International Affairs Meeting Minutes
Meeting Details:
Attendance—
Attending Members
- Haiying Long (Chair)
- Whitney Baker (faculty)
- Kwangok Song (faculty)
- Julius Kyakuwa (faculty)
- Sunita Gandhi (Staff)
- Hollie Hall (voting student, International Student Affairs council member)
- Humberto Salina (voting students; International Student Affairs council member)
Absent Members
- Aramis Watson (staff)
- Charlie Bankart (ex officio)
Approval of Previous Minutes —
Minutes for the previous meeting were approved. Whitney made a motion to approve the minutes, and Sunita Gandhi seconded. The committee approved the minutes for the previous meeting.
Unfinished Business —
Chair Updates
Bannon would be invited again in January.
Chair contacted Vice provost Jennifer Anderson; chair would meet with her next week and invite Dr. Anderson.
Discussion on Charge #5
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Extra town hall meetings for international students would be helpful so that international students could be heard.
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The guidelines for travels and differences of guidelines by different countries can be confusing to international students.
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Mental health support is necessary for international students.
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Majority of the therapists are white, monolinguals; International students have difficulty in expressing themselves properly.
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There has been a communication gap in that the messages to the graduate students may not always be inclusive of international students or could have been carefully structured in a way to address international students’ unique situations.
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It is critical to expand our understanding of international students and faculty members’ unique challenges and to look for additional ways to support international students and faculty.
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Limited resources for international students to use when they encounter difficulties, particularly related to mental health.
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No clear support from the university
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Messages that can be interpreted differently to international students.
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A sense of belonging: International students may not feel fully integrated into the KU community
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Additional financial burden: International student have to pay toward something that domestic students don’t.
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A suggestion was made to provide DEI training on how to support faculty and students from different cultures and how to negotiate different ways of interacting on campus.
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A suggestion was made to invite Dr. Graham to ask for ways to include con
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The International Affairs committee may not always be included in the university’s discussion on issues related to international students and faculty.
New Business —
The next meeting will be scheduled in January. The doodle poll will be distributed.