Adequate assistance to international students is not supplied by Syracuse University, according to a report presented at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting. This has proved heartbreaking for Sam Gorovitz.

Gorovitz, a philosophy professor, explained during the meeting he had an international student leave one of his classes because the student did not have the language skills to survive the class or access adequate support to acquire the needed skills.

‘Their needs are immediate, and too many are crashing and burning,’ Gorovitz said.

Gorovitz recounted his story in response to the Ad Hoc Committee on Enrollment’s report presented at the 4 p.m. meeting. The implications of larger class sizes and international student support services were the focus of investigation, which recommended the Office of the Provost review the programs available to international students.

The committee, which is composed of faculty members and student representatives, was charged with ‘assessing the nature and impacts of recent growth in the undergraduate student population’ by the USen Agenda Committee in November 2010, according to the report.

International students require specialized services to embrace full academic and social integration, said Mary Lovely, professor of economics and chair of the committee that presented the report.

In addition to recommending the Office of the Provost review the programs in existence and assess their effectiveness, the committee also urged the addition of more opportunities to support ‘social integration, language acquisition and academic advisement’ for international students, whose enrollment numbers are steadily increasing.

Gorovitz said these actions must be taken immediately for the students who are ‘suffering, struggling and failing’ because of the current inadequate support.

‘It’s very clear that we have an institutional commitment to all students, and we also have an institutional commitment to engagement with the world,’ Lovely said.

In investigating the claim of larger class sizes, the committee found SU’s undergraduate enrollment had increased 11.8 percent, and graduate enrollment increased 5.9 percent between 2006-2010. The College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs experienced the largest increases. Though there has been an increase in the number of admitted students, the report found little change in academic qualifications of incoming students.

The committee found that studying data on the actual distribution of class size would be the best indicator of classroom conditions, but ‘existing class size data is subject to measurement error of unknown proportions,’ according to the report.

Because of this, it was advised by the committee that the university create an information system to measure and monitor the distribution of class size because it is a tool necessary for guiding SU’s academic advancement.

‘We are able to do things now that we were not able to do 10 years ago because of the availability of more advanced computers and knowledge on how to assemble data bases,’ Lovely said.

The committee found that 50 percent of faculty members who responded to a survey believe that class sizes have increased. Half the respondents felt the increase negatively affected their teaching.

In response, the committee recommended the university engage the campus community in shared plans of enrollment management.

‘We could do better if we collect and make available information with the explicit intent of engaging community in a collaborative planning process,’ Lovely said.

After this report, Martha Garcia-Murillo, professor of information studies, presented the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs report with its recommendations concerning major university initiatives, athletics, the library, construction, debt and maintenance, fundraising, the endowment, fringe benefits and faculty salaries.

The main point of discussion regarding this report concerned the athletics program.

SU Athletics will generate more funds once the university moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The current subvention, or amount of financial support from SU for athletics, is $7.7 million and will remain unchanged, according to the report.

Several senators expressed confusion concerning where the money will be distributed after earning greater expected revenues from moving to the ACC. Senators questioned if the expected earnings will be put back into the athletics department or distributed throughout the university.

Lou Marcoccia, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said university officials are unsure of how much money will be generated through the transition to the ACC and where it will be distributed.

The final recommendations of the committee included the support of various university initiatives like the Near Westside Initiative and the Connective Corridor. Another suggestion was that the dean of libraries work with the development office to raise funds exclusively for the library to ensure it has sufficient resources to ‘address the scholarly needs of faculty and students,’ according to the report.

rebarill@syr.edu 

Published on April 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm