Every Christmas, Stanley Dashew invited members of the UCLA International Student Association to his home for a hearty, home-cooked dinner, sharing his life experiences while patiently listening to theirs.
Dashew, a philanthropist, entrepreneur and inventor who revolutionized the credit card industry, passed away on April 25 at the age of 96.
Through the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars, Dashew envisioned a campus where domestic UCLA students could learn and gain global perspectives from their international peers.
Though there often exists a cultural and language barrier between domestic and international students, active interaction and communication can be of tremendous academic and social value to both groups and the university at large.
UCLA is frequently listed among the most prestigious universities in the world. Its logo is sold on clothes in Kuwait City and its academic and research partnerships extend to 48 countries around the world. To the rest of the world, UCLA is an international institution. That standing is one we should continue to build upon here in our Westwood home.
Students should realize that having more international colleagues not only helps the University of California financially but also brings the globe to California. In memory of Dashew and to enrich themselves with the diversity international students bring, domestic students would do well to make extra effort to communicate with these students and learn from their experiences.
The international population has become an increasingly substantial presence on campus – the number of freshmen enrolling from out of the country increased almost tenfold from 125 in 2007 to 1012 in 2012.
This increase has sparked debate among the administration and critics concerned with the UC’s ability to fulfill its mission to provide education to Californians. But what are often lost in the conversation about admissions are the invaluable perspectives brought to Westwood by our international students and faculty.
The exchange of ideas between international and domestic students can allow in-state students to broaden their worldview without spending tens of thousands of dollars to travel abroad.
The Dashew Center hosts a number of programs to facilitate this type of interaction, including the Global Siblings program, which pairs domestic students and international Bruins to exchange experiences and cultural perspectives.
“To learn from each other and to value that diversity was part of Mr. Dashew’s message,” said Shideh Hanassab, director of the Dashew Center.
However, programs can only benefit international students who actively participate in them. Meanwhile, domestic students can expand their social circles well beyond the U.S.
Of course, the barriers are not always institutional, but can be as personal as limited linguistic familiarity. It can be intimidating for international students whose native language isn’t English to engage with domestic students.
“It is scary to speak English to someone who speaks perfect English,” said Andreas Liu, president of the International Student Association. “And nobody wants to leave the comfort zone of being with a group of people who are culturally familiar to you and speak your native language.”
Here at UCLA, at least, resources provided by programs housed in the Dashew Center continue to help students settle into their new home and new university.
As international students are admitted to the UC system in growing numbers, the university administration should to expand their efforts to ensure international students have access to resources that help them succeed academically and to facilitate the cultural and intellectual exchanges that Dashew identified as so vital during his Christmas dinners.
Email Zhao at jzhao@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.
Most international students from Asian countries don’t even bother to interact with those outside of their ethnic group. Most can go their whole 4 years without speaking English outside of the classroom. The reason for the huge increase in the number of international students is that they bring in a much larger amount of money to the university compared to California residents.