Saudi- on campus residency requirement/funding

Recently, I was asked the suggested best practice in supporting Saudi Arabian Culture Mission (SACM) scholarship students who recently arrived at a prestigious American university steep in tradition. Duke University has a three-year on campus residency requirement for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. The current issue is that the international scholars aren't allowed to live off campus and are resisting the schools requirements citing limited funds from their scholarship and monthly stipend. Please see below:

I wish that I could say that pulling the student’s I-20 that is on file and referring to the financial information on Page 1 would cure everything, but in the case of Saudis, discussing the matter is the suggested best practice. First, the pricing of on-campus housing and your school’s policy on residency requirements are not negotiable which is the root of the problem in the eyes of the Saudi students, so, why bother in opening the matter to discussion? The students want to have their voice heard. Having said this, it is suggested to have a monthly focus group meeting open to all international students or all resident students allowing the students a chance to voice their concerns.

In my experiences with Saudi students, they are only interested in on-campus housing for a few months then want to move off campus. Same goes if your program has a homestay program. Having said this, if it is possible to adjust the residency requirements for international students, it would prevent this culture conflict. The conflict being on what is viewed as a commitment. However, any adjustments could lead to a slippery slope with everything being kept track of by the students.

Also, any discussions my lead a Saudi student to believe that there is any chance to have their request met. Having said this, preface the conversation from the very beginning that under no circumstances that their request will be met if the likeliness to satisfying the request is the equivalent of moving heaven and earth. Explain that the information gathered at the meeting will be provided to the key members of the school so that maybe in the future the needs of international students will be met.

In terms of threatening to leave, the best way to stay ahead of this is to connect with the student’s advisor at (SACM). These advisors are listed on the student’s Financial Guarantee Letter and are usually in touch with the schools requesting transcripts, etc. The advisor can be used as a go-between to reason with the student to see things your way. Furthermore, if a student is at an institution such as Duke, the likeliness to simply leave and go to another school is not so easy.

If at a language school, the issue to leave is much easier. This is because the student may leave because they have obtained an acceptable TOEFL or IELTS score.

Daniel Stone has established two new schools for international students in South Carolina and Ohio, from fulfillment to investors to delivery of services to stakeholders. In overseeing aspects of these operations from hiring to training staff and from managing financials and day-to-day operations, under Daniel's direction, ELS/Columbus on the campus of Ohio Dominican University successfully received the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET) accreditation upon its initial inspection and successfully rolled out one-of-a-kind standardized testing center in Central Ohio, International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com

(C) 2009-12

Accommodating Muslim (mainly Saudi) students to meet their prayer needs

Recently, I was asked the suggested best practice in accommodate Muslim (mainly Saudi) students to meet their prayer needs. Most of the international students that were under my direction had this need and over the course of time we devised the following:

At the small Midwestern university that I was at, we had designated rooms for students to pray. One was for men, the other was for women. I selected a few members of the student body to ensure that these rooms were acceptable. I chose the members from both genders based off of seniority and who was more vocal. By doing this, the students value your willingness to help them and will help spread the word on the best way to carry out prayers to the rest of the students. The reason you want to get their approval is since the room needs to face a certain direction. If the designated room was not feasible, the students will find a place and make it their own which may not be in the best interest of the others on campus. I had a hall director threaten to take the students prayer rugs and throw them in the trash since they were praying in front of her living quarters, so make sure that you stay ahead of this. I assured the students that these room was theirs to do as they chose between classes any day that classes were in session. Since space comes at a premium, these rooms were classrooms and small offices. Teachers and staff would step out and let students tend to their prayers. The ten minutes between classes was ample enough time to satisfy the student's prayer needs. So, no adjustments to the schedule were needed.

ESL classes on Fridays were done by 12:30 so there was no conflict on visits to the local mosque. Classes in non-ESL programs operate a bit differently so I can't speak from experience on this.

Excused absences are a slippery slope due to SEVIS requirements for F-1 students, therefore, find ways to make prayers work when classes are not in progress. We would only excuse an absense if a doctor's note was in hand and from time to time we were calling the doctor's office to keep everybody honest.

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com (C) 2009-12