, foreign students first arrived at Hillsdale in the 1950s when the University of Michigan sent them to smaller colleges like Hillsdale to improve their English. Many came from the Middle East.
In the 1960s, 6 percent of the student body was foreign-born, Wyatt-Hayes said. In the 1970s, a professor recruited students from Latin America; in the 1980s, a professor brought students from Soviet Union satellite countries.
Former Professor of English Susie Schray advised the International Club for nearly 25 years. She said the number of foreign students ranged from 30 to 40 during the '60s and '70s, then declined.
"It was a very exciting time because our International Club was very vibrant, very alive," Schray said.
Now, no current foreign students participate in the club, Wyatt-Hayes said, and efforts to revive the club this year failed.
She called the small presence of foreign students "a loss for our college" and a missed opportunity to fulfill the college's mission.
"For Hillsdale College, the American experiment in self-government and the devotion to free market economics is a very important part of freedom," Wyatt-Hayes said. "How wonderful it would be if the college would recruit students from other countries so that at Hillsdale College they could learn the best of American values and go back and lead their countries and establish better relationships [with the U.S.]"
International recruitment
The admissions department does not formally recruit international students, and likely won't in the future. Director of Admissions Jeff Lantis '86 said advertising in international guides is the extent of such recruitment.
"The resources that [the admissions department] allocates toward foreign recruitment are the same as it was before the decline," Lantis said.
Bailey '06 said about 55 students from foreign countries apply each year. About half are accepted. Fewer than half of the accepted enroll.
Bailey said most foreign students apply to Hillsdale through the Common Application, a standard document sent simultaneously to many universities that allows students to apply to schools without researching them.
"To be honest, I don't think most of them understand what Hillsdale is about, so we look for that in an application," Bailey said.
Other students, like junior Mark Willard from Bangladesh and freshman Xingshuo Liu from China, said they discovered Hillsdale through families who hosted them in high school.
Senior Hujun Peng said he found Hillsdale while looking for a school with a small foreign studentry to ensure he'd be immersed in U.S. culture and learn English.
"I wanted to be the only Chinese student so I could learn English faster," Peng said.
An exchange program with Saarland University in Germany - the college's only exchange program - has brought one to three students to Hillsdale each semester for 10 years, said German Department Chairman Eberhard Geyer.
Academic standards
Bailey said her office looks for students with fluent English who meet the demand of the college's core requirements. International students must perform at the same level as American students, though private tutoring exists.
English as a Second Language courses have not been offered at the college since Shray's retirement in 2000 since there is little need for instruction beyond tutoring, Shray said.
"I think it's cool that [the college] treats us like natives because it motivates me to study harder," Liu said.
Harner said the college emphasized high academic standards and normal evaluating methods for the 22 Kenyan women who applied through Zawadi.
"The one thing we kept emphasizing to Ms. Mboya is we're not going to put the women in a position to fail because they're not academically ready," he said.
Director of Financial Aid Rich Moeggenberg said there is a "concerted effort" to bring foreign students to the college once accepted.
But, Bailey said, most international students encounter a huge financial burden when they come to the U.S.
Moeggenberg said a "handful" of endowed scholarships are available to foreign students. Most of those scholarships specify that the college grant them to students from specific places - the Pacific Rim or Bulgaria, for example - which means he can't award them if no students enroll from those regions. He said the college also reserves funds for merit and need-based international aide.
Bailey said she isn't concerned about the relative absence of international students in the classroom.
"The learning process itself is not based on who you're learning with," she said. "It's based on the fact that people want to learn, and they're committed to the process."
But CarolAnn Barker '63 said she learned from the foreign students with whom she attended the college and from students she advised as former dean of women.
"I think we miss something if we don't have a certain number of those students," she said. "I don't think you have to have racial diversity … If you have that, that's fine. But geographical diversity is what we're missing right now."
The college partnered with the Zawadi Africa Education Program, a nonprofit organization that brings women from Africa to universities in the United States, when program founder Susan Mboya asked Hillsdale to renew the relationship her father began with the college in the 1960s, Assistant to the President Mike Harner said.
The Kenyan women will arrive as many administrators and faculty note a shrinking international presence on campus. Although the college has never formally recruited internationally, complicated variables - including political crises, strict admissions standards and financial burdens - may contribute to declining international enrollment.
According to the admissions department, the number of international students attending Hillsdale has fluctuated in the last 10 years between 13 and three each year. Since Sept. 11, when visa permissions became rarer, the number lowered to between three and seven international students.
Harner said the Zawadi agreement was not a reaction to the enrollment decline.
"There's no real concern. It's more just a chance to give deserving students an opportunity to learn," he said.
