At a time when a still relatively new president is stressing the importance of global engagement in the liberal arts, and Woosterís various international programs have just been reorganized under the Center for Diversity and Global Engagement, the size of the International class of 2013 seems a bit incongruous.† As compared to 25 to 50 students in previous years, this year only nine first-year international students have joined the Wooster community.
Why the drop in enrollment? Director of International Admissions Brian Atkins is not in the best place to say.† Heís new to the job, replacing Sean Menton who had been in the position for the last two years. Atkins comes to Wooster directly from 19 years abroad, most recently as director of an American international school in the Netherlands.
ìCertainly the economy is a factor,” said Atkins, ìand I can say that from a few years of working at an international high school.”
The decline of the world economy is hard on families that want to send their students to the United States for an education.† Just as in the case of local families, economic pressures will cause many prospective students to weigh tuition more heavily in their selection of a school ó an equation that wonít make Wooster come out on top.
International enrollment was just starting to recover from a similar drop encountered after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.† In that case it was the difficulty of acquiring visas that caused the decrease.
Though he canít speak directly to what spurred the drop in international enrollment, Atkins has a plan to get the numbers back up; to make sure the College continues to facilitate the international community students, faculty and administrators value so highly.
ìEverybodyís looking at me to do this,” said Atkins. ìOne person canít do this.”
Atkins is going to the International Studentsí Association for help, in the hopes that current international students will be able to connect to global prospective students in a more meaningful way than Admissions personnel can.† For instance, Atkins and Admissions Intern Anoop Parik í09 are organizing brainstorming sessions with the ISA, in order to cater recruitment to particular cultures.
ìStudents from Malawi, for example, we need to approach them differently than students from Korea or Argentina,” said Atkins. ìI think that in this economy we need to make things even more personal for students.”
He stressed that making full use of new technology is going to be one of the keys to this personal approach.
ìYour generation are the digital natives. My generation are the digital immigrants,” said Atkins. ìSo Iíve challenged [international students on campus] to make a YouTube video, to capture the essence of Wooster for international students.”
Atkins has high hopes that through reaching out in personal ways to the prospective international students of the world, Wooster can bring up its numbers in future years.
ìI think we had some missed opportunities [last year],” said Atkins. ìThose opportunities center around [Ö] making a personal connection.”