Wednesday, January 28, 2009
When international students arrive at the University, they have to adjust to new food, new friends and new living arrangements. The majority are choosing to do so off campus.
This year only 30 percent of the 1,740 international students chose on-campus housing.
Prasath Ramani, Klang, Malaysia, junior, lives on campus at Jayhawker Towers. He said he would probably move off campus in the summer because it was difficult to rely on campus buses and the food didn’t fit his vegetarian diet. Still, he said he would recommend on-campus living to any new international student coming to the University.
“I’m proud of KU, and I would definitely say living on campus is the best place for international students,” Ramani said. “Except the food. I can’t recommend eating on campus.”
The University recommends international students consider one of 23 on-campus housing opportunities.
The towers house 157 of the 538 international students who live on campus. The eight residence halls house 178 international students, and 48 live in the scholarship halls. The remainder live in other campus housing such as Stouffer Place.
Diana Robertson, director of the Department of Student Housing, said her department, along with International Student Services, was committed to helping international students feel more at home.
Ramani said the best aspect of campus living for international students was forming relationships with the people around them. He said he enjoyed getting to know new people while living in McCollum Hall last year.
Another advantage to living in McCollum and Jayhawker Towers is that the buildings remain open during academic breaks. Robertson said the residences were popular with international students because the students usually stayed in Lawrence.
Esterenia Armanto, Jakarta, Indonesia, sophomore, moved to the towers this year and said her favorite part of living there was having a kitchen to cook food from her home country. She said the drawback was that making friends could be especially hard because most international students were insecure about speaking English and stayed in their rooms.
“I remember the first time I rode a bus here and just looked at all the stops and buildings,” Armanto said. “My English was terrible, and I think everyone just thought I was stupid.”
The majority of international students request to live with American students to improve their English, but Robertson said limited space sometimes made it difficult to meet their preferences. Still, Robertson said the campus provided plenty of opportunities for international students to improve their language skills.
Ramani, who spoke English in Malaysia, said talking with other students was hard at first because of his accent. But he said that by becoming active in Lambda Phi Epsilon, the national Asian-American fraternity, he finally started feeling at home. Ramani is now the fraternity’s vice president and said he has met people from the entire KU community.
“It’s a process that teaches you something,” Ramani said. “It’s a really good thing.”
Armanto is a member of Student Union Activities. She said getting involved on campus was the first step she took in adjusting to the University.
“Joining SUA really helped me a lot,” Armanto said. “I became more brave and was able to get out of my comfort zone, do new things and make new friends.”
— — Edited by Andrew Wiebe
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