On May 3, Ann Haessner, administrative assistant in the Graduate School, helped pack up boxes to be moved from the school's old home in Sage Hall to its new one in Caldwell Hall, where the International Students and Scholars Office also has relocated. Adriana Rovers/University Photography
By Jill Goetz
The Cornell International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) routinely helps others settle into unfamiliar territory. But a recent disruption of the office's own routine temporarily turned the tables on that scenario.
On May 1 and 2, the office relocated from Barnes Hall at the center of the Cornell campus to the newly renovated Caldwell Hall on the Ag Quad. The move was part of the campus reconfiguration known as the "Sage Shuffle," which is affecting over 300 people in a dozen buildings.
The ISSO now is located in B-50 Caldwell Hall. It will share the building with the Graduate School -- whose old site, Sage Hall, is slated to become the new home of the Johnson Graduate School of Management.
According to ISSO Director Jerry Wilcox, little will change in terms of the office's aims and services. The office's mission is still to assist international students (students who have a non-immigrant visa and who are engaged in a full course of study at Cornell), and scholars (foreign nationals with academic appointments at Cornell and non-immigrant visa status) by advising them on federal immigration, tax, labor and other regulations and by providing counseling on personal, academic and cultural issues.
"We're pleased that the move is happening early in May rather than later, because the period after finals tends to be one of our busiest," Wilcox said. "Many students will leave technical immigration matters to the last minute; we'll have people coming in to sign documents and running off to the airport."
Guiding international students through a maze of red tape is one of the office's major functions. And that function has grown increasingly complex. "Figuring out what form to file can be a nightmare," Wilcox said.
Emerging fears about terrorist activity are not likely to make life any simpler for foreign nationals or for the ISSO, he added. FBI Director Louis Freeh has called for greater controls on international students, and a proposed amendment by U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) would also tighten restrictions on their activities and increase paperwork, he said.
But, the ISSO does much more than distribute appropriate immigration and tax forms. In one of its programs, PREPARE (Preparation for Academic Resources for Excellence), international undergraduate students arrive on campus a few days early for individualized orientation sessions. In another, the Foreign Scholars Residence Program, the ISSO helps scholars locate appropriate housing and other services for themselves and their families.
Once international student and scholars have settled in, the ISSO engages them in ongoing social and educational programs, including a weekly coffee hour in the Big Red Barn and an annual trip to the nation's capital. The office also works with the Campus Club of Cornell International Committee, which sponsors non-credit English classes, International Women's Friendship Clubs and the International Student Hospitality Program.
These programs have grown in size with that of Cornell's international community. Cornell now has more than 2,500 international students, up from 1,857 a decade ago, and more than 1,050 international scholars, up from 858 a decade ago.