SUMMARY KEYWORDS: international students, students, campus, institution, support, country, employers, create, career, thinking, orientation, services, provide, hosted, community, educate, pandemic, practices, tay, conversations
SPEAKERS: Tamayo Zhou, Yi Xuen Tay, Xiao Yun Sim, Katie Goodroad, Yuan Zhou, Meena Pannirselvam
Meena Pannirselvam 00:00
My name is Meenaa and I use she/her/hers pronouns. I am a graduate assistant at the Office of Academic Success and Intercultural Services. And I’m also a second year graduate student in the student affairs master’s program at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
Katie Goodroad 00:15
Hello, I’m Katie Goodroad. I’m the coordinator for international orientation and outreach at Indiana University Bloomington. I use she/her pronouns Thank you.
Yuan Zhou 00:25
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us at 9am You know session truly appreciate it all. You know, the second day right away. My name is Yuan Zhou, my English pronouns are she her and hers, and I’m currently serving as a resident director at the University of San Francisco.
Xiao Yun Sim 00:40
Good morning everyone. My name is Xiao Yun Sim.I use she/her pronouns and I’m currently serving as a career services consultant at Purdue University West Lafayette campus.
Tamayo Zhou 00:49
Good morning. Hi, everyone. I’m Tamayo Zhou he/him pronouns and I’m the Chinese culture and language advisor and academic advisor at INTO-Drew University.
Yi Xuen Tay 00:59
Today, we missed a day where we can just use Zoom and unmute ourselves. I was just watching everyone shuffling around, it was hilarious. But anyway, good morning, everyone. My name is Yi Xuen Tay, I do go by Tay, I use she/her pronouns. I’m currently a second year Master’s student in the Educational Administration program at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. So we will go ahead and get started. First, we will give an overview of kind of what today’s session will look like and what you will be able to learn. In the interest of time I won’t be reading out my speech, because I want to make sure all my amazing presenters have time to share. So first important for us to apply elements of strategic imperative for racial justice and decolonization, specifically in the area of international students support and retention. What we hope to do throughout the presentation is to reflect on Sargent theory that apply to current practices. The presentation, we’ll then go into discussing some of the backgrounds on international students defining what VUCA means and what examples of the VUCA we’ve notice, as well as going to current practices in different functional areas, and each presenters institution. So the specific functional areas, we will be looking at are orientation services, residents life, career services, international student programming, as well as advocacy, what we hope that you will gain from this session, after all that is to be able to identify the needs of international students, and be able to localize the knowledge at your respective campuses. So we need to note that there is a need to advance social and racial justice for international students who typically experienced discrimination and even hate from US as a host society. As practitioners, we need to be able to provide comprehensive support, using Sargent as a framework. So first is really thinking about developing critical consciousness and awareness of your social identities, and the societal conditions that create and sustain oppressive dynamics between groups. So as a professional, I invite you all to reflect on the following questions. How are your identity showing up when interacting with international students? What knowledge is and for what lens do you use while supporting international students? How might you be perpetuating oppression on the international student community in your role, or confronting oppressive practices? Are you aware of the historical and contemporary manifestation of systemic oppression that impact the various identities that international students hold? The second takeaway that we have after reviewing Sargent is there is a need to reject dehumanization of international students especially as informed through your history, such as the cash cow notion of international students, or being threatened by us or treating us as outsiders just because of our nationality. We also intentionally emphasize on retention and not recruitment in our current presentation on this is important as we need to not view international students as just numbers at an institution and begin humanizing students as individuals. Finally, a radical democracy vision of higher education calls to confront white supremacy and settler colonialism. So within international support practice, this will look like a practice committed to questioning justice and hope. As practitioners we should not shy away from questioning or engaging in consistent and reflexive practice. We need to be able to seek justice for international students, as well as remain hopeful that we can rehumanize international students at US