Though they are far away from their countries of origin, the University’s international community now has a place they can call home.
This week the International Resource Center at the EMU is holding grand opening activities for the newly improved International Lounge that offers international students the opportunity to stay informed about their country’s news through computer hookups, international newspapers and satellite television, and also provides travel information for anyone interested in exploring another country.
Several events will be held in the lounge today and Friday, including an open house, guest speakers, a Peace Corps slide presentation and a showing of the film La Vie Est Belle.
Tom Mills, director of the Office of International Education and Exchange will speak at the International Coffee Hour on Friday about the history of the IRC. Mills said he wants foreign students and faculty to feel comfortable and at home at the University.
“We really are an international campus, much more than people realize,” he said.
But Mills said he hopes everyone takes advantage of this campus resource no matter where they are from because of the opportunities to explore international locations.
“It’s for everyone,” he said. “Maybe a student learning French would want to see a real French newspaper, and they could do that here.”
“This is a place where people can interact and feel at home, so the University campus experience is more than just an academic one,” said Anne Williams, IRC coordinator. “Before, the University was lacking a place where the international community could get resources all in one place.”
These new resources include computers for international news and travel Web sites and a donated big screen television. And by March, the lounge will also have a collection of international newspapers and magazines, Williams said.
The television provides continuous international news broadcasts from several countries, and this is made possible by the Yamada Language Center’s satellite equipment, which allows them to put the broadcasts on campus television, she said.
In addition to the donated television, Williams said the lounge also receives materials provided by embassies where University students are from, or have traveled to. Some University students who have studied abroad also write descriptions of their traveling experiences for others to read in the lounge.
Williams said many of these new amenities were made possible by the work of the IRC advisory committee, which consists of the ASUO, the EMU board, the Office of International Education and Exchange, the International Student Association and a handful of faculty members.
She said the committee has worked for several years on plans to make the existing lounge more accessible to the University, including installing a new elevator at the beginning of 2000 to make the area handicap accessible.
Jackie Reed, EMU board representative for the advisory committee and a sophomore journalism major, said the committee exists to review plans for the IRC and make sure the University’s needs are being met. They’ve put in many long hours preparing for this week’s agenda, she said.
“We’ve been holding meetings twice a week because we really want to show that the lounge can offer great opportunities to everyone,” she said.
Mills said the center received a two-year, $50,000 budget from the ASUO last spring, and student incidental fees were raised about $1 to make the budget possible.
The student fees, along with private donations and the volunteer work of the advisory committee keep the lounge running, Williams said.
“The lounge is a place that everyone can use,” she said, adding that international students make up roughly 10 percent of the University population, and 14 percent of University students will at some time study abroad.
Reed, who studied in England during high school, said she would have liked to have a resource like the IRC lounge.
“If I’d have had a little bit of a home base in a foreign country, it would have helped me in England,” she said.