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[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right.
So we'll just start by giving a brief introduction
of the office.
And then Tara is going to focus on admissions.
Just to kind of briefly talk about the fact that, as many
of you know, the Office of International Education
has undergone a lot of changes in the last few years.
And we've restructured and brought all of the units
together.
So just to recap what comes out of the Office of International
Education, we have international recruiting;
international admissions-- so the whole admissions process
happens in our office-- immigration support
and student services; study abroad, education abroad
for domestic students; the Intensive English Program;
and then also many aspects of international development
all are coordinated out of our office.
So physically, those units have come together in one space.
So we have how many people together in on space?
[LAUGHING]
Quite a few.
So we've done a lot of work.
And we've done quite a bit of hiring and moving
and different things of that nature.
But we feel very confident of where we are now.
And going forward, we feel that we're
going to be a very strong office.
With that said, you'll see the statistics in here.
But we have probably around 425 international students
this semester on campus, which is our highest number.
We do have a goal of 1,000 students,
to reach 1,000 students, in the next five years.
So that would be 10% of the on-campus student
population, which is an ambitious goal.
Statistically, if you look at the number of universities that
do haven't 1,000 students, they are not that many.
Michigan is the seventh state, in terms
of international students enrollment.
So a lot of students do come to Michigan as a destination.
So what we've been doing is a lot of strategic planning
and putting the right people in the right positions
with the right training, so that we can achieve that goal
but achieve it in a smart, sustainable way.
So we're looking at trying to achieve that
by bringing in diverse international students,
as you do not put your eggs in one basket, per se.
But also, we are doing a campus needs analysis
project, that is kind of started.
But it's going to get going full force here pretty soon, where
we're really taking a look at the needs
and capacities of the different programs on campus,
their suitability for international recruiting
and admissions.
And we're going to use that as a document to guide
our recruiting efforts over the next few years,
so that we can meet some of Ferris's needs,
as well as recruit students that will come into sustainable
programs.
So those are some of the goals that we have.
And so as you may have seen on campus,
it might feel like, there's a lot more
international students.
This is complicated.
Things are happening.
And we've gone from 120 to 420 in three years.
So it is a big jump.
And so what you're seeing is there for a reason.
So we're going to talk today about international admissions.
Tara Braun is our International Admissions Coordinator.
She's done a lot of work on revising our processes
in that office.
And then we'll move on to-- who was after admissions?
Oh, I'm sorry.
It will be Intensive English.
OK.
The Intensive English Program, I'll talk about that.
And then Toni will talk about student services.
So I just wanted to share some history going back
to fall of 2012, kind of what our admission numbers were,
the number of students that had applied
and the number that we admitted, as well as some percentages.
This will give you an idea of what
we're working with in the office and some changes,
as you may already see, that occurred since fall 2012.
If you compare spring 2013 just to this past spring,
you may say, where did all the applications go,
because there has been a dip.
However, we have been able to weed out our applicants better.
And we are seeing better applicants come through.
Back then, we would have literally groups of people
apply.
And they really wouldn't even submit all of their documents.
They would put an application through.
But never complete the process.
So the other thing that we're seeing
is that students are actually completing this process
as well.
So that's why there is that change in application.
But you can see that our number admitted
has actually increased.
I will state that, on this sheet that you see right now,
it does reflect the 81% number admitted in the spring.
It does reflect a group of 31 South Korean students
that we have on campus right now for
a short-term English program for six weeks.
So it's actually a little lower than that but yet still
way above all the other semesters that you see.
I also have shown you the number of students
that have arrived each semester.
And again, you may look at this spring number.
But you have to remember 31 of those are for the IEP program
as well.
So that number is increasing slowly.
But I've also supplied you with the IEP admitted
and the IEP number arrived.
And these are the students that are here
for our Intensive English Program.
And the 113 is reflected in the 198.
Right now, as far as colleges go,
in the number of international students
that apply for the colleges, College of Business and College
of Technology are neck to neck right now.
College of Business may have beat you, Alice.
Hey, hey.
By two-- I ran the numbers.
The two I talked to, I'm sure.
Yeah.
Any questions on the chart or any observations
you would like to state?
Do the IEP students typically transition into programs?
Right.
When I admit a student and I place them into IEP,
it is because they have not presented
the required English proficiency that they
need to prove they have met.
They will be almost conditionally admitted.
I will make sure that they can academically
go into that program after IEP.
But until they have passed the IEP,
they will not go into the academic program.
So their admission letter actually will read,
you've been admitted into the Intensive English Program.
You're going into the pre-program after that.
And then you'll transition into the regular program.
I just wanted to give you a snapshot of some
of the top countries that we admit students from.
And I'm sure none of you will really
surprised to see the countries on this list.
But Saudi, India, China, Canada, Nigeria, and South Korea
are our top six.
We, of course, do have other countries
represented on campus.
We have about 40 represented with the students that we have
right now, 40 different countries.
In spring 2014, our admitted number actually
represented 20 different countries.
That's why we're trying to diversify a little bit here.
I did want to go over the intake process for admissions
that we go through as a student applies.
It starts off just like domestic,
a student inquires about the programs here.
And then we communicate with them.
We have hired communication person in the office,
to handle the inquiries that come through email and phone.
And we are tracking those.
The student goes from the student inquiry stage
into the application stage.
Our application, we have a new one coming out again,
to communicate better with sales force.
And I've just been working the last couple of days
with regular admissions, to get that new application out.
Waiting period for required documents--
we are not like regular admissions, where students just
submit a transcript, and there you go.
We have all other kinds of documents
that I'll review with you, that need to me submitted.
So we do have this waiting period, where the student has
applied, but perhaps they have not
sent their required documents in yet.
I can't control how long it takes that student
to get me their documents.
But until we have them, we're on hold with them essentially.
We get the documents, and we receive our application fee,
which is $30.
And then, the file is ready to be reviewed for academic.
And then, if need be-- and you all know this--
I'll submit it to the colleges for review,
if I feel as though it needs to have an approval.
And then we'll either accept or deny that student.
I then have to create the immigration documents
for the student, as well as the admission.
And then we have to obtain the shipping information
for the admission packet, send out the packet.
And then this student has to attend a Visa appointment,
once they have those immigration documents.
So if you kind of back this process up,
most students need at least three months for this process.
So we have backed up our application deadline
by three months from the time that this semester starts,
And this is why.
Because when you're shipping internationally,
it can take a couple of weeks to receive things.
And then, the student, we're hoping,
confirms their visa with our office.
So that we can make a note that, yes,
they've received their visa.