institutions, especially during our VUCA period. This is really what we grounded our presentation on so um, hopefully throughout the amazing presenters later, you’ll be able to see how these apply to current practices. We want to continue by talking about this social positioning of international students as the background introduction into who this these students are. We need to know that international students and scholars presence in the US have always been viewed simultaneously as a threat and talent. So by threat International students have been positioned as possible threats to national security or scapegoated for issues in the country as non immigrants to the country. SEVIS or the online surveillance system that tracks international students is actually housed within the Department of Homeland Security. SEVIS is also created after the tragic incidents of 911, where we observe a heightened need for surveillance and fear of international student presence in the country. It’s also worthy to note that international students on post graduation work authorization programs are actually surveilled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more commonly known as ICE, again, signaling our threat to national security. There were also multiple policies targeting specific countries and or populations from the last administration, where we saw this through the Muslim travel ban, as well as ban on Chinese students of Chinese scholars apologies with suspected military ties due to fear of espionage activities. Talents, or more accurately commodities is rooted in the commodification of international students and their value to the US. A lot of main arguments around why we should recruit and bring international students to the country is that is how they bring financial and economic contribution to the country. A clear example of this argument is NAFSA’s international student economist value tool, where as the name suggests, discloses and lists out the amount of economy contribution international students bring to specific US institutions, as well as the local communities around those institutions. Other arguments that further commodifies international students is the argument to bring the best and brightest and the most talented to the US, so that they can contribute to the diversity or internationalization of institutions, that that their presence can help build or facilitate foreign policies, or, more importantly, to generate produce and diversify knowledge for US benefits. So the last few years is what we our team here has described as a term we call VUCA. We did not develop this, someone had pass on the information to us, our understanding is it is a military term. So VUCA stands for a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, and a time where we can only characterize as VUCA There has been a lot of impact on the international student community. And most notably, we can see this example through COVID-19 pandemic, that is one of the biggest contributors to a VUCA period. Obviously, we see that through the lower enrollment of a number of international students. And we’re not going to go into the other instances, we just thought that this was a nice graphic to kind of let you see and observe how VUCA has played a role in international student experiences. So another VUCA moment was during the peak of the COVID 19 pandemic in July 2020, where SEVP released a guidance that will take away student visas from international students. So what this policy guidance essentially said was, international students either have to be forced to return to their home countries, or that if they remain in the US, they have to take majority in person classes. And that’s during a global pandemic. So while this policy was rescinded, a lot of international students were not only fearful and threatened by this particular policy, but more importantly, we lost trust, and felt that coming to the US was a wrong decision for us. That’s data in the screenshot. It’s an article published by The New York Times as a direct quote, maybe I shouldn’t have come. While with this ruling is international students were essentially used as political pawns and hostages, to force institutions to reopen to a post pandemic normal, further dehumanizing us as individuals who have lives in a country. Another clear example of a VUCA situation was the previous Trump administration’s anti immigration rhetoric and stance. Aside from the Muslim travel ban and a ban on Chinese scholars that I mentioned earlier, we also observe the post graduation work authorization program, which is optional practical training, being threatened multiple times by the previous administration. They described international students as threats, direct quotes, threats to the US local workforce, and for, again, direct quote, taking away jobs from Americans, which essentially scapegoated our presence as causes for issues in the country. With that said, we will now transition into thinking about current practices. And we will begin by talking about orientation services. And I’ll hand it over to Katie, thank you Tay.