Links to the past
The history of foreign students at Hillsdale indicates many students come to the college through connections with private programs, other U.S. schools and professors with foreign ties.
Three African students arrived at Hillsdale in the 1960s through the African Student Airlifts program. Mboya's father, Kenyan independence movement leader Tom Mboya, founded that program, which brought about 1,000 African students to the U.S.
Associate Professor of Spanish Carmen Wyatt-Hayes, adviser for the International Club since 1995, investigated the history of the club on campus in 2000 and found that the group's mission and leadership changed as the number of foreign students fluctuated.
According to her report, foreign students first arrived at Hillsdale in the 1950s when the University of Michigan sent them to smaller colleges like Hillsdale to improve their English. Many came from the Middle East.
In the 1960s, 6 percent of the student body was foreign-born, Wyatt-Hayes said. In the 1970s, a professor recruited students from Latin America; in the 1980s, a professor brought students from Soviet Union satellite countries.
Former Professor of English Susie Schray advised the International Club for nearly 25 years. She said the number of foreign students ranged from 30 to 40 during the '60s and '70s, then declined.
"It was a very exciting time because our International Club was very vibrant, very alive," Schray said.
Now, no current foreign students participate in the club, Wyatt-Hayes said, and efforts to revive the club this year failed.
She called the small presence of foreign students "a loss for our college" and a missed opportunity to fulfill the college's mission.
"For Hillsdale College, the American experiment in self-government and the devotion to free market economics is a very important part of freedom," Wyatt-Hayes said. "How wonderful it would be if the college would recruit students from other countries so that at Hillsdale College they could learn the best of American values and go back and lead their countries and establish better relationships [with the U.S.]"
International recruitment
The admissions department does not formally recruit international students, and likely won't in the future. Director of Admissions Jeff Lantis '86 said advertising in international guides is the extent of such recruitment.
"The resources that [the admissions department] allocates toward foreign recruitment are the same as it was before the decline," Lantis said.
Bailey '06 said about 55 students from foreign countries apply each year. About half are accepted. Fewer than half of the accepted enroll.
Bailey said most foreign students apply to Hillsdale through the Common Application, a standard document sent simultaneously to many universities that allows students to apply to schools without researching them.
"To be honest, I don't think most of them understand what Hillsdale is about, so we look for that in an application," Bailey said.
Other students, like junior Mark Willard from Bangladesh and freshman Xingshuo Liu from China, said they discovered Hillsdale through families who hosted them in high school.
Senior Hujun Peng said he found Hillsdale while looking for a school with a small foreign studentry to ensure he'd be immersed in U.S. culture and learn English.
"I wanted to be the only Chinese student so I could learn English faster," Peng said.
An exchange program with Saarland University in Germany - the college's only exchange program - has brought one to three students to Hillsdale each semester for 10 years, said German Department Chairman Eberhard Geyer.
Academic standards
Bailey said her office looks for students with fluent English who meet the demand of the college's core requirements. International students must perform at the same level as American students, though private tutoring exists.
English as a Second Language courses have not been offered at the college since Shray's retirement in 2000 since there is little need for instruction beyond tutoring, Shray said.
"I think it's cool that [the college] treats us like natives because it motivates me to study harder," Liu said.
Harner said the college emphasized high academic standards and normal evaluating methods for the 22 Kenyan women who applied through Zawadi.
"The one thing we kept emphasizing to Ms. Mboya is we're not going to put the women in a position to fail because they're not academically ready," he said.
Director of Financial Aid Rich Moeggenberg said there is a "concerted effort" to bring foreign students to the college once accepted.
But, Bailey said, most international students encounter a huge financial burden when they come to the U.S.
Moeggenberg said a "handful" of endowed scholarships are available to foreign students. Most of those scholarships specify that the college grant them to students from specific places - the Pacific Rim or Bulgaria, for example - which means he can't award them if no students enroll from those regions. He said the college also reserves funds for merit and need-based international aide.
Bailey said she isn't concerned about the relative absence of international students in the classroom.
"The learning process itself is not based on who you're learning with," she said. "It's based on the fact that people want to learn, and they're committed to the process."
But CarolAnn Barker '63 said she learned from the foreign students with whom she attended the college and from students she advised as former dean of women.
"I think we miss something if we don't have a certain number of those students," she said. "I don't think you have to have racial diversity … If you have that, that's fine. But geographical diversity is what we're missing right now."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Joe McCleary
posted 5/17/08 @ 5:39 PM EST
This is great! We current Hillsdale students can learn so much from international students and different cultures. Plus, Hillsdale College will influence their thinking and hopefully they will make an impact on their home countries. (Continued…)
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