They probably are coming out.
If I can jump in really quickly, we do have an application fee.
Our domestic admissions doesn't.
And the reason we do that is to kind of make
sure that their intent on this.
This is something that they want to do.
Because students will apply internationally
to many, many schools, get immigration documents
from several different schools, decide
through the grapevine which they think they have a better
chance of getting a Visa with, go in the country on that visa,
immediately transfer to another school.
So there's a lot going on with that whole application process.
And we're trying to get a handle on that, so that we're now
wasting our time processing things that the student has
zero chance.
That's a different aspect than for-- it's
kind of the same for domestic students.
But internationally, it's a little--
So I did want to state, once we start reviewing the documents
and I have reviewed the transcript is the time that I
start working with transfer credit with the student.
And that all depends on if the school they have attended
is currently on our system or not,
or if they have attended an American school.
If either one of those two are in place,
that system goes very quickly.
If not, and it's a school that's not our transferred equivalency
system.
We then have to send all that information
to Marsha Longbrake, in admissions.
And then she then distributes it out to the colleges for review.
Realistically, that process could take up to four weeks.
So that might explain sometimes if a student is here
for orientation and you don't see their transfer
credit as complete.
I want to point out that I'm relying on the student that
is not in our systems to supply us with course descriptions.
And sometimes they don't.
Sometimes, they arrive with them.
And so, obviously, that means that we do not have enough time
to get these on their permanent record,
before they go to registration with you.
We try everything that we can to get them to submit those course
descriptions at that point.
We even go through the transcript
and mark down which ones are on our system
and which ones they need to supply,
so the don't have to worry about sending in the whole batch.
We just want X, Y, and Z.
And sometimes, we just don't get them before they arrive.
So we do explain to them on the application that we need that,
in order to get your transfer credit.
We do tell them, during the application
process that we need that.
So I'm not quite sure what else we could
do, to get them to get the idea that, you're not
going to see that at registration, unless you
get us that information.
So I'm sure that we have a similar problem
with domestic students.
So I look at this as kind of being
a timeline of how things happen.
Obviously, we're accepting students
before we have all their documentation then.
No , no.
What do you mean by documentation?
I'm talking about their transcripts.
Yes.
I can admit somebody based upon their GPA,
without having done the transfer credit process.
She has the transcript.
And she knows what classes they took.
And she can calculate their GPA, as long as it's a school
that we accept.
So they would get admission, but they're not necessarily
going to have their transfer credits in place,
if they are a transfer student.
Which is really true of domestic students also.
Right.
Yeah.
So nobody is admitted without the transcripts.
But in terms of the descriptions for what
would be accepted as an equivalency, sometimes
we don't have that.
On this page and whatever the required
documents that I have to have, in order to admit a student.
One of them is the application fee.
We have to have a copy of their passport,
for immigration purposes.
We have to have the official academic transcripts.
If they are applying for a graduate program,
we also have to have those required
documents for that graduate program.
They have to have that proof of English proficiency,
or they will be place into the Intensive English Program.
And we also have an official bank statement,
which is for immigration purposes as well.
So this is the whole package to me.
I could admit without this.
But they're not going to get their immigration document
from me, until they show this to me.
But that's the whole package to me.
That's what I look forward, to classify
a student as ready for review.
Tara, you can issue an I-20 without the bank statement?
No.
OK.
She could say, you're admissible.
But you're not going to get your immigration notice.
This past spring, for example, I'm trying to remember.
There may have been five to eight students
that I had admitted but never issued
an I-20 for, because they never gave me their financials.
And an I-20 is simply the document
that they take to immigration.
Correct.
They can't get their visa without that document from us.
And they have to show proof of funds, for $27,000,
to cover one year of expenses-- tuition, living, et cetera.
And that's a governmental requirement.
I'm just going to go over a little bit
of the review of what the admissions department does
to prepare for orientation, to hand the student off to Toni.
We do prepare the reports-- I'm sure some of you
have seen them-- on our expected arrivals or our students
that we have admitted, about a month before orientation.
You also may know that I do send out report as students are
arriving to the colleges, showing you who has actually
arrived/
Those needing to take the COMPASS
Math, which again are identified.
When I'm going through the transcript,
I identify if they need to take the Math.
If we've already done their transfer equivalencies
or it's a school that's already on the system,
I do make a note if they have reached Math 216
or what level of Math they already have in their system.
And then they don't have to take that math requirement,
if they meet the requirements of the program.
So they are scheduled, and it is documented before they arrive,
who needs to take those tests at orientation.
Now, orientation begins generally about a week
before classes start and usually lasts around four days.
So in those four days-- and Toni will go over this more--
but we have to get the orientation out of the way
that we need to do in the office.
We need to get the English tests out of they way.
We need to get the Math tests out of the way, all
before they hit you on that Thursday typically,
to register for classes.
So that is a lot to try to squeeze in and try
to get the student to understand what they all need to do.
The COMPASS test is usually given on Wednesday morning.
And they come and see you on Thursday.
The students are told when they arrive
that they need to come and take this math test,
or they're not going to get classes the next day.
And as you all know, some of them
do not go to that math test.
And that's where some of the issues come up.
Placement or removal from that IEP program
is determined after that English test is give,
and we have the results.
Now, we do have exchange partners.
We have about 15 partner schools that Ferris has agreements
with, in which their students can come here for one semester
up to two semesters.
And if they don't pay tuition.
But they are attending classes, just
like they would when they're back home.
Our students can also go over there and do the same.
But what that means for you is that these students are
coming in.
And they are typically a late sophomore, maybe
an early junior, maybe a late junior level.
They're going to be coming to you.
And they're going to be needing that level of classes.
Some things that we had done to improve this process--
because I understand it can be very stressful to have
these students come in.
These are our partner schools.
They are very much in line with our academics at Ferris.
However, their programs that the students are coming over on
may not be run through the transfer-credit process.
So we won't have the math level, and we
won't have the other items.
But they are asked to supply English proficiency tests, just
like all other international students.
If they don't have one, they're tested as soon as they arrive.
Most of the time, a lot of our partner school students
are great with English.
OK, we are noticing a small issue
with South Koreans and our Japanese partner school.
And some of them have ended up in the IEP program because
of it.
So I have supplied to you, as a handout, a learning plan.
And this is an example of what our exchange partner
students are asked to submit with their application.
It's this one right here.
And this is basically a list of classes
that they will need to take when they are at Ferris.
Now, we are asking them to submit
this with their application.
So it's hopeful that this will assist your colleges
in getting them the classes that they have requested.