Katie Goodroad 09:39
So as someone who works at orientation, when we were going through the pandemic, it was really we were obviously facing a lot of challenges. And so one thing that I took was making sure that we were focused on what was our mission and how we were using that mission to serve our students. My area is mostly focused on the opportunities to build community for students, as well as helping students learn, or helping incoming students learn how to be students. And so that’s what we’re really focused on when we’re trying to provide services. So as Tay mentioned, we all know that international students faced many challenges to even arriving on campus, right, we can talk about the uncertainty about whether or not they would have access to university and required approved vaccines, whether they would be able to even get a visa to enter into the country, uncertainty about never having traveled to the US before never having having to do everything through the screen, whereas a lot of schools are able to send the professionals over to meet with students. And so this may be the first time they’re meeting in America. And a lot of students were facing numerous challenges in that we’re structurally set up not to help them succeed here. And so and we know as people who are outside of the international field that sometimes people don’t recognize the challenges that international students are facing when they’re going through this. And so one of the things that our office did when providing orientation for incoming international students, is we worked firstly on building community. So hosting virtual open houses with the International Student Welcome Team, they were able to talk to students who know what access of resources they have in their country, even though they may not have had to go through some of the same experiences because they entered college pre COVID. They may know how challenging it is to set up a doctor’s appointment in their home country to get access to certain vaccines do not have the resources. So making sure that students were able to talk to current students in the country in the area. We talked about partnering with international student organizations to host virtual and COVID safe events. During orientation, we had a lot of our Bollywood dance groups hosted virtual sessions, to make sure students could see themselves in the university even though they’ve had such big adjustments in the last two years. We also set up WhatsApp and wechat communities. And so students were both building virtual connections in their home country before they came over, they could search for roommates, they could search for people with similar majors, they could talk about some of the challenges they’re having getting a visa appointment at the consulate, and which consulates? What are tricks they use to be able to get there. So they were able to connect with people, even before they were in the US. So then some of the things we worked on, for hoping for preparing students to be students, while they’re, while they’re attending orientation was we had to educate the university a little bit. So a lot of university, a lot of our university was focused on supporting domestic students and making sure they knew what was happening, but making sure that when they’re promoting getting a vaccine before coming to school, that the promoting vaccines that are accessible in all countries, and also educating that it isn’t just the three US vaccines that were eligible, and that people were also taking. So making sure that we were working to educate this rule, and making sure that we are sharing those options with our international community. I also say we created a pre arrival orientation to help build communities, and had modules that were focused on the most up to date information that was coming out. And so we knew that some of the immigration rules were changing, as well as some of the campus life stuff was changing. So in our virtual modules that happened on Canvas, we were able to change those and made sure that students could see again see themselves and understand and make them feel empowered to have decisions as they were coming to the university. We did virtual tours of the residence halls, students who may not have been able to get to campus before, we’re seeing more than just a floorplan, they would be able to see where they would be able to where they would be able to set up pictures of home where they’d be able to create their own space when so much has been taken off control for them. And then we tried to depart we tried to partner with campus partners as much as possible. My favorite one I will say is our head chef, at IU Bloomington right did a cooking tutorial for our students where he highlighted where students needed special spices, who they should get food from home, as well as answer questions about dietary restrictions. All of this was over zoom. And that happened in mid July. So students were getting anxious about coming into a new place, and then having to travel all of these places as well as not, not wanting to take public buses not wanting to take things like that. So how would a student who was coming to campus know what they have access to so this is really about building partnerships. And then as students arrived on campus, we did campus tours through podcasts. So in Bloomington, we have about 1500 students coming in, right. And so we knew we couldn’t do group tours. And so by releasing a podcast on campus where students stood with their new incoming roommates or something like that, they could walk around and explore campus on their own and again, feel empowered as well.
