4
?age A-2- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 6, 1984
Studentse
good educa
cultures. S
Forei nfrom foreigr
the Univers
assets-div
Foreign s
cent of the U
last year, b
s graduate p
WHILE N
the Univers
vironment,
enormousd
struge any higher
native land:
"Mostc
dergraduat
tor of the'
"Once yous
to s is veyou need a
celerator,
people in a1
the richest
schools," he
By DAVID VANKER
come to Ann Arbor not only to get a
ation but to experience differing
tudents who have travelled here
n countries to attend classes, endow
sity with one of its most valuable
ersity.
students accounted for only 7.1 per-
University's total student population
but they were a majority in several
programs-especially programs in
ring school.
MANY American students come to
sity to mature as adults in a new en-
most foreign students travel the
distances because there just aren't
educational opportunities in their
Is.
countries have their own un-
e schools," said John Heiss, direc-
University's international center.
start getting into graduate schools,
computer center, an atomic ac-
a research library. Instead of 500
lecture you have six per class. Only
t countries can afford graduate
e said.
In the United States however, Heise said
American students seldom need PhDs in order
to find work.
"AN AMERICAN engineering student earns,
$28,000-30,000 right out of school," he said. "If
he goes on for another five years, do.you think
he's going to get that same offer? Companies
don't want PhDs building their bridges.
"A PhD basically qualifies you for teaching;
you make $20,000 or $22,000 a year when you get
out of school. There you run into the strange
phenomenon that the more education you have,
the lower your salary," Heise said.
But things are different for PhDs outside the
U.S., Heise added.
"THE AMERICAN student says, 'It's not
going to pay to continue in school,' " Heise
said. "For the foreign student, it pays."
Heise estimates that "somewhere around 90
percent" of all foreign students return to their
home outside the U.S. upon graduation and
assume the positions for which they were
trained at the University.
"These people are 27 to 30 years old in most
cases," he remarked. "They already know
what they want to do by the time they come
here."
THIS MAY account for the incredible study
discipline that seems typical of foreign studen-
ts, most of whom come several thousand miles
to attend the University, Heise said.
The cost of an education at the University is
likely another incentive for foreign students to
take school seriously.
The recently-approved tuition hike for out-of-
state and graduate students means that foreign
graduate students will pay at least $3,666 per
term to attend the University. When travel ex-
penses and the cost of household items which
they cannot afford to bring from home are ad-
ded, the annual cost to foreign students at the
University tops $17,000, according to Heise.
SLIGHTLY MORE than half of the 2,445
foreign students enrolled at the University last
year were from Asian nations; almost 80 per-
cent were male; and nearly three-quarters of
them were seeking graduate or professional
degrees.
Although foreign students dominated a few
graduate programs within the University, they
were only sparsely represented on the un-
dergraduate level. Last year, 47.8 percent of all
graduate engineering students and 18.6 percent
of all graduate students were foreign, but only
5.1 percent of the University's un-
dergraduate engineering students and 1.8:per-
cent of its LSA undergraduates came t1 tie
University from outside the U.S.
In those departments where many of: the
graduate students are foreign, however-inath
and science programs in particularrun-
dergraduates have traditionally encount"r
language barriers between themselves anU
teaching assistants unaccustomed to speaking
English. In an attempt to deal with this
problem, LSA administrators last year began
to require TAs within LSA who were not native
speakers of English to demonstrate their 'oral
proficiency before they could teach.
WHILE THE plan originally called for the
testing of both graduate students who had
taught before and those hadn't, instructor
Mary Spaan of the University's Engli
Language Institute (ELI) said that, in the en ,
only new TAs were tested.
However, language barriers are not the only
problems foreign students face at the Univer-
sity.
"I'm worried that University officials aremot
directly concerned about our welfare, except
See FOREIGN, Page 7
NEED A
IBM * APPLE * COMPAQ
COMPUTER?
RENT NOW
WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!
We rent and sell several kinds
of terminals, printers, modems,
and personal computers.
Come and visit our office at
749 Airport Blvd., Suite 2
We will show you how economical
and efficient our equipment
can be for you.
NOBODY CAN DO IT LIKE:
RENT-A-BYTE, INC. "
749 Airport Blvd., Suite 2
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Tel. (313),161-BYTE .
Policy backs gays on campus
By MARLA GOLD
After Diag rallies, marches in the
streets and protests in University
President Harold Shapiro's office, gay
rights activists who united for battle
finally got what they wanted: a Univer-
sity-wide policy outlawing
discrimination against campus
homosexuals.