Because if they wait until they get here at registration,
at that level that they need, sometimes they're
not getting what they need to take back home with them.
Do you have any questions on the exchange student process?
Because it can get a little complicated because of the fact
that we don't have all those classes
that they would have taken on our system.
However, again, they have been recognized
as a partner school of ours.
They're in line academically.
They are an approved school, more than approved.
They are a partner school.
So there shouldn't be any issue with a transition
for those students going from one class to another.
The only time we run into an issue
is, what do you do with the pre-reqs?
And so, Sharon, I think that you have a few words
to say about that.
Well, we ran into that issue in our Accounting area
and also students who were, for instance, coming in
for business classes but wanted to take things out
of Arts and Science.
And they were concerned about whether or not
the student was at a level where they
could be successful in the class.
For instance, the only thing I can remember
is a student that wanted to take a class on women's studies
here.
And the professor was very concerned about that.
So you have to work out some political areas
with the students I've worked with.
I don't know if you have that problem in your programs
though.
I've even had people, again, in our own college, that
wouldn't let students into specific classes
until we sat down and worked it out.
Because if you have a junior or senior coming
from our partners, they're supposed
to be able to go on to the next level of classes
that they supposedly prepped for.
One thing about our partner-school students
as well, you have to remember it's their responsibility
to work with their partner school,
as to how those classes are going to go back for them,
not ours.
It's our job to get them into the class
that they have on their list and what
they say they need to take back to their school.
And our dean actually-- I can't remember which school,
I apologize-- went and sat down with their dean
and-- OK, if you take this class here, this will work out here.
I'm sure you guys to that all the time, because you
have a little bit more experience than I do.
We have slowly started getting more detailed
with particular programs.
And I know that I've worked with College of Technology
often, trying to get a lot of those particular programs
articulated with certain schools.
And the more that we look for partner schools, the more
that we are beginning to do that.
We are dealing with-- the majority of our partner schools
that we have right now are older agreements.
And that process was just never done.
So this process of going through and making sure
that things are on the books is very new.
And it seemed to work so well, this past year, I guess.
So it's new.
Yes, it's working better.
It has a lot of improvements to go.
But just like anything, it takes a while to make a change,
because a semester is semester.
And you have to wait for the next semester
to make another change.
This learning plan to start off this past spring.
But it got started too late.
It came through, but I think it caused
maybe some additional stress more than it helped,
because we didn't really discuss this plan until October-ish.
And then it went out.
And the students, I had to kind of get after them to get it in.
So it's going to be a learning process for our partner schools
as well, that we're now asking for this.
But partner students right now are starting to apply for fall.
So if we get this early enough, the hope
is that we can work through all this and get them the classes
that they possibly have on that list.
So with the transfer credit not coming in, as an advisor,
I would not be able to see where that student was
at their previous institution.
But then, they have to identify classes
that they want to take at Ferris,
based on what they see we offer, where
they think they need to be?
That's the exchange program.
Right.
Now, this learning plan is not for every international
student, just for our partner school, our exchange students.
Those are the ones that-- you are correct-- we would not
have done the whole credit-transfer process.
But they're only here basically for a semester.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
They're basically a study abroad.
They're doing a study abroad. and they're going to go home.
While they're here, they want to take
a class that will help them toward their graduation
at home.
So their advisor helps them select something
that they should be ready for.
And at this point, the programs have
to say, all right, we're going to go on good faith,
since they're our partner, that this student can handle that.
But each college has to determine
how they want to deal with that.
But running through the entire transfer equivalency, when
this is really basically the same as our students going
abroad for a semester and taking a course.
So if I have a student, that says, Ms. Ducat,
I'm going to get six cultural enrichment
credits when I go study abroad.
Am I going to be able to put it toward my degree.
I say, yes.
That's what we're doing.
Exactly.
For international students on campus?
No, she's saying, for abroad.
For study abroad.
Yes, that's what I thought you were asking.
Yes, this sheet is only for international students
coming to campus.
But it's those international students
like-- we have a partner school in Germany.
But they're going back.
Yes, but here, the German students
are coming here for one semester.
They're taking these classes, hoping to transfer them back.
It's up to their institution to determine
whether they transfer.
The think here is, we want to make sure
that they're successful in the class
or that they're not creating a lot of stress
for the instructor or the other students in the class.
That, I think, is the crux.
I think study abroad is almost another workshop.
Yes.
Yes, that's why the didn't throw it in here.
We discussed it, but that's its own thing.
You could spend at least an hour talking about that.
But one thing that you brought up
that does concern our college-- but with domestic students
too is that you get them.
And you're trying to place them.
And the transcript hasn't been evaluated.
But what I do if a student comes to me and says,
I took Chem 110 or whatever, wherever.
And I'll just work around it and say, well,
until we get those transcripts, I'm
not going to make you take something you've already taken.
We'll just take the next section, as long as it's not--
That's pretty much what we do.
That exactly-- some of the things
that I suggest you do with these students
is take a look at the transcript that's on the system for them
and ask them questions.
Did you go over this?
Did you go over this?
Because if you're looking at a Math class,
this is what you need to have already done.
And you're right.
We are totally relying on that student.
But I think if you've worked with students long enough,
you're going to get a feel for it.
I think, they don't understand what I'm saying here.
I don't think I should put them in that class.
You can do that.
And we've done that.
Actually, we have another advisor
in the office that helps Toni with advising.
And she's very good with the exchange students, saying,
you can't do this.
You need to study English.
And she'd drag them out.
We did that with international students that have arrived
and have passed and supplied the English proficiency test
with a passing score.
And we get them here.
And we're like, no.
They are not understanding what we're saying right now.
One thing that I did want to go over with you as well,
back on the document screen I had
mentioned official academic transcript.
We do ask for that to be in English.
So you will you maybe see the transcript,
if you were to look on the system,
in their foreign language and then a translated version
as well.
Sometimes, students can pay a lot of money
to have this translated.
There are certain companies that they can go to,
that will actually do their transfer-credit evaluation
as well.
And one of these companies is WES.
They pay around $200 to $400 to have their transcript done
through this system that we don't accept.
We'll accept it as an English version,
as an English translation.
But we won't accept their credit evaluation.
And that can confuse students sometimes.
But as we're working with them on the transfer process,
another thing that can confuse the students
is, I always have to get out of them.
Now, when you see the transfer credits show up on your MyFSU,
those are the credits that are coming into Ferris.
It may not be the credits that get
transferred into your program.
So that's another question that you may get from me.