Yuan Zhou 14:45
Okay right walking up in here. It’s like taking 30 seconds out of my time to just unmute myself and spotlight me. But um, I’ll be talking a little bit about residence life and I kind of sectioned it in two kind of area and that’s how I think USF has kind of situate, what is it called modules. And so there’s first half about housing, housing assignment desk operations. And then the second half is around like residence life. And so for us thinking about, you know, watching out for each other right now, that’s part of the strategic imperative for racial justice and decolonization. And there’s just like, in your graph, there’s one around like watching out for each other. And I think that that’s important for not just only on campus, right, I feel like sometimes our support and services kind of stopped once the students either checked out of your campus, or they graduate from your campus. And it’s kind of like, Oh, I’ll move you over to alumni office or other offices and be like, we’ll see you later kind of thing. But for us, it’s really important to think about, how do you be proactive with the state of the border, right, collaborating with international students services, to better understand the students arrival and travel process? This past few years, as y’all have known? I mean, traveled domestically, there’s already so many restrictions, right? travel internationally, don’t even go there. So many, and it changes daily, right? What how things develop. And so for, you know, hopefully, the assignments working with like checking in, or, you know, checking out students, the other part is also being flexible with the check in checkout and cancellation processes. I think a lot of those processes are pretty pretty, you know, black and white, right? Like this day by the date, you cancel, you pay a cancellation fee, there’s always money involved in some way. And I think that right, for for a good reason is to, you know, make sure that students that for us, we’re keeping like a consensus of you know, when students are coming in, right, there’s some reasons for that. But I think as we’re saying, with this period of VUCA, it has been increasing the challenge, right. And so making sure that, you know, we have students who may get denied at the airport and have to return back. So what does that mean for students who like re check in for a few days or for a certain period of time? What does it mean, when students may not arrive on time due to travel restrictions, you know, being able to provide that housing support rights, housing as part of the basic, basic needs for our students? And so what can we do? Making sure that y’all institutions have that space to talk about these instances? Because I think that there are some times where it’s like, oh, case by case, we’ll do it right. But what if this case by case come in a large group of students, right, like 10+ , what is that? What would that look like, for your institution? I think moving towards the residential experience, just a little bit over here. I mean, think that thinking about the educational initiatives that we put out in the hall, you know, by the resident advisors, or advisors, residents directors, all of those amazing humans, people working in the residence hall is acknowledging that US centric approach to providing experiences. So for instance, I’m sure, you know, in most institutions, like social justice values are, you know, becoming a thing, right, that we wanted to, like educate students on. And so the thing about how some of those contents may be focused around like the US centric approach and content that are coming in, and may not be relevant to our international students, right, or might just need a little bit of a reframe, to help them better understand. And so for instance, you know, when we’re talking about like, the privilege walk, or a, you know, the cultural wealth walk, I’m just giving you an example, right? There’s one, I think there’s some statements that talk about like citizenship, or just like, hey, if your parents doesn’t speak English, like that’s an disadvantage, or if you’re from another country, like that’s a disadvantage. But like, is it though? I don’t think so. Right. And so I think just like figuring out how to reframe some of those problems, I mean, it is true, right, but that’s not true for all. And so when you’re trying to come up with contents are put out initiatives that are trying to fit all you might need to change and adjust some of your content as well. And I think the other one is promoting storytelling in processes. So for instance, I think everyone is anyone, is there any housing professional out here? Do you have a roommate agreement? Yeah, right roommate agreement. So it’s basically like an agreement or things that you know, students do when they come in live together. And I think that there’s one around suspending efficiency and embracing dialogue, especially this past two years, as we are living in what we call COVID. If y’all didn’t know that COVID-19 When we’re talking about like hygiene, or just like COVID-19 expectations and things like that, making sure that you are integrating like storytelling as part of it. And although the process might be longer, but I think that that allows people to talk about what the expectations were or how they have been living this past year and a half and it is also beneficial to like all students in general, and we can start seeing each other as more of a human and seeing where those expectations are because we know different states Different countries have different ways that they have dealt with COVID-19 this past few years and so expecting those kind of like mindset to like shift right away in the first day of classes, not just not gonna happen, but how do we allowing people to be able to dialogue with one another and so we can help mitigate some of the of miscommunication or like unexpected, unrealistic expectations that may come afterwards.
