ROSEANNE CHAO/Daily
Universities across the United
States, and especially those in
the Midwest, are struggling to
attract international students to
their
campuses.
International
enrollment has most noticeably
declined in non-flagship state
universities, where funding for
classes and facilities has dried up
due to the lack of international
students who are willing to pay full
price for tuition.
University of Michigan students
on the Ann Arbor campus, who are
used to seeing more international
students every year, may be
surprised
to
find
Michigan’s
public institutions are not immune
to this decline. Of the state’s 15
public universities, 10 reported a
declining
international
student
population over the past year,
including U-M Flint, Michigan
State University, and Wayne State
University. However, several of
these universities have embraced
strategies like shifting their focus
to domestic out-of-state students
and online courses to offset falling
enrollment rates and revenue.
These new strategies have been
successful so far.
Forces behind the decline
James Cotter, director of the
Office of Admissions at Michigan
State
University,
said
several
factors could be responsible for the
decline in international enrollment,
including the tense political climate
in the U.S., represented in policies
like President Donald Trump’s
travel ban.
“In the last five years, there’s
been some things that changed,”
Cotter said. “Perhaps the climate
within the United States and the
lack of a sense of welcomeness that
the country may be projecting,
whether that be true or not … We’re
hearing from students that that’s
an issue.”
According to its enrollment
report,
MSU
has
seen
its
international enrollment fall from
its fall 2014 peak of 7,645 students,
or 15.26 percent of the total student
population, to 6,850, or 13.69
percent. Cotter said the numbers
back in the day may have been
“artificially high” because other
universities around the world
were not as interested in recruiting
international students, and saw the
current numbers as appropriate.
“Those international numbers
(from
2014)
may
have
been
artificially high … Most of us in the
enrollment management profession
knew that those numbers weren’t
necessarily sustainable,” Cotter
said. “Everyone seems to be in the
game of recruiting international
students now and that wasn’t
necessarily the case back in 2011,
2012, 2013.”
Engineering senior Mary Rose
Shi, an international student from
Myanmar, said the high cost of
tuition in the United States was a
deterring factor for many of her
friends back home.
“We’re
becoming
more
globalized, so the opportunities
available at U.S. colleges are very
much available outside of the U.S.
as well,” Shi said.
Funding
from
foreign
governments
also
influences
how
many
foreign
students
study abroad. Ahmad Ezzeddine,
associate
vice
president
for
Educational
Outreach
and
International Programs at Wayne
State University, said a major factor
was the rise and fall in government-
sponsored scholarships. As a result
of the Brazilian government ending
its Brazilian Scientific Mobility
Program, Ezzeddine said Wayne
State’s population of international
students decreased almost four
percent, ending a four-year trend of
increases.
In China, the number of high
school graduates has been steadily
decreasing every year, due to the
country’s one-child policy, which
was in effect from 1979 to 2015.
Cotter cited the demographic shift
in the country and the Chinese
government’s investment in its
own higher education system as
reasons why Chinese students, who
make up the bulk of international
students at many universities,
come in smaller numbers now.
International
factors
affect
some
schools
more
adversely
than other. The University of
Michigan-Flint campus has seen its
international enrollment dwindle
to 348 students, 4.44 percent of the
student population, or almost half
of its 2015 peak of 720, 8.5 percent,
according to their student profile.
Kristi
Hottenstein,
vice
chancellor
for
Enrollment
Management
at
U-M
Flint,
explained the decline in Saudi
Arabian
students,
who
make
up more than a third of the
international student population
at Flint, was a major factor in the
school’s decline in international
enrollment overall. The Saudi
government
cut
funding
for
students studying abroad in 2016
due to falling oil prices.
“Any
enrollment
decline
has budget implications for a
university, and that holds true for
U-M Flint,” Hottenstein wrote in
an email interview. “However, our
university has planned accordingly,
and we continue to actively recruit
students from Saudi Arabia, across
the Middle East and around the
Community
members
gathered to attend the second
meeting of the 7th annual
Sustainable Ann Arbor Forum
series
on
Thursday,
which
focused on methods to measure
and
track
the
progress
of
sustainability. About 40 students
and
Ann
Arbor
residents
attended the event at the Ann
Arbor District Library.
Attendees came to discuss the
success of the city’s sustainability
programs.
Moderator
John
Mirsky, executive policy advisor
for Sustainability for the Ann
Arbor City Administrator, began
the forum by emphasizing the
importance of measuring and
tracking sustainability.
“If you speak with data, that
drives informed improvement,”
he said.
According to Mirsky, the best
way of measuring progress is
through metrics and by tracking
the information through review
meetings, along with community
engagement.