Sometimes, students that are on a sponsorship or a scholarship
may need to know how many credits are transferring
into the program, how many credits they have left
and their date of graduation, expected date of graduation.
So in order to do that, I have to do their transfer credit
process wait for it to hit the system.
And then I will bug you guys and say,
will you please take a look at this student.
And let me know X, Y and Z, because I
need to prepare a letter.
Just so you know, we do ask for that in English.
Now, the bank statement is something that I can take.
As long I can get the gist of what it's saying
and who's the account holder.
I can always just do that through a currency converter
myself.
Tara, on quick question about the exchange students--
they come with this filled out as to what
classes they want to take?
They will submit that with their application materials, yes.
Hopefully, they're sending it well before they come.
Right.
And then, you would take a look at that
and determine if you have questions about-- you would
know what class that is fairly basic.
You know they can probably do well.
But if it's a higher level class,
you would kind of have to think, I'm not so sure about this.
And you might want to wait until you meet them and talk to them.
We are beginning the process, like I said,
with the partner schools starting
to send in the applications.
Our application deadline for fall is June 15.
However, I have proposed that we back that
up a month for our partner schools, because of this.
So that we get this taken care of.
Generally, they're way above that deadline though.
But in this situation, when you have it early enough,
you can actually communicate with the student or even
the faculty member, because they are part of your school.
And you can just kind of negotiate and figure out
whether this would be an appropriate class, or depending
on how many seats you have available
and how many kids you have.
Sometimes it can't happen.
But this is what they would desire to take.
We've done ours strictly on the basis of personal interviews
when they get here, sit down, talk to them,
ask them questions, really technical question.
So we can understand what level they really understand
and then put them in a course, based on that,
no matter what the transcript says.
Because we can pretty much identify
their level of competence in the various technical areas.
And that's, I think, with the exchange program,
it's just determining how comfortable you
are with them going into certain classes
but not requiring that they go through that official
transfer-credit evaluation, in order
to determine prerequisites.
And there are certain course that
might pop out as this is a hairy course.
I'm not comfortable with that.
And you can just communicate, this
is not one we can accommodate.
And I think what I'm understanding all of the sudden
is, I'm not sure I even know all our partners.
And you say a partner with Ferris State University,
that doesn't mean, for instance, the College of Business
has gone through an evaluation or equivalency.
Sometimes it does.
Most of the time with our older schools, like I
said though, they have not been done.
Our newer partner schools, we're doing that.
So now, they're getting on the books.
So hopefully, as you work with students,
you'll be able to pull that up on the transfer equivalency
list, that you'll see that school there then.
Like Reinwald, with College of Business, that's on the books
now.
But your other schools, perhaps like ESC Troyes or Saxion,
those schools were not done in that process.
Which I think they're trying to do right now.
One of my goal is to back the system up.
In true informational development,
what we do is, we identify partners that are really
cohesive with us or that even add value.
We have a few partners in Korea.
And we say, that's the Ferris of Korea.
That's the Michigan State of Korea.
That's the U of M of Korea.
And we just kind of figure those things out.
And so if you get to know students from those schools,
you can kind of understand what level of ability
they're coming in with.
And we identify schools that have
maybe some similar programming, so that there's more--
because what we want with our partners is,
it's easy to get the students coming, by and large.
It's harder to get our students going out.
And so we're trying to identify partners
where our students will be able to go out
into an English-speaking course, a course that will transfer
back for their graduation.
So some of you may get really sick of me in the future,
because I may be asking for some of your time,
to back up and go through the older schools
or continue to work with some of the new ones
or continue to look at some new programs that we have,
as we work through the transfer-credit process
with these schools.
Any questions for me?
Not right now?
I'll let you stew on that.
After Tara does all of her admissions process,
I do get to take them over at that point.
And I just want to quickly highlight some of my goals
when we do get them here for orientation.
So you understand what all we're trying
to pack into the four days that we do have them,
but also to kind of think about the students.
Most of the international students
have traveled to go get their visa, paid for a visa.
They're paying 100% tuition to Ferris, at a higher rate.
And most of them don't have financial aid opportunities
or scholarship opportunities.
So they're going through a lot to pretty much come to Ferris.
So then, when they come here to the United States,
we want to try to make the process transition as easily
as we can, but also pack everything
that they need to know into four days.
So our first goal is to help them arrive to the Big Rapids
campus or other campuses possibly.
Like I said, many of them have traveled a lot, extensively,
to get here.
So we don't want to make them have
to try to find Big Rapids from the Grand Rapids airport.
So we do provide an airport shuttle service
for all the international students arriving.
And this last spring semester, we actually had to Chicago,
Detroit area, because they all were stuck in the weather.
So we really tried to accommodate
with that, because a lot of them come
with the limited English skills and really needs some support,
once they arrive.
We also have to meet our immigration requirements
that are given to us, in order to have
the international students on campus.
So they do have to check in.
They have to review all of their documents.
And then we do have to provide a session where
I go over all of their responsibilities
as international students.
And they all really love that session,
because it's very technical, after a long trip.
But it's important.
But we also try to give them ways
to refer back to that in the future.
And then we also have to complete a lot of the business
office requirements, get their IDs.
They do you have to pay their tuition at that point,
right away when they get here.
So a lot of them are traveling with large sums of money
or needing to set up bank accounts right away,
that sort of thing.
And then, we also go over housing, of course.
We do try to give an overview of off-campus and on-campus,
just because contractors in general
for international students is very different.
So that's something that we go over with them.
If you sign your name on there, you're
stuck pretty much in whatever you're doing for housing.
And then we provide shuttles for them,
for moving in, shopping, buying sheets, pillows, all of that,
just to try to get their basic needs met, before we get
into the academic part.
We also try to show them a little bit about MyFSU.
We try to make sure that they all get logged in,
because a lot of them haven't logged in yet,
by the time that they arrive and then
know at least where courses are, where their housing
information is, and find their transfer credits,
if they were done.
And then we also, of course, want
them to understand The campus and know
where to find you guys as well as other helpful resources
on campus.
So we do a couple of fun activities with that.
And so sometimes, your departments
might be involved in the activities that we do,
as well as we have presenters usually
from the different offices come.
So the students actually get a face to connect with.
Do you want to add?
Yes.
One thing is, we start about four days before the semester
starts.
We can't do it any sooner for a couple of reasons.
One, they're limited on when they can enter the country.
But we're already putting them in the Quality
Inn for one or two days.
And they're paying for hotel rooms,
because housing isn't opened.
And so we don't want to bring them in a whole lot
sooner, because we're adding expenses.