'During the two-year policy quest
which ended last spring, campus gays
maintained that such a statement
would buffer some of the harassment
they say they face every day.
ACCORDING TO the statement:
"The University of Michigan believes
that educational and employment
decisions should be based on in-
dividuals' abilities and qualifications
and should not be based on irrelevant
factors or personal characteristics
which have no connection with
academic abilities or job performance.
Among the traditional factors which
are generally 'irrevelant' are race, sex,
religion, and national origin. It is the
policy of the University of Michigan that
an individual's sexual orientation be
treated in the same manner."
No one was searching for a miracle
solution and so far, no miracle solutions
have occurred since the policy was
signed into effect by Shapiro.
NEXT MONTH the University's af-
firmative action office will assemble a
task force to deal with gay-oriented
complaints. It will also study methods
of educating the campus community on
discriminatidn>.$
Today, however, gays on campus say.
they are often harassedandpppressed.
"The thing about being gay is that
you don't have to say anything," said
Naomi Braine, a residential college
senior and member of a gay activist
group called Queers' Action Committee
(QuAC). "But not being able to come
out (of the closet) is oppressive," she
said.
ACCORDING to Braine and other gay
students at the University, coming out
- admitting to yourself and your frien-
ds that you are gay - can leave a gay
I
a
a
Doily Photo by ELIZABETH SCOTT
Members of Ann Arbor's gay community rally outside of the Federal Building on Liberty Street during Gay Pride week.
student wide open for harassment.
And as a result, some students on
campus simply refuse to come out.
Even though statistics say 10 percent of the
population is gay, few University stu-
dents are vocal about beng gay.
"You don't get horror stories because
people don't have to come out," she
said.
SOME ARE afraid to come out and
others are encouraged not to publicly
display their homosexuality.
During a dance celebrating gay pride
BIOLOGICAL/PHYSICAL SCIENCES ...
You're Needed All Over
the World..
Ask Peace Corps volunteers why they are using their Science major,
minor, or aptitude in health clinics and classrooms in Malaysia. Why do
they use them in fish pond culture projects and experimental farms in
Western Samoa? They'll tell you their ingenuity and flexibility are as
important as their degrees. Ask them why Peace Corps is the toughest
job you'll ever love.
PIECE CORPS
week in the Michigan Union last July,
a security officer asked gays to "not
be affectionate in the halls to avoid
trouble with a fraternity that was
having a party in the next room," said
one gay male student who did not want
to be identified.
Other gay students recall similar
situations when they've been asked
subtly - and sometimes not so subtly -
to closet their homosexuality.
HOMOSEXUALS have complained of
being bombarded with snowballs while
walking hand in hand through the Diag
and of having pro-gay posters and signs
ripped - and even burned - off dorm
room doors.
Perhaps the policy statement will
change this, but it more than likely
won't. The policy statement does,
however, recognize gays.
According to Jim Toy, a worker in the
University's Human Sexuality Office,
the policy statement is important
because it lets gays know that the
University is behind them, not against
them.
AND ACCORDING to Toy, "People
have said that it needs to be proven to
them that the University is backing
them if they complain." If the Univer-
sity backs gays, he thinks more people
will go to the Affirmative Action office
with complaints.
"There is a greater feeling among
people that they aren't going to let
things slide anymore," said Greg
Prokopowitz, a gay LSA senior. The,
mentality of some people is that we
gays should avoid offending people. If
there's a problem we shouldn't have to
hide," he said.
Even though the policy statement
recognizes gays, most homosexualson
campus believe that a change in the
regental by-lays would've been muck
stronger.
Under a plan first proposed by the
group Lesbian and Gay Rights on Cam-
pus (LaGROC) in 1982, sexual
preference would have been added to
the regental by-law which now prohibits
discrimination on the basis of race, sex,
color, religion, national origin or an-
cestry, age, marital status or vietnam-
era veteran status.
However, the University didn't ap-
prove the by-law change and as a
result, it enacted the policy statement.
But gay groups say they may consider
pushing for a by-law change once
again.
Gays on campus waited 15 months for
the University to enact the policy. And
now they're playing a waiting game
again. This time, they're waiting to see
if it will work.
GREAT LAKES 24
OPEN
24_HOURS,
7 DAYS
A WEEK,
365 DAYS
PER YEAR
AVOID
LONG
LINES
Automatic Banking Center
CENTRAL CAMPUS
LOCA TION :
401 E. Liberty
stafevideat Division
SW d -769-8300
NORTH CAMPUS
LOCATION:
2701 Plymouth Rd.
near Nixon
769-7818
IS
f I