Xiao Yun Sim 20:07
So now I’m transitioning to talk about Career Services. So I kind of just wrote down a couple of bullet points. And this was guided through the survey that at our center at Purdue sent out to international students so guided with it, really noticing what are the problems that internationals our international students are facing within Career Services or just employment opportunities after they graduate and we kind of break it down into immigration policies uncertainty for H1-B sponsorships limited timeline to obtain job after graduation. And lastly, the employers reluctance of hiring. So if you turn to the purple sheet of Page Six, these are the things that I will be mentioning about and when I talk about employers reluctance to hiring, we actually got this information from student responses. So attending career fairs, employers are reluctant to even speak to international students about internship opportunities, or if they are interested in for full time opportunities. Because employers don’t know the immigration policy, they keep assuming that, oh, as an international student, if you want to have an internship, then the employer needs to pay for the visa to complete an internship. However, that is not the case. As a F-1, student, international student, they have work authorization called curriculum practical training that is embedded within the f1 visa already. So how can a Career Center play a part in educating employers about the benefits of hiring international students. And if you did scan the QR code in the first slide, there is the PDF copy that at our center, this is the things that we share with employers about what is the benefits of hiring international students, as well as providing the education piece of telling employers about these are the great things that our students have. They are here at Purdue to receive all the knowledge and they possess all the skill sets for them, to go into the workforce preparing for them to the workforce. And now switching gears to like the needs of students. So we kind of frame the survey where we set up to the students of the things that they can control versus the things that they cannot control. So the things that they can control, which is talking about student expectations, career planning, and preparation as lastly, jobs search skills. So in terms of student expectations, they need to understand the reality of the job market in United States, because if they are liberal arts students, these are some of the hurdles that they might face. Or if they are in the STEM field, these are some of the hurdles that might face so how can career services consultants or I would say all academic advisors are basically people engage with international students have some sort of knowledge in terms of, okay, these are some of the realities that they may face after graduation and being able to have those conversations early and then redirect them to the Career Center talk to talk more about career planning, or teaching them the skills to have to think about what are the processes? Or what are some of the strategies that they can help them to do target ties, job searches? And switching gear in terms of how did we gather the information from the survey to create better, I would say career interventions for international students is that really, we really wanted to promote collaboration with campus departments. So during my time there at Purdue, we really talked about how can we partner with academic colleges. How can we partner with an academic advisor, so we founded that the Council of academic career academic and career coaching, so really educating academic advisors to have the career talk embedded in their academic sessions, as well as also partnering with ISS International Students and Scholars office to invite them to come talk about the work authorizations, educating international students to advocate for themselves when they are talking about thinking about job searches, as well as playing a part of employer relations and lastly, Alumni Association engagement. And next up is like professional development opportunities. How can we train our staff as well as campus departments, all the staff members that engage with international students about cross cultural competency training and just a brief idea of what CPT is or OPT and H1-B sponsorship means, as well as I think that the most important piece for me to take away is the increased visibility of services. So Career Services is there. However, we don’t do a lot to reach out to international students who are just like, Oh, if you need us come to us, and they only come to us when they are thinking about I need an internship or I need a job, but at the time, they’re probably pretty late in the game already. So how can we increase the visibility? So in our office, we sent out bi-weekly newsletters to international students, as well as hosting international students specific career workshops. So when I started last semester, we hosted eight workshops and this semester we hosted by February We have already hosted 10, International Student Career Development Workshops. So it always, we always see international students returning to those sessions. So they are eager to learn from, what does it take to stay in the US? Or if they do decide to leave the US? What are some of the tools that we can also prepare them to re entry to their home country or to a different country as well. And I also talked a little about the career development interventions already applying the workshops, as well as the parallel planning phase of, if US doesn’t work out, what’s next? Do they go home to your home country? Or is there a different country that allows them to transition in and utilize their knowledge is as well. And lastly, it’s just current event and employer relations, that that is a big piece that our office is trying to center around of like, how can we include global employers into the conversation as well, as well as also thinking about US companies that has different satellite offices in different countries? How can we bring them all into those conversations to recruit and retain Purdue students that will be entering workforce?