And so we shuttle them from the Quality Inn
to campus for those days of orientation,
until housing opens.
So those first few days are pretty overwhelming for them,
especially the business office stuff.
And a lot of that is very, very new
to them and the contract situation.
And so culturally, they come from a very different way
of doing things like this.
So it's a pretty shocking few days for them.
So they're kind of zombies by Thursday and Friday.
By the time they have to take their tests--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Would you say the majority of them
live in the dorms or apartments?
Well, obviously, we have about 170 Saudi students.
And they have a pretty good network.
They are required to, obviously, if they're young.
But they learn very quickly that the dorms are quite expensive.
And so the Saudi students, in general, who have a network,
go off campus pretty quickly.
The students that don't have a network
tend to choose on-campus, just because it's easier.
They're on campus.
So it just depends on whether access and proximity are
the key for them or whether it's financial.
They're quite turned off by Bond Hall, when they come in there.
We tend to put them in Bond Hall,
because that's open year round.
And if you imagine going to China
and know that you're going to live
in this little room for the next year.
You can't go home on weekends. you can't do things like that.
It's a little bit overwhelming.
Is that something the university is investigating
or trying to work with them?
Well, Brian Lockhart is working--
he's been very accommodating, working
with us on several things.
Obviously, they have that first-year residency
requirement.
And I think being on campus is more beneficial for them.
It's just this adjustment of-- obviously,
everybody has roommate issues.
But sometimes, you throw them in a different culture,
and they get even more amplified.
But by and large, I think we have
quite a few in Bond Hall who like it.
They can create a community there, and they do pretty well.
It's just that whole first week of looking at this
and where do I-- it's a little bit overwhelming.
It's an adjustment.
I guess I ask that, because I have see our competition
and what kind of facilities they have
for international students.
And you do have to compete with that, don't you?
Right.
And on our Facebook page as well, a lot of the students
are starting to connect earlier, to say, I'm subleasing or-- so,
hopefully, that will help them, in the future.
So one issue you might see as advisors
is, you might see students with housing contract holds.
Some of them come in and don't understand
the rule of being under 19.
And they go sign an off-campus lease,
before they even get to orientation.
Some of them know that's the rule,
but they sign the least in hope that's going to get out of it.
And so they kind of, sometimes, start digging
in their heels with the housing office.
And they learn very quickly that their signature is binding,
and they can't get out of it.
So I'm not signing a contract on that.
Well, you're not getting classified.
I don't care.
I'm not signing it.
So even into this week-- we've dealt with two or three
students this week, who were not registered for IEP,
because they were arguing with the housing
office about the residency requirements.
And then, lastly, we do try to provide
some sort of cultural adjustment information for them,
so arriving in the snow like this,
even from what to wear while you're here to just feelings
that they might experience while they're
adjusting to life in Big Rapids.
Through this, we do try to have some sort of activity
in the community.
We might do ice skating here over
at Wink or The Gate, the bowling, or something.
If it's warmer out, we may even go to the beach,
just to kind of get them excited about being in Michigan, as
well as we do the transportation to all
of the other activities, like I said, the shopping.
And we try to get them involved in Bulldog
beginning-type things as well.
Then we also have to do the tests, like Tara said,
MSUELT and COMPASS test that week.
So Lisa and the Intensive English instructors
are kind of running around quickly,
because they have to do the tests
and then figure out who passed, who didn't, and schedule all
the students at that point for their levels.
So it's kind of the a quick rush the last few days.
And then, of course, we try to get all the students
to attend your college meetings and get registered for class.
So once they've been with us a couple of days,
they do then come to you guys.
So we're trying not to duplicate information.
But hopefully, the get the information
that they need from your colleges.
And then, lastly, we try to provide some networking
opportunities for the students, so that they
get to know each other and have kind of a cohort on campus,
as well as other American students and faculty, staff,
community members.
So if you guys are open to having lunch or something
with the students one day.
We usually do The Rock lunches, or like I
said, The Gate, those type of activities.
We would love to have participation
from the colleges, because it just gives them
another face to get familiar with.
Any questions about orientation at this time?
Are you still going to have them participate
in the domestic orientation?
Yes.
We still have to do pretty much all the business aspects of it.
At this point, they're coming in and pretty much going
just to the welcome presentation and the college meetings,
at that point.
So I'm just going to talk a little bit about the Intensive
English Program.
Some of you may be quite familiar with it, others less.
These are just some of the statistics for our growth.
As you know, it was closed in 2005.
And so for five years, we didn't have an Intensive English
Program.
They reopened it in the fall of 2010, with 13 students.
And we've grown pretty rapidly since then In fall of 2012,
we had 104 students.
We had a couple of cohorts come in from TBTC Technical
College in Saudi Arabia.
So that kind of accounts for those larger numbers there.
But as you can see, we do have a fair number
of students in this program.
And these students are conditionally
admitted to the university.
Some intensive English programs let
anybody come in to take English for any reason.
We're not really doing that.
We're bringing them in as a pipeline
to go into the academic programs.
The only distinction would be, this semester, we
have some Korean students from our partner
school, who are here on short-term.
But some of those students are actually expressing interest
in transferring here.
That was kind the hope with the short-term program.
It's their winter break.
So they have eight weeks in between semesters.
And so they're coming for the six-week experience.
So as part of our plan to grow in 1,000 students,
we expect 200 to 300 of those to be Intensive English Program
students and to keep student in that pipeline.
So our program has four levels, basic levels.
And then we have our bridge level.
So we have a beginning level for true beginners.
These sometimes don't even know the alphabet.
We don't have very many students in this level.
The reason it was developed is because, with the Saudi Arabian
scholarship program, there are students
coming at a beginning level.
If students are paying out of their pocket,
they're not going to show up here with zero English.
They're going to learn as much as they can at home
and come here for the higher end.
But because the Saudi government is funding this,
they're saying, I'll go at a beginning level.
So that's why I termed the second level level
one, because I foresee, when the Saudi scholarship program ends,
that level will probably go away.
So typically, students come in at a high-beginning
to low-intermediate level, at the lowest.
And we have intermediate, high-intermediate,
to low-advanced.
And then, at the high end of our program,
we have the bridge level, which is
a combination of academic and--
So in our program, we have four different courses.
We have a Listening and Speaking course, a Grammar course,
a Reading course, and a Writing course.
Part of their curriculum is also called
MyPLACE, My Program for Language And Culture Exchange,
which of the four courses, those are four contact hours a week.
So they get 16 hours of classroom instruction.
