Over the past few years Kent’s international student population has increased. In order to properly fund international student programs, their activity fee has increased as well. TV2’s Eric Rivers has the story.    

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  Kent State University has over 2,000 international students from over 90 different countries all around the world. To help students adjust to the cultural changes that theses students face, Kent State offers a number of different international based student activities such as Cultural Café, the Survival Language Series, International Student Reception, and a number of different field trips to places such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum and Cleveland Cavaliers basketball games.

Up until this year, the Global Education department used money from other departments on campus such as the Provost office and an existing international student activity fee of $10 to pay for these programs. However, since the number of international students is increasing each year it was becoming more difficult to adequately fund these activities for the international students. As a result, the international student activity fee was increased from $10 to $20 this year.

“We didn’t want to always be relying on other groups on campus to give us money for the various programs that we were doing for international students,”  said Dr. David Di Maria, who is the Director of International Programs and Services.

 

The increase of $10 has funded the department over an additional $20,000, which has led to an increase in international student based programs. With the additional money there has been field trips to different parts of the United States such as Chicago, which was the first time the international students have gone to a major city in 5 years according to Maria. There is also an upcoming trip to Washington D.C. for the international students. Overall, the $10 fee increase has not only enhanced international activities, but the entire Global Education department.

“Students have seen the benefits of the increase immediately,” said Maria.