Three years ago, Emporia State University made its first formal ties with China. Today, the results can be seen almost anywhere on campus.
All together, 121 of ESU’s students now come from China, according to the university. That’s more than one-third of all the international students enrolled. And thanks to that boost, foreign enrollment is one of the fastest-growing parts of the student body, rising by about 90 percent this year.
The university had hoped for that kind of energy from the Chinese connection. In fact, it needed it. In the three years after the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001, international enrollment slipped from 212 students to 157 with no good news in sight.
“The reality was that we would, at most, be able to hold our own ... if we did not establish some kind of exchanges,” said James Harter of ESU’s international education office.
China seemed a likely answer. Not only did it have a large number of prospective students, but some of the faculty had made connections over there that might be useful. Before long, a number of Emporia State professors and administrators were making visits, including then-President Kay Schallenkamp.
And in a country made nervous by Sept. 11, an exchange program would give credibility to a newly arriving Chinese student.
“Students who were going on their own were having a hard time explaining to the American embassy why they were going to ESU and where ESU was,” Harter said. “Some consulars were asking ‘What is this? There’s no state called Emporia!’”
After reaching an agreement in 2003, ESU started admitting students from two Chinese schools. And then two more. And so on. Today, six universities are sending students along with the Sakae Institute of Study Abroad which recruits both Chinese and Japanese students to study in the U.S.
The first school came as a bit of a surprise to Harter.
“I thought we would be paired with another normal school, a teacher’s school,” he said, smiling. “But we were paired with Xi’an Polytechnic University. They’re a science and engineering school.”
The normal schools came in time. Three of them, in fact: Beijing, Liaoning and South China normal universities are all on the list now, along with the Wuhan University of Technology and Beijing Union University.
Liang Peng, a student from Xi’An Polytechnic, jumped at the chance to come over.
“The first reason, I think, is because United States education is known throughout the world,” he said. “I also wanted to experience a new lifestyle. And another reason — studying at a national institute is very expensive. But because I’m exchanged between the two schools, I can pay in-state fees.”
It’s meant a lot of adjusting. To start with, even though all the students know English, academic English can be a whole different ball game.
“My first semester, I took a basic economics class,” Liang said. “It was the first class where I could understand nothing at all. But after two or three weeks, I got used to it.”
For some, it was the hot afternoons that took some getting used to, or even just getting around.
“I’m a big city girl,” said Min Jia, also from Xi’an. “But because I didn’t have a car and didn’t know how to drive a car, I was pretty much stuck.”
And of course, there’s so much space with so few people. Beijing, by some estimates, has 11 million to 12 million people. Xi’an has about 7 million. The entire state of Kansas has about 2.8 million.
That can seem pretty empty for a while. Min Jia said that she started going to football games “not for the football, but to see people everywhere.”
Of course, if you really wanted to see crowds, all you had to do this semester was try to get a dorm room. With remodeling underway and space tight, international students were told to make their housing arrangements early. About two-thirds ended up living on campus.
“It would have been higher if we’d had the space,” Harter said.
Generally, Harter said, he prefers to see international students live on campus. It tends to break down some barriers, he said, and helps to make them truly a part of campus life.
“You don’t meet your friends in the classroom,” he said. “You meet your friends outside of the classroom.”
Of course, living away from campus has its perks. Especially if you want to escape the cafeteria.
“I cook for myself,” said Xu Beibe, a biology student from Beijing. “In the cafeteria, there’s so much fat food. If you eat too much, you get fat.”
By contrast, Min Jia not only prefers the dorms, she’s now an RA.
“I love the girls of my dorm,” she said.
And then there are the classes themselves, which tend to have more discussion and less lecture than a typical Chinese class would have.
“In China, the focus is on the professor’s ideas,” Xu Beibe said. “Here, the professor encourages the students. He wants to hear their voice, their ideas.”
With so many Chinese students on campus, there’s now a Chinese Student Association on campus, with representatives chosen from each of the schools. It’s one more tie to the university, one more means of getting involved. And with its participation in events like the International Food Festival, it can also be a channel for the rest of the campus to get to know the students.
“A key part of all these programs is that we encourage all of the students to work together to build a better understanding and appreciation of each other,” Harter said.