And then, the MyPLACE program is an additional four hours
of conversation groups, that they're
working with domestic students.
And they work in teams.
They have three projects to complete
throughout the semester.
So this is a way to get them interacting
with native speakers, hopefully create
maybe a mentoring-type relationship,
to help ease their transition into the university.
The domestic students who participate
in this have the opportunity to apply for study
abroad scholarships up to $2,400.
So it seems to be working pretty well,
because they get interested in other cultures.
And they get the bug to study abroad.
And this provides them some funding.
So for placement and progression,
when students arrive, they take the MSUELT placement tests
during orientation.
Now, just to kind of review on admissions,
when a student applies, they can send us an official test scores
that establishes whether they have
met our English proficiency standards or not.
If they haven't met our standards
or if they don't supply anything,
they have to take this placement test when they arrive.
And as I said, we're usually doing this on Thursday morning.
It's a to two and a half to three-hour test, an essay.
And the rest are multiple choice.
Our faculty spend the afternoon rating the essays.
Each essay is rated by three different faculty members.
And then we spend Thursday night,
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday filtering through all that,
to determine who passed, who didn't and how many should
go into the different levels and skill areas.
So our teachers really don't know their teaching schedule,
until maybe three days into the semester.
Things can fluctuate and change, depending
on where our students place.
So based on the results, they're placed in one of the levels.
During the first week of course work,
instructors conduct additional diagnostics to confirm.
If somebody had a lot of jet lag or something
and they really didn't test well,
we do some initial testing to flesh
that out, so that we know that their placement is accurate.
And then once they're placed in a level, they start there.
And they move to classes in the next level
by passing a course with a 73% or better.
Our classes are credit/no credit.
So that's is how they move through the program.
Beyond that, when they take the test,
it's not to progress to the levels.
It's to exit the program.
OK.
So to exit the program, they have
to demonstrate admission standards
that a fresh student would have coming in.
So these are the test scores that we accept.
The MSUELT is a test we're using in-house.
Michigan State University developed it.
I worked with them for seven, eight years,
before I even was at Ferris, using this test.
And it's a good placement tool.
We accept the I-E-L-T-S, the IELTS test.
The TOEFL IBT is the internet-based TOEFL.
The TOEFL ITP is a paper-based TOEFL.
We also use the MeLAB.
So they have to demonstrate on one of those tests.
And once a score is achieved, students
are eligible for unconditional admission, if, of course,
they meet all the other criteria, MAP,
those types of things.
And they're eligible at this time for English 150.
If the students have gone to the high end of our program
but have not quite reached proficiency,
we have the academic bridge level,
where we have one bridge course, which
is like a capstone course of English, one academic course,
and then two courses from level three,
that I select or the other coordinators select,
based on their deficiencies.
Most commonly, it's reading and writing,
because this is where the students tend
to have most problems.
Can I add something, Lisa?
When a student passes the MSUELT,
before they get to the bridge level,
they will have passed the MSUELT, which
is in-house test that Lisa gives through the IEP program.
You will find that information, if you're
starting to work with these students,
under the testing information on the internet banner,
the self-serve.
And then, also, you should be able to read
the notes on a student.
Because every time that I admit a student into IEP,
I put a note that will show up on their records
saying they've been placed into IEP,
to transition into this particular program
after they have passed.
So that's where you can find that information,
as you're working with a student.
So in order to enter the bridge program,
students can do this by successfully
completing all level three courses.
But they have not passed the test yet.
So they've finished level three.
They've done well.
But they just still haven't reached that test.
So we let them go into the bridge.
If students have completed all of their level-two courses
but they're testing quite high, in the very top little bit
but not quite out, they can be eligible for the bridge.
So those are the score ranges we look for,
for testing into the bridge.
But just because they're eligible for bridge
does not mean they automatically go into it.
We work with advisors to say whether the student should
go into it or not.
So students have to show a track record of attendance
and progress and different things like that,
to be eligible for the bridge.
So when students pass tests, scores are placed in SOATEST.
Some may be in Comments, as MSUELT was only recently added.
So we just got a home on the test score area for MSUELT.
Before that, we were using the comment section.
So for the next couple of semesters,
you might see it in both places.
We also determined, through feedback,
that the transition process is not always very smooth.
The students sometimes pass the test.
And they pick up the test score from the front desk
and run to you.
I passed.
And I haven't even had the chance
to talk to them, different things like that.
So we developed a transition form,
which I think you received a copy of.
So what we do is, we complete the transition form.
Tara signs off on it, and I sign off on it.
It shows the English test score, the program that they're
planning to transition to, whether they do, at this point,
have a COMPASS test requirement.
And then the students should be bringing this form to you
as an advisor, to say, this is where they're at.
And then, as advisor, you would confirm
that, everything is looking good.
We can do program-change paperwork.
So we're not conducting program-change paperwork.
Terri is not changing programs.
The colleges are doing that, once they verify
that everything we believe is OK is actually OK.
Any questions about any of these?
Sometimes, students will get a little over excited.
And they may come to you with a letter from me,
before you even see anything on their record.
And it's probably because they immediately took that letter
and went right to your office.
And so we may have had a chance to catch up
with the excitement of the student
And just an aside on that, we have many students
sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission.
And they need a lot of documentation
for their scholarship.
So Tara will do an Unconditional Letter of Admission,
when they pass the program.
That's for SACM's purposes.
Again, she's not admitting them.
She's not doing a program change.
All that letter does is state that they're done with English.
And they're ready to go into that program.
But SACM want it worded a specific way
with this type of things.
So she produces those letters for that purpose.
So sometimes, those students that brought those letters say,
Tara admitted me to this program.
Advisors are like, Tara, you're not supposed to be doing that.
She has not done any program changes.
This is just for them, because they
have two levels of scholarship, an English scholarship of 18
months.
And then they have five years of academic.
And so they need to make the switch in SACM.
So she helps provide the documentation for that as well.
Side bar to that-- we shouldn't be communicating
with an embassy either, should we?
I was asked to verify some classes and everything.
Let me explain this.
And we just visited SACM day before yesterday.
And is that an acronym?
Yes, Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, SACM.
So they administer a scholarship for the Saudi Government,
the Ministry of Higher Education.
They currently have 90,000 students in the United States
that they are funding.
They have 500 employees in Virginia at SACM headquarters.
And we visited there.
So those students each have an advisor.
If they're in the English program,
it's a different advisor.
If they're in academics, it switches
to a different advisor.
Those advisors have a caseload of about 350 to 450 students
that they're advising.
And so as part of this, they have
to collect documentation from the students.