Tamayo Zhou 26:04
All right, so now we will move on to student programming. So as you can see over here, intercultural interactions, academic integration and social satisfactions, I think they are the three main factors when it comes to retention espeically through programming through there, I think it’s really important if we for practitioners, that we intentionally thinking about what other ways we can actually creating this international community and building a sense of belonging for students. Through our structured program, we all know, things will happen wouldn’t happen naturally. And magically, we need to create that for students. A couple of recommendations will be definitely first expand students network, across campus and beyond. By doing that, you can collaborate with student organizations with Canvas resources, different unit and offices, and also faculty and staff, and even local community organizations. When I say that, I would really recommend you bring them in, instead of just giving students the information, say, Okay, now go explore, because it’s really difficult for students to navigate through a new system, bring them in, so that you also have a chance to work with those organizations, show them how to support your international students that kinda gives a way, give international students that information, but also give their local organizations and local offices, how what who are our international students, whatever, and be set off that definitely is thinking about faculty and stuff. Many of them aren’t many of international students, for example, they don’t know what is office hour, right? So bringing the faculty in there cannot help ease that nervousness for students to interact with faculty. And yeah, long run, they really help with academic integration, and we will actually help students to have a better academic journey on their campus. Beside of that, I was saying, when it comes to student organizations to really think about what are the organizations can actually help students to facilitate intercultural interactions and friendship, so that in a way, our students will learn more from their peers on from direct conversations. Sometimes it’s a difficult conversation, maybe we will have, as I will say, as staff or faculty to give it all to a student, but when it’s a peer it’s easier to talk about, for example, diversity and inclusion issues in the US, right. Another thing is, another recommendation is provide programs that meet students needs by what I say in that first flexible time and location. Identify what your student want. If most of your student are still online, see, what is the better time for them in their timezone? Or if most of your students are actually living off campus, thinking about the public transportations, what are the timeline for that maybe you wouldn’t want to host an that is a 7pm then they will be difficult and unsafe for them to come back home, or to actually get dinner, right because they may not be able to bring dinner from their apartment. And also consider students attitude towards to COVID-19. Maybe your school have a different policy, but however international student might feel differently. Ask them what they want. For example, in my institution with the Lunar New Year celebration back in January, our school had the mask mandate, but our students still feel unsafe. So we were asking at the door Hey, just curious, would you mind show you vaccination card and there you have it. We don’t say you can now go into the door but that just gives international students another reassurance almost all the student here have been vaccinated, that just makes them feel so much safer. Again, that’s also kind of you need to talk to the administration on your campus to make sure that’s something they would approve. But it really means a lot for international students when they see you are taking extra steps to support them. Something else will be definitely covered current topics and interests that really international students are discussing are talking about, and also offer also offer online events on when it comes to online events. interest that’s really important. But also another aspect it’s thinking about if students are oversea, do they have access to that online platform you have data might be something onward, if you’re outsourcing a website, do they have service in a different country, it’s easy to access, just keep all those things in mind. And at the end, deligate leadership opportunities to students that really give students a sense of they’re actually creating a community for themselves. And also in a long run, that helps them with their career as well. One last slide, is actually continued commitments, I was gonna joke that read after me, but you don’t have to do that. Um, so if you are not familiar with those commitments, really, you should adapt to it. When it comes to supporting international students, we really need to continually aware and recognize and adapt international students culture difference and unique challenges. And most importantly, adjust our helping practice instead of telling students, oh, you need to adjust yourself to meet all their help and techniques. And it should be proactive. That’s why I say aware and recognize first, you don’t want to wait your student reach out to you asking, Hey, can we do this, right. And another thing is, as colleges and universities, they really need to further invest in culturally sensitive, familiar and Responsive Programming. By doing that, you don’t have to just as intern, for example, international office on campus, they don’t have to be the office creating all the programming, you can talk to, for example, Night Life Programming, asking, Hey, I see you’re doing a board game night? Can we just make that international board game night? Can we do a couple more things, making sure our international student know what you’re actually doing? Just little steps that you are actually spreading out the responsibility to entire campus. And in that way, international student will feel welcomed on campus as well.
