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Volume 128 Issue 71
Kansan.com
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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The student voice since 1904
'WE'LL SEE HOW IT WORKS'
Administrators want to increase international students to 15 percent of KU students
EMILY DONOVAN
@emdons
More international students than ever may attend the University of Kansas over the next few years, thanks to a new program, but some details about how that will affect those students and campus are not clear yet.
The program is designed to help international students adjust to student life. After a year studying English in the Applied English Center (AEC) and earning about 30 credit hours in general education, AAP students are expected to become regular KU sophomores.
The AAP may be small now, but Academic Affairs Senior Vice Provost Sara Rosen said she expects it to grow to 600 to 800 students. This would help bring the University's total number of international students up from this fall's record high of 9.3 percent of the student body to 15 or 16 percent.
This semester, 51 new international students recruited by Shorelight Education LLC arrived on campus for the University's Academic Accelerator Program (AAP).
Charles Olcese, International Student Services (ISS) direc
tor, said that 15 percent international student goal is "a big jump"
"You're changing the culture really quickly there," he said.
'WE'RE REALLY ON THE SAME DATE AS OTHER INSTITUTIONS'
PAPE AS A FOLLOWING INSTITUTIONS Partnering with Shorelight is all part of the plan to support enrollment, Rosen said.
"We're not doing something that is unusual," said AAP Interim Academic Director Antha Cotten-Spreckelmeyer. "We're really on the same page as other institutions."
Shorelight also has partnerships for programs similar to the University's AAP with Florida International University, University of Central Florida and Bath Spa University.
The University is following the national trend of increasing international students. A record high of 886,052 international students studied in the United States last academic year, according to the Institute of International Education's 2014 report. Other U.S. universities have announced international recruitment goals similar to the University's.
Supporting enrollment is crucial because in-state enrollment has been dropping.
according to data from the Office of Institutional Research and Planning.
Kansas has a limited market of potential students, said Matt Melvin, Enrollment Management vice provost. The priority focus of recruiting more out-of-state domestic and international students has been to bring enrollment numbers back up.
"Within that, we've been fortunate enough to increase our diversity — racial, ethnic, geographic," Melvin said. "It's a market development strategy accompanied with diversity."
Recruiting more international students can also be profitable. The University's 2,283 international students tend to pay more out of pocket than in-state or out-of-state domestic students do.
For Fall 2014 first-time freshmen, Kansas residents pay $318.25 per credit hour. Out-of-state domestic students and international students both pay $827.70 per credit hour. However, international students don't qualify for U.S. government need-based aid. Additionally, the University's merit-based aid available for
SEE SHORELIGHT PAGE 2
The University hopes to increase the international student population to 15 percent.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
KEY POINTS
1. The University's in-state enrollment is declining.
2. The University is increasing out-of-state and international recruitment to support enrollment numbers. The University wants 15 percent of the student body to be international students.
3. The University and contracted partner Shorelight Education LLC co-created the Academic Accelerator Program (AAP) last year.
4. The AAP currently has 51 new international students this semester. The AAP is expected to enroll 600 to 800 international students in a few years.
5. Some details about the University's relationship with Shorelight are not finalized, and it's not clear how a larger percent of international students will affect those students or campus as a whole.
ALI DOVER/KANSAN
Sophomores Wilson Hack (left) and Max Soto, both from Lawrence, started Imagineering Youth Camps, a new engineering summer camp which will start in 2017.
Sophomores' startup will shake up engineering summer camp style
Last year, Wilson Hack and Max Soto, both sophomores from Lawrence, started their own company called Imagineering Youth Camps. They're in the midst of creating a fusion of a summer engineering camp and a recreational camp, but Hack and Soto are taking it out of an academic location,
RYAN MILLER
@Ryanmiller_UDK
"We're going to show the campers feats of engineering, the highest tech gadgets available, and then from there step down and show them the simple engineering technologies that went into making that happen." Soto said.
such as a school or university, and putting it in a traditional summer camp location.
The duo said they hope to have Imagineering camps
ready to roll after they graduate in two years. Hack said they hope to have enrollment open by mid-2016, and launch their first camp in summer of 2017 near San Francisco.
"You're exposed to all the disciplines [of engineering], and you get shorter exposure but you get to do more significant things," Hack said.
For example, Hack said he and Soto can set up all the
code for a robot, minus a few lines, and campers would get to program the last lines to see the robot walk around or pick up objects.
"With engineering, we don't want to say, 'here, build this bridge out of popicle sticks and see how much it can hold', because that's boring." Soto said. "We want to say 'hey,
SEE CAMP PAGE 6
Student Senate creates scholarship for first-gen students
ALANA FLINN
@Alana_Finn
After a semester of preliminary ideas, Student Senate decided to create a scholarship, Ad Astra per Aspera, for first-generation students who want to pursue a career in public service.
Student Body President Morgan Said said that last year's executive staff moved the funds to KU Endowment and had very early ideas of a scholarship, but nothing came to fulfillment.
"This year, I decided that these dollars shouldn't be sitting here unspent and underutilized, so I thought a scholarship for the student body was the most appropriate way to spend these funds." Said said.
Said hopes this inaugural scholarship will continue from year to year.
"I think it's so important the student senators can see firsthand the students we are
According to the tweet sent out on Monday afternoon by Said at @KUPresident, applications are due on Feb. 27 by 5 p.m. Completed applications can be sent via email to Student Senate Staff Assistant Sabine Jones at sbjones@ku.edu. They also can be dropped off at Student Senate offices, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd., Suite 410.
advocating for and fighting for on a day-to-day basis and important for them to see we are trying to give back in any means possible," Said said. "And, of course, we wanted to tie it in with the student senate public service ideology that we hold close to our hearts."
Applications can be found at studentsenate.ku.edu.
Two scholarships of $2,500 will be awarded and the winners will be introduced to Student Senate on March 11.
- Edited by Valerie Haag
Edwards Campus professor sentenced in stalking case
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OPINION 4
David Pendergrass, professor of biology at the University's Edwards Campus, was found guilty on counts of reckless stalking and two violations of a protection order, according to Johnson County court records.
Pendergrass was indicted on Jan. 20 and sentenced to two years probation.
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CROSSWORD 6
Pendergrass
Pendergrass was the 2014 winner of the Honor for an Outstanding
Progressive Educ a tor Award (H.O.P.E.) at the University. The award is voted on by students
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SUDOKU 6
across all of the University's campuses.
Other charges against Pendergrass, including burglary of a
All contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2015 The University Daily Kansan
We have six more weeks of winter, so bundle up.
Don't Forget
SEE CRIME PAGE 2
Today's Weather
Sunny with 0 percent chance of rain. Wind SSW at 17 mph.
HI: 53
LO: 21
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