And they make the students submit everything
through an electronic portal, so that they
know that they're eligible to continue
to have their tuition covered.
But they also get a stipend of $1,800
a month to cover living expenses.
So the students have to demonstrate
that they're attending, that they're making progress,
that they're doing all these things.
So SACM is an interesting animal to deal with as an institution.
20% of their advisors are Sudanese.
80% are Saudi.
And the advisors, to different degrees,
are more or less responsive.
It's really a matter of dumb luck, which advisor you get.
So we try to work with the advisors.
We try to visit them at least once a year,
to make sure the lines of communication are open.
But the communication lines are very muddled with them.
It's very complicated.
And so the students are trying to get one thing from us.
They change their rules for documentation
frequently, because when you're doling out that much money,
there's a lot of people taking advantage
of it, students as well as schools.
So they have a lot of false documentation.
They have a lot of students who are messing around.
And so depending on what thing come
through the pipeline this week, then
they start requiring different documents.
So there are situations where they might be asking you
an academic advisor for some sort of letter.
We do provide letters that we can provide.
But when they're really asking, how long do I have to graduate,
those types of things.
We're not comfortable making those calls,
because we don't-- once they're out of our purview,
we don't have any say on that.
That's you guys.
So that is something to consider as an advisor,
because you may get requests for that.
If you do get requests for that and you're not sure,
you can call our office and say, hey, I'm getting this request.
We know what kind of wording these students need, usually.
Again, we don't always keep up on it,
as it changes frequently.
But there may be situations where
you are asked to provide some documentation.
But we have 170 students.
They're paying close to $2 million to Ferris every year.
And so we do what we can to keep the lines of communication
open.
But it is a complicated institution.
And if you compare that $2 million to how much
you really have to write off, it's not very much.
Right.
I think, at one point-- that $2 million is just Saudi Arabia.
We figure international students are bringing
in about $7 million to the institution,
between tuition and housing.
They're writing off about $30,000 in bad-- which I think,
the rate for all the campus about 5%.
Rate for international students is under 1%.
I'm curious.
If you raise your number, your goal to be looking at 1,000,
what would that number look like?
$7 million was when we have under 350.
So that would be--
Tuition is about $500 an EDU.
$20 million-- [INTERPOSING VOICES]
Well, Toni's got a little bit of data
about the economic impact of the international students.
But they are spending as significant amount of money.
And the Saudi government, even though they
can be very complicated to deal with,
they're funding a lot of students.
And so it's kind of--
So we try to keep up with them.
We try to visit them.
And actually, there is a Ferris alum.
She just graduated last year.
She's originally from Sudan but spent most of her high school
years in Grand Rapids.
She now works for SACM as an advisor.
So we took her to dinner.
Can I have your direct line, your cell phone number,
your home number?
These are just quickly the numbers
that we talked about earlier.
So as you can see, we are slowly going up to our goal.
But I just wanted to kind of talk about--
because you guys are actually very important to me,
as an international student advisor.
In trying to help students maintain their student status,
there are a lot of actual requirements
that I need from academic advisors a lot of times.
And students, I do hold them responsible for bringing
you the forms that they need and following up
on their immigration requirements.
Like i said, I give that all to them during orientation.
So a lot of times, it's kind of in and out.
So it definitely helps if you guys
have an understanding of some of their requirements.
One was the test that we talked about,
the English and Math tests that are required.
We've already gone through that.
But all this information is also listed on my handout
that we gave you guys, the requiring,
so if you guys do need to go back to it at some point
later on.
They also do need to attend schools
that we have been approved to have international students,
through SCVP, which is the governing
body of international students.
That is, Big Rapids, the main campus, Grand Rapids,
Traverse City, and Duwagiac.
So if a student did want to take a class at another off-campus
that that's not listed there, they're
not supposed to be doing that.
Dual enrollment-- so international students
are allowed to take classes at the Ferris State University,
as well as maybe Lansing Community College or Grand
Rapids Community College at the same time.
It is allowed.
But they do have to have some paperwork filled out.
And the courses do you have to transfer
back for their degree here at Ferris.
And Toni, you're approving that, correct?
Correct.
So if they do choose to do this, the students
have to submit paperwork with an academic advisor's signature,
as well as they do have to provide the transcripts
at the end of the semester, to prove
that they took that course and passed
and then transfer the credits into Ferris.
This also helps if they do want those credits to maintain
their full-time requirements.
So as I was talking about, they do have a minimum number
of credits that they do have to take.
I'm sure many of you that are here are familiar with this.
So for the undergraduates, it 12 credits.
And for graduates, it's nine.
They do have to be coursed that they receive credit for.
So they can't audit classes and have it count toward full time.
And then online courses is another-- Ferris
has a lot of those, of course.
So we do have to be very careful about how many
courses that we give international students
for online.
They are only allowed three credits of online courses
to count toward their full-time enrollment.
So say they have nine credits of face-to-face,
they can take any amount above that online, if they desire.
A little caveat to that, is the Saudi Cultural Mission
students, they are not allowed to take online courses at all,
unless it's pre-approved by their advisor at SACM.
So you may get those type of requests from the students,
trying to prove that's the only way to take the course.
So then, they will approve it, if that's the only way.
Mixed-delivery courses-- I would say,
please just contact us, if you have
questions about mixed delivery.
For example, if a class only meets once
per semester and the rest of it's online,
that may be a little bit more questionable.
It probably should be considered online
for immigration requirements.
Go ahead.
What about summer semester?
What level or number of credits do they need for summer?
I had that in my notes to mention that.
So if a student is admitted into the summer.
So they are admitted and arrive in the summer.
They have to have that minimum 12 credits.
But if they've been here for fall or spring or fall
and spring, then they can pretty much do whatever they want.
They don't have to take classes.
They can go home.
They can stay here.
They can take online courses.
They can take three.
They can take a full load.
It's their choice.
But if they are admitted to summer,
they do have to have that full time.
I have one more quick question.
I was asked to write a letter for a student.
Saudi student wants to go home for the summer
and take online courses.
Good thing to do, bad thing to do?
Well, here's the issue with the online courses.
The purpose of the Saudi scholarship
is for them to obviously come here and get degrees but really
interact culturally.
That's really their goal.
They're trying to make some massive transformations
in their society through getting thousands of students educated
in other countries.
So that's their limitation on the online course work.
So at that point, what the students are running into
is, if it's online.
SACM usually makes them pay for it out of pocket,
which some can.
They claim they can't.
But they can.
