SEMO students from abroad face challenges of navigating American culture

When they come to Cape Girardeau, their primary objective is to get an education. For many of the 700-plus international students who are living in Cape Girardeau, the schooling is the easy part.

Not knowing how to navigate the culture can put students in difficult positions once they arrive here, and it's much the same story across the country.

Schools everywhere are trying to find ways to help students like Tashrif Rezwan and three other roommates from Sri Lanka, who found an inexpensive basement apartment on Park Street with three bedrooms, a kitchen and no living area.

The students from Sri Lanka didn't expect that they would have problems with cockroaches, a broken toilet and flooding.

Not all problems that international students face are as serious. Some, such as Payal Patel, a graduate student from India, have found that transportation was a big issue when she moved into an off-campus apartment 16 months ago. Commuting to campus and around Cape Girardeau is a concern for a majority of people, she said. She now has a car, so the issue is solved for her. And living off campus gives her the liberty and solitude to devote her time to studies, work and social life, she said. Living on her own now is simply preparing for real life ahead, she said.

There have never been more international students in Cape Girardeau than there are today. Half made their way to dorms, the other half to off-campus

apartments or houses, where they were able to save money on their cost of living, cook foods from their native countries and enjoy the freedom of living on their own.

The Sri Lanka students have chosen not to take their problems about their apartments to the city. Their landlord, Jerel Lichtenegger, said he often rents apartments to international students. He acknowledged the apartment is in need of repair, but he said he was up front with them before they moved in. He said he warned the students of possible leaks and other problems, which he said often occur in basement apartments. He said expectations aren't being met by either side. He said it is hard to get the students to take care of trash the way they should.

Rezwan said the bathroom is bare concrete and the cracked toilet leaks. But he said the students have no other options and that they chose to live there.

Licthenegger said the other apartments in the building don't have similar problems, and neither do the ones next door.

The problem experienced by the Sri Lankan students is one more common than people realize, said Cynthia Herath, a native of Sri Lanka who often befriends students from the country when they reach Cape Girardeau.

Some believe they will find jobs here, she said, that will allow them to live in nice homes. Instead, they find problems, she said, because they aren't sure of their responsibilities as tenants and they can be easily taken advantage of. She has known several of situations where international students didn't get their deposits back, even when they were in compliance with a lease, she said. They did not understand the terms of the lease and didn't know the money was owed them because of language barriers.

Renting apartments to international students can sometimes be tricky, said Rick Hetzel, who, like Lichtenegger, has rented apartments to international students for several years.

"They require a little bit more TLC," he said.

Aside from the cultural differences, international students sometimes have a different standard of living, he said, and often arrive in Cape Girardeau without transportation and with a misunderstanding of the rental system.

Hetzel said he believes international students who want to live off campus should be participating in a sponsorship program that would help them become acclimated.

The university's website has information for students who are seeking to live off campus, advising them to read leases carefully and providing links to the chamber of commerce's apartment guide.

Occasionally the international student services department has advocated for international students who find they must break a lease, said Zahir Ahmed, executive director of the office.

The cost for international students to live on campus for a nine-month academic year and take nine to 12 credit hours varies between $17,000 and $20,000. Figured into that cost is tuition and fees and living expenses, including meals, which can be bought on campus. International students rarely qualify for financial aid based on their noncitizenship status but can receive scholarships.

The university requires orientation for new international students and offers continuing orientation to students throughout their time at the university. During orientations, students are given tours of the city, educated about on and off campus living and academic procedures.

With any new population of students comes a new set of issues, said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of enrollment management and dean of students. Holt and Dr. Debbie Below, the university's director of admissions, along with Ahmed, said the university is continually evaluating how to best serve the new population.

"We have taken a number of steps and are taking on more now to make sure they are aware of issues," Ahmed said.

Southeast is among the many universities that have recruited international students in recent years. According to 2011 study by the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., the number of international students enrolling in American universities for the first time increased 8 percent in 2011. A report by the Institute of International Education this year also showed the number of international students in the U.S. is up 30 percent from 2001.

The growth of the international student population is intentional, Holt said, and was part of a university initiative to increase diversity. Holt said the university met its numeric goal for international students this year, although that target wasn't set to be reached until 2014. The university will likely now slow its efforts to recruit international students, he said.

Below, the university's director of admissions, said the university is careful about what students are told about the availability of jobs, on or off campus, when it recruits international students. There are not enough on-campus jobs for domestic students who want them either, she said, and students should not count on being able to find jobs to fully support them.

Ahmed has been participating in a listserv for universities with a purpose of sharing information about orientation practices that will improve services for international students, he said.

"It's a debate going on in many universities, how to work out a system of more educational orientation programs throughout the semester," he said.

Ahmed, who has been a director of international student services at California State University, the University of Dayton, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the State University of New York, said Southeast's services for international students are as good as or better than most.

erinragan@semissourian.com

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