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The international community at UCLA has new representation this quarter with the formation of a group like a student government that aims to address the needs and concerns of international students.
The International Student Advisory Council, which formed at the end of fall quarter and held internal elections earlier this quarter, will serve as a forum for international students and provide a cultural education for everyone at UCLA through programs that celebrate cultures from all around the world, said Andreas Liu, president of the organization and a third-year physics student.
The council has a board of officers which includes the president, a vice president, a secretary, a membership coordinator, an Undergraduate Students Association Council liaison and a Graduate Student Association liaison, Liu said.
The USAC liaison is in charge of maintaining contact with USAC and providing opinions from international students, as well as possibly co-programming with USAC in the future, said Adam Zhang, first-year applied mathematics student and USAC liaison for the council. The council is headed in the direction of becoming a USAC-like body exclusively for international students on campus, Zhang said.
The group began as an advisory council to the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars for questions specifically regarding international students, said Andrew Bottom, programs assistant at the center.
Liu said there has been incredible growth in the international student population since his first year at UCLA. But Dashew Center resources have not grown at the same pace, he said. That calls for action from the international community itself, to help organize and provide a voice for international students, he said.
Bottom also said that the need for the council arises from the recent growth in the number of international students at UCLA. According to the UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management, there were 4,963 international students enrolled at UCLA as of fall 2012. The council can also help figure out needs that the Dashew Center may not be aware of because it is not run by students, Bottom said.
“We saw a need to have a council we could turn to that could be a voice for the international community,” Bottom said.
Last quarter. the Dashew Center sent out a mass email to the UCLA international community with applications to be a part of the group, and its staff was amazed by the number of students who responded, Liu said.
That was when Jennie Weingarten, the assistant director of programming at the center, thought this might turn into something bigger, Liu said.
Some students, however, said they are not so sure how much of an effect the new council will have.
“I am apprehensive because I don’t know how effective the government will be,” said Christos Kampouridis, a third-year mechanical engineering student from Greece. “But I prefer that it exists than if it didn’t exist.”
To expand its scope on campus, the International Student Advisory Council is focusing on becoming a representative council for the international student population at UCLA, Liu said.
The group is very new – it recently finished drafting its constitution and registered as an official student group, Liu said. Some of the group’s future goals include bringing the international community closer together and improving connections between the domestic and international populations at UCLA, Liu said.
Nicoló Maganzini, a first-year electrical engineering student from Italy, said he thinks the council will help to bring the international community closer together and lobby for the academic concerns of international students. “This type of thing will become a need as the numbers of international students keep increasing,” Maganzini said.
Clarification: The international community at UCLA has new representation this quarter with the formation of a group like a student government.