“Stay
engaged,”
Mirsky
said. “Hold (the city and) the
University
accountable
for
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, February 9, 2018
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
See SUSTAINABILITY, Page 3
City Forum
talks data
from green
initiatives
ANN ARBOR
Methods to measure and
track sustainability efforts
discussed in city meeting
NATASHA PIETRUSCHKA
For the Daily
Despite declining international enrollment across
state, Ann Arbor campus sees steady increases
Regional public institutions adopt new strategies to increase out-of-state enrollment, boost revenue
ISHI MORI
Daily Staff Reporter
It’s
not
uncommon
for
University
of
Michigan
students to spend late nights
studying at the University’s
many libraries. That’s why
free
university-sponsored
transportation
services
like
Campus SafeRide are designed
to take students, faculty, and
staff where they need to be
after-hours. But this service
created
to
bring
students
home safely at late hours can
sometimes leave them waiting
longer than expected.
The
SafeRide
system
depends on four drivers Sunday
through Thursday, and three
on
Fridays
and
Saturdays.
SafeRide encourages the use of
their app, which automatically
assigns a destination to the
most
launchable
driver.
If
students
call,
drivers
manually record the necessary
information.
Some University of Michigan
users have reported waiting to
be picked up by SafeRide times
significantly longer than the
service advertises. A source
from SafeRide who requested
to remain anonymous indicated
wait
times
are
generally
15-20 minutes. However, LSA
sophomore
Lillie
Heyman
experienced twice that when
she was told her wait time
would be 40 minutes.
After the Law Library had
closed at 12 a.m. on a Saturday
and buses had retired their
routes, Heyman needed to get
back to her dorm at Oxford
Housing. Never having tried
SafeRide before, she decided to
call them.
“I called the number and
the person answered, and they
asked if I wanted to be added to
the queue of people waiting for
SafeRide,” Heyman said. “The
wait was 40 minutes.”
Students
often
turn
to
SafeRide before transportation
apps like Uber or Lyft to avoid
the potentially hefty fees they
charge, which can exceed $10
depending on the location.
University’s
ride service
struggles to
suit demand
See RIDE, Page 3
SARAH KUNKEL/Daily
Amiyah Scott speaks at the 4th Annual W.M. Trotter Lecture titled “My Life. My Story! Centering the Voices of Trans Lives” at the Trotter Multicultural Center
Thursday.
CAMPUS LIFE
Equipped with few drivers and resources,
SafeRide leaves students with long waits
NATASHA PIETRUSCHKA
For the Daily
“My Life. My Story!” lecture celebrates acclaimed members of the trans community
As attendees filled Rackham
Auditorium
Thursday
night,
a slideshow flashed images of
acclaimed figures in the trans
community, both living and dead.
A few of the many honored were
actress Laverne Cox, “Survivor” star
Zeke Smith and Sylvia Rivera, the
late activist and drag queen. Over
250 people attended the Trotter
Multicultural Center’s lecture “My
Life. My Story! Centering the Voices
of Trans Lives,” honoring the lives,
works and stories of transgender
and nonbinary people.
Jessica
Thompson,
program
manager for the Trotter Center,
did much of the organizing for the
lecture, reaching out to trans student
speakers at the University, as well as
the celebrity keynote speakers. At
the start of the event, she expressed
her appreciation for the student
speakers’ willingness to share their
stories. She said while the celebrity
speakers brought inspiration to the
event, it was the students she felt
were most impressive.
“Although they (the celebrities)
are amazing, I have to be honest,
that’s not what makes this event
star-studded,” Thompson said. “It’s
the students that make this event
star-studded.”
The student speakers came from
diverse backgrounds and different
parts of the University: Art & Design
senior D. Wang Zhao, Information
graduate student Vidhya Aravind,
Max Mendez, a recent graduate
from the School of Social Work
and 2017 LSA graduate Leo Sheng.
Each student expressed their story
in different ways, but all included
their struggles, perseverance and
gratitude for the support of friends
and family.
Zhao told their story through
poetry, using the color blue to
represent their fluid gender identity
and
express
frustration
with
discrimination.
“My blue is not masculine-
centered, not feminine-centered,
but fluid and indistinguishable,”
Zhao said. “My blue is of transience
and of being an immigrant of
having aesthetics that involve of
yes, bleaching my eyebrows like I
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Daily Staff Reporter
See TROTTER, Page 3
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news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
Check out the
Daily’s News
podcast, The
Daily Weekly
INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 73
©2018 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See SPENDING, Page 3
Transgender, nonbinary stories
highlighted at annual Trotter event