Editor’s note: Benson Ntiwas is a University student and former co-director of the International Student Association.
In the academic year 2009-10, I had the honor and privilege of being elected co-director of the International Student Association alongside a friend. We ran for the position because we truly believed we had sound ideas that, if implemented, could improve the said association whose responsibility is to facilitate the transition of international students to American life by providing opportunities for them to socialize with domestic students and the community at large. Having assumed various leadership roles before and being participants in the International Cultural Service Program here at the University, we were confident we had the requisite experience to head the association. Little did we know that our tenure would be mired in problems, including an attempted impeachment.
Upon being elected, our first order of business was to recruit a staff of three officers for key positions and as many interns as the association could accommodate. As part of our reform agenda, we wanted the association’s leadership as well as its rank-and-file to be as diverse as possible. Unfortunately, after looking through our pile of applications, it dawned on us that it was far from diverse. We had a hunch this would be the case, given the association’s homogeneous composition in past years. Without a feasible recourse, we recruited from the diversity-bereft pool.
In the last several years, ISA leadership has not been diverse. The association has been under the control of students from one part of the world — namely Asia. I have nothing against Asians, however, I am absolutely convinced that it is not healthy for ISA to be monopolized, as it were, by students from one region of the world. An association with an international scope should be diverse. Otherwise it is not worth the name. There are many arguments that have been advanced to explain why ISA is not diverse, and most of them are fallacious. It has, for instance, been argued that students from other parts of the world are not keen on being part of the association. This claim is patently erroneous.
The election of two African students to the helm of ISA leadership interrupted a longstanding trend, which was not well received by those who felt disinherited of their right to lead. We ran on a platform of change, but much to our chagrin, virtually all the progressive changes we proposed were rejected. Invariably, the rebuttal was that the changes deviated from tradition. For the record, I don’t despise traditions, but I am of the opinion that new ideas deserve a chance.
Most of our meetings were characterized by relentless arguments. The rancor was palpable. It got to a point where we had to enlist the help of the conflict resolution services on campus. There were numerous allegations against us; we were, for instance, accused of undermining democracy and being ignorant of the association’s history. To be sure, we were not perfect, but most of the accusations were baseless and unfounded.
Few of our halfheartedly accepted ideas resulted in successful events on campus, but our leadership continued to be resisted. We were considered “outsiders” who had usurped power. And, a campaign to remove us from the association was underway. Eventually, we received a letter asking us to relinquish our leadership role. This was preposterous considering we were duly elected and there were no reasonable grounds to boot us from office.
This year, a student from South Africa quit the association with similar frustrations. African students feel discouraged from participating in ISA events for fear of being ostracized. As far as I am concerned, it would be irresponsible for the University community to let this repugnant trend continue unabated. And so, as a start, here are a few suggestions on how the situation in ISA can be addressed:
1. Those implicated in an incident of discrimination should face the appropriate disciplinary action. This would send a strong message to the effect that intolerance is unacceptable.
2. The association should be mandated to ensure diversity in its composition.
3. The association’s staff should be given training on intercultural communication.
4. The association should be assigned a faculty advisor to oversee its activities. This idea is in use at the University of Kansas and it has worked well.
The University has thousands of international students from more than 80 different countries. The exciting challenge that ISA has is to embrace and harness this diversity.
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