But the issue comes in, as the Ministry of Higher Education
has to approve or accept their degree or honor their degree.
So if they are looking and they have too many online courses
in their course of study, they will not recognize their degree
when they go home.
And they aren't verifying those with our registrar's office.
So you just don't want to set them up for failure.
Is that it?
You know what?
They're asking for documentation.
You provide it.
And then, their advisor will say, yes or no.
And they'll determine whether their degree
will be recognized.
Same thing with program changes, the students
get approved in Saudi Arabia for a certain course of study.
It's quite complicated to change their major.
And if a student changes their major on their own,
without really going through SACM,
they won't recognize their degree.
So those are things that we try to work with the students on.
But we have a lot of students who've
been approved for engineering.
And they get here, and they cannot do the math.
And then, to go into a technology program,
a lot of times, SACM says, no.
Because they're saying, we need a certain number of engineers.
So this is our selection pool.
We need a certain number in engineering technology.
This is our selection pool.
Certain number in Health Professions--
so they're doing quotas, based on what
they think they needed in skills in their country.
And so it's the Ministry of Higher Education that's
putting these limitations on changes,
as well as online versus face-to-face, just because they
have a different goal than just getting the degree.
We had one student who wanted to do a dual degree,
after he got here.
And he signed up for one course to do the dual degree.
And the mission wanted to completely cancel
his entire scholarship.
Exactly.
And so those are things that the students
need to really be in communication.
And sometimes, they're things that you would think that way.
He's getting two degrees.
Why not?
What a cool thing to do.
But they have their reasons for their decision-making.
And the students just have to stay within that.
You have one student in particular,
I think, she's done four program changes.
And really, she's in a program right now
that they're not going to recognize.
And she's trying to, I have to-- I'm like,
you can go and waste all this time
and go back with basically no degree.
It's your choice.
And we'll have just as many international students
that change though.
They're not scholarship students.
They're just--
Right.
Definitely.
Yes, and they can change programs.
But if they change a program, Toni needs to know,
because she has to report what program they're
in to the government.
I can help them for the work authorizations,
which I'll go over.
But if they're in one of the STEM fields,
they could get longer work authorization
in the United States.
So if their I-20-- their immigration document-- says,
business but they actually graduated with a Mechanical
Engineering Technology, they actually
could have worked longer on a Mechanical Engineering
Technology versus the Business degree.
So it's to their advantage, a lot of times.
And these are the kind of things you go over
with them on the second day, which of course, we
know where that goes.
Because it's hard to remember all this,
while they're still sleeping in a hotel.
I had a terrible breakfast.
We do have a Blackboard course that all international students
are enrolled into.
It's on FerrisConnect.
So you can refer them back to that
as well, if they do have questions
or if I'm not around that day.
You could tell them, check your FerrisConnect course
for that information.
Those are things that you as advisors
can be added to that course too, if you
want to just kind of see--
We can get on that?
I would have to add you.
But I can do that, if you guys are interested.
Can I ask you, is there ever any mention
of disabilities or anything like that?
Do you mean, do they self-disclose?
I guess, anything like that, because I
am completely unfamiliar.
That's why I apologize, if that's-- I understand that
mental health is really frowned upon, stigmatized.
But I guess I'm just curious
Well, some of the things they've been doing in orientation
with other units on campus, I'm not going to say,
it's happened every semester.
But it has happened.
It does come up a lot with Intensive English Program
students.
We do have students who aren't progressing.
I can't diagnose.
But it's clear that there's probably
some dyslexia or something going on.
And so we've tried to refer students.
I've worked with Deb *** and different people,
to try and refer students for testing or for help
or for diagnosis.
But it's very difficult to get some of them
to go down that road.
Because even you talk about the cultural adjustment.
Under the DSM IV, that would be an adjustment disorder.
Yes.
They don't want anything-- they don't
believe that the records are private.
Yes, I've worked with--
They don't believe the FERPA thing.
They don't think that's really true.
I understand.
So I had one student in particular.
He said, I'll never get a wife.
I'll never get a wife, if any of that's on record.
I'll only pump gas.
I'll never get a wife.
And you can say, until you're blue in the face
that this is private.
He said, no.
It's going to end up on my-- everybody is going to know.
Not everybody, but a lot of them don't want to know.
Well, I think, there's a lot of issues.
I've had males come in.
You're a female.
So yeah, I think there's a lot of stuff.
I was just curious.
So thank you.
Quickly to touch back-- the students
may go under the 12 credits for certain exceptions.
And why I bring that up is, I do,
again, require an approval even from you guys to say, yes.
This is a valid reason that the student is going under the 12
credits, because they may be graduating.
Or you might feeling like the courses-- they were placed
too high, and they should have been lower.
So that's another reason that they might be able to go below.
But they are allowed to work.
So you may get some students asking you about this.
But they can work on campus for 20 hours a week.
So a lot of the Engineering Technology departments
require internships.
If it is off campus, they do have to be approved by myself.
And it usually requires a job offer letter.
So they do have to get offered a job.
And then they can bring the paperwork with your signature
to me, and I can approve it or not approve it at that point.
But most of the time, it's pretty valid.
And there are options after they graduated as well.
But a lot of those, just send them my way
if you get some questions, because it
does take up to 90 days sometimes
for processing for those.
And then cultural adjustment-- like Maria was saying,
kind of just keep in the back of your brains
that, if they are missing class a lot
or you're not seeing them perform
as well or depression and those sort of things.
It could be part of that adjustment period.
And not to ignore it, but possibly
try to get them to get some help or come see us.
Or even if they're experiencing some difficulties
with certain faculty or staff, just
please communicate with our office,
because you don't know what you're going to get.
These are ones that I do need to know about from the colleges.
So if you do academically dismiss a student,
that is something that I do need to know about,
because they are technically supposed
to be terminated in their student status.
Reduced course loads, the mixed delivery-- like I said,
if you have questions about those things--
Graduation-- we would love to know about graduation.
I'm sure everybody here would love to know who's graduating.
But that can be a little bit difficult at times.
And the other one's we've mentioned,
just an idea of what you may contact me for or our office--
Sharon--
Will we have access to your--
Toni is going to send it to me.
And I'm going to put it on the advising.
So once I gather names, I can give you
the URL where it's posted.
And like I said, if you or other advisors are interested,
you can be added to that blackboard
site for international students.
And if they're doing learning modules for different things
that are pertinent to their life here.
And that can be just another avenue for you
to get information that they have received.
Yeah, Toni, if you could put me on that too.
Yeah.
You guys are fantastic.
Thank you.
Thank you.