Mustapha Jourdini, a candidate for director of Syracuse University’s Slutzker Center for International Services, spoke about his plan to improve the experiences of international students attending SU at a presentation on Wednesday.

The center’s former director, Pat Burak — who served in the position for more than 30 years — stepped down in June to take a full-time teaching position in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences. George Athanas, an assistant director in the Office of Residence Life, is the center’s interim director.

Jourdini now works as director of the Office of International Student Programs and Services at Lamar University in Texas. About 30 people attended the presentation, which was held in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Jourdini was asked to prepare a presentation on the challenges, opportunities and priorities for creating a comprehensive international student experience at SU.

“There is a genuine desire to create a culture that is supportive of international students,” Jourdini said.

As part of his presentation, Jourdini laid out a blueprint plan for the Slutzker Center. The center should be mission-driven, he said. His blueprint included a communication plan that would provide student recruitments with information, follow up on prospective students and make students feel safe and secure on campus.

Student integration, retention and success — a focus of Jourdini’s blueprint — should be a responsibility of every SU employee, he said.

“It has to be a collaborative effort,” he said. “We all have a piece in the puzzle.”

International students face challenges in the classroom, including misunderstanding surrounding professors, assignments and academic integrity policies, Jourdini said. The support students get from international centers at universities is “priceless,” he said.

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Jourdini said he came to the United States from Morocco. He began in the U.S. as a worker at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida before attending college.

He spoke about a professor he had as an undergraduate student in a class on William Shakespeare. Jourdini graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English, as well as a doctorate in education leadership and policy studies.

Jourdini took the class as a non-native English speaker, and he was having doubts that he could complete the course. The class’ professor reassured him and pointed him to resources, Jourdini said. Professors like that had a huge influence on his college experience, he said.

“They took their time to help me succeed,” he said.

As part of the given prompt, Jourdini spoke about the challenges and opportunities to servicing the international student body on campus. Jourdini said the center does not have the budget to meet legal, social, cultural and educational program needs. He cited a 2018 report by the University Senate that showed the center’s budget remained “stagnant,” while international student enrollment had increased by more than 130%.

Acquiring adequate resources to help achieve the center’s goals should be made a priority, Jourdini said.

Jourdini also detailed his plans for helping to create a more inclusive SU campus. People should be culturally aware and show interest in a student’s home country, but without assuming or assigning stereotypical traits or ideas to the student, he said. SU community members can also work to be patient and friendly, and to help international students navigate SU’s policies, he said.

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In some places he has worked, students were sent to international offices for issues that faculty or staff could have helped with, he said. Jourdini has also held the positions of director of international recruitment and student success at Lesley University in Massachusetts, dean of student affairs at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco and director of education at the Cultural Center of Somerset, among other positions.

The Slutzker Center could also develop an assessment tool to get student feedback and work on alumni relations, Jourdini said.

A member of the audience asked Jourdini why the position was good for him. Jourdini said he saw the position as both a challenge and as something important to him personally. He also referenced Chancellor Kent Syverud’s Academic Strategic Plan, which outlines six goals to meet an overarching academic vision, including internationalization.

The plan’s focus on internationalization — which includes identifying strategies to improve support for international students and integrate them better into campus — led Jourdini to believe that there was potential and timing in working on international student services at SU, he said.

“Integration, retention and success of international students will ultimately depend on our genuine desire to understand them and their needs and putting our resources in place to meet such needs,” Jourdini said.

Published on April 17, 2019 at 11:45 pm

Contact India: irmiragl@syr.edu