Meena Pannirselvam 32:49
All right, yeah. So we are finally moving into that advocacy piece. And so we will be looking at how we can advocate for international students and how institutional advocacy can look like at your respective spaces. So first of all, let’s include Student Voices opinions and thoughts when we are thinking about making decisions, because oftentimes, I feel like leadership making decisions, but they don’t include international student voices. And then to sort of preface that we sort of want to create and also provide an opportunity for students to create an international based advisory board. So if that is lacking in your institution, maybe looking to operate, creating opportunities for students to establish this sort of community. And so oftentimes, when we think about support, we think about providing cultural support, but international students need beyond that, what better way to do so by asking them what they need. So at UNL created this community chat series, a student led safe brave space dedicated to hearing and elevating International Student Voices. We provided a space for community conversations where students can share challenges, and also positive things that, you know, has impacted their lives at the institution. So when we implemented this, we did like a very intimate setting, there was couches as finger food as empowering stickers and books, bookmarks and stuff like that. And then through community chats at UNL, international students indicated that they do not feel protected against the immigration laws and feel that the institution is not advocating for them. Students also feel that the institution is not supported for their educational endeavors. As they are many restrictions placed on them and few opportunities presented to them. So based on the information we analyzed, we made some recommendations. And then we created an action plan for the institution based on you know, the findings and the conversations, we made an intentional effort to advocate for the use of this information to inform future programming and other international students support. It is also important to make this information available and transparent to the students as a form of social justice education. So finally, just a quick start here, by provide support for labor produced by your students. So these student leaders, sometimes they don’t, you know, get recognized for their work. And so moving on to the second bullet point here is the institution needs to provide continuous communications and statements. And by what I mean by this is that regulation and laws that affect international students consistently change. And these students face a lot of uncertainty. So we believe that it is the administrators and the institution’s role and responsibility to provide international students some clarity around new regulations, and updates about immigration, because that is so much more better than us like Googling and figuring out what all these like terms mean. The explanation needs to be followed by a consistent messaging of support, and solidarity along with action steps and resources. When the law affects international students experiences, and if you’re wondering who this messaging is statements to come from, it needs to come from the International Student Service Office, it needs to come from administrators, leadership and the institution as a whole. This will definitely alleviate some of the stress, the fear and providing students a peace of mind because they came here to pursue an education and not to be stressed out. And then finally, our last bullet point here is addressing discrimination microaggression hate, and this is a huge, huge topic. So some of the strategies that we sort of want to explain in combating this issue is that first of all, educate your campus community on social justice issues related to international students. Because domestic students of color and international students of colors experiences are very different. So you might want to consider looking into that. And then provide education to international students to be able to identify these moments, moments of microaggression moments of hate and discrimination as either like victims or intervene as bystanders. Typically, when they come in here, they don’t understand what they what happened to them is an an act of microaggression. They don’t understand that this is an act of hate. So it’s important for them to get some sort of education, and then provide some individuals individualized support and outreach for international students who do decide to report oftentimes, we have a lot of fear when it comes to reporting because they tend to think international students tend to think that oh, we might get into trouble. I’m also using the interchangeably because I’m still an international student. And then make, as I had mentioned, when they do when a report, make that accessible, make that information accessible when they do disclose some sort of information with you say that, hey, you can actually use the reporting system. And some guidelines and things will be happening when you do decide to report. And then finally, it is really important to identify individuals on campus that serve as confidential advocates for international students who experience discrimination and hate. You know, it’s a very difficult thing when it comes to you know, experiencing hate hateful acts, it’s very harmful. So when students are experiencing this you might want to have, you might want to create a safe and brave space for them to disclose this information. Because, again, we come here come here without any type of support. We are very far far away from family members and sometimes they don’t even have good relationships with their family members.
Tamayo Zhou 39:17
Anyway, so yeah, to wrap up this session, thank you again for being here.
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