Karishma Babani, a senior studying biology, said if you mentioned IU in Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates, a typical response would be: "Oh yeah, I know where that is." \nEven as far as thousands of miles away, IU has an upstanding reputation that draws international students, such as Babani, to Bloomington.\nTo continue the University's good reputation abroad, IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis announced at the Sept. 20 Bloomington Faculty Council meeting that for the first time, IU will begin to actively recruit international students and top-ranking Indiana residents.\nThe primary goal is to hire individuals through IU who will recruit international students by visiting other countries, preparing special materials for international students, and eventually develop a network of alumni from other countries who will help the University throughout the recruitment process. This will help to retain IU's growing reputation for aggressively enhancing diversity and access to the Bloomington campus, Gros Louis said.\nBabani said though IU is known in her hometown, she thinks it is a good idea for the University to take proactive steps to reach out to prospective international students. \n"Most of my school went abroad to the U.S. or to the U.K., so I think international recruitment would be good because it would help to find the students who don't know about IU," Babani said. \nFreshman enrollment jumped 9.3 percent this fall, with 659 more freshman attending IUB this semester than in the fall of 2004. \nThe increased freshman enrollment provided IU with $2.5 million more than what was projected for the 2005 fall semester. However, the University was only left with a net gain of $500,000 for the projected budget because of the lower summer enrollment numbers.\n"Because of the size of the undergrad student body, there is excess money to use in new areas," Gros Louis said. "For the first time ever, within the next 12 to 18 months, we will begin an aggressive search for international students."\nDon Hossler, associate vice president for enrollment services, said the University is setting aside $150,000 to focus on the recruitment of international students. IU currently relies primarily on its good reputation around the world, word of mouth and very timely responses to recruit international students, he said. \nBut lately, IU's solid reputation just hasn't been enough.\nThe University has not yet put forth an extensive effort into the area before for a multitude of reasons, Gros Louis said. Not only is it difficult for international students to obtain visas, but Gros Louis said other countries, such as Australia, have become much more aggressive in their search for international students.\nInternational student enrollment in the fall of 2003 was 3,361, which was an all time high since the fall of 2000. IU's international student enrollment has slowly decreased in the past two years and is currently at 3,289 for the fall of 2005, according to the Office of International Services. These students make up 8.5 percent of the student body.\nDaniel Soto, assistant for the Leo R. Dowling International Center, said the decline in international student enrollment can be attributed to a variety of reasons.\n"I would guess that people are just afraid to travel right now," Soto said. "A lot of people are afraid to come to the U.S. War makes it hard to send students to a new country."\nIf international students make the decision to come to the United States, it is not surprise that they would make the decision to attend IU, he said.\n"The Midwest is just a safe area in an international student's eyes," said Soto, who is originally from Costa Rica. "They do look for the quality of education. But the main thing is that it's important to help shape the University by bringing in the international students who then bring their culture."\nThere will be a strong emphasis on the recruitment of students from Asia because it is a traditionally dominant region for IU, Hossler said. Recruitment has the potential to move to places like South America, but he said that decision will not be made for another 18 to 24 months.\nToday, international students predominantly come from countries such as South Korea, India and China to study business and performing arts, according to the Office of International Services.\n"For many decades, international students have benefited the Bloomington campus by bringing to us information and knowledge about other cultures around the world," Gros Louis said. "I believe if you ask most students on the Bloomington campus whether we were an international campus or not, they would answer yes. The importance of these students is that they can open up worlds that many would not be aware of."\nHossler agrees that international students are a key component to IU's prospering reputation across the globe.\n"We believe that one of the things that make the Bloomington campus such a rich and interesting educational environment is the richness and diversity of the student body," Hossler said. "International students are a key part of this richness and diversity"
Surplus spent on recruitment abroad
Chancellor: Funds will help attract international students
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