International Student Center example essay topic

the one itself "America's Career University". It has campuses on two continents: a campus in Gothenburg, Sweden, and six campuses in the United States. The University also participates in international joint venture programs with the IHM Business School in Sweden and with the Central Hotel School in Israel. Johnson & Wales University has three colleges: Culinary Arts, Business, and Hospitality. It offers both traditional and nontraditional programs of study: associate's, bachelor's, and master's degree programs in business, food service, hospitality, travel and tourism, technology, and a doctor of education degree in educational leadership. The University also offers classes in English as a Second Language (ESL).

The University operates on a trimester system. As of Spring 2000, it had an enrollment of more than 12,000 students at all campuses, including 1,119 international students from 95 countries (Gagnon, 2000, p. 32). However, for the purpose of this applied dissertation, the study will be focused on the Providence campus only. Gagnon reports the 1999 racial / ethnic breakdown at the Providence campus: White 6,072; Black 1,013; Non-resident / Alien 836; Hispanic 438; Asian / Pacific Islander 230; and American Indian / Alaskan 25. She further reports the breakdown of the international students by their region of origin at all campuses (most international students are concentrated in the Providence campus): Asia 42.3%; Europe 18.9%; Middle East 15.3%; Latin America and Caribbean 13.0%; Africa 9.2%; and all others 1.3% (p. 44).

Because of the large number of international students, the Providence campus of the University has an International Student Center that works closely with the Counseling Services. Whenever an international student exhibits psychological or academic problems, he or she is referred to a Multicultural Counselor or to a Student Development Counselor. In addition, the Providence campus has a Multicultural Center that serves its diverse student body. Historically, in early colleges and universities in the U.S.A., both international faculty and students had to bond together for protection from the community to cope with their cultural differences (Kenneth Var coe, personal communication, August 5, 1994).

Some international and American students have traveled or resided in other countries and have experienced various intercultural encounters. However, others have never left their homeland and have little knowledge and understanding of other cultures. Many American and international students reported that they are experiencing intercultural miscommunication and misunderstandings because of a lack of information about the culture of others. The miscommunication and misunderstandings often occur among faculty / staff and students from different cultural backgrounds at Johnson & Wales University. At least for the past three decades, addressing multicultural issues has been on the plans of action of many institutions of higher education. More recently, multiculturalism has become one of the stated goals of many universities and colleges.

In addition, campuses have directed increasing efforts toward providing cultural information. The need to learn about others' cultures has resulted in designing and implementing multicultural programs. The goals of program activities and events are to understand others' cultures and to promote sensitivity and multicultural competency among students (Pope & Reynolds, 1997, p. 266). D'Andrea and Arredondo (2000 a) caution that institutional racism is "disrespectful not only of the dignity of people from culturally diverse groups and backgrounds, but of all people" (p. 37). They further assert, "such practices are in direct contradiction to the principles of social justice upon which our nation was founded " (p. 37). D'Andrea and Arredondo (2000 b) declare that multiculturalism is becoming increasingly evident.

They use a concrete example of presidential campaigns and illustrate how multicultural issues, as well as political correctness, are reflected in.