As international students continue to be affected by changing Immigration and Naturalization Service policies after Sept. 11, a support group has stepped up to address their concerns and to help them cope.
The International Student Support Group is co-facilitated by Center for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) psychologist Kenneth Nafziger and Julissa Senices (graduate-counseling psychology).
By holding weekly sessions at the White Course Apartments Community Center, the group hopes to provide international students and their spouses with information needed for everyday survival. Some of the topics addressed are car insurance, driver's licenses, childcare services, taxes and transportation to stores.
The group was formed to assist international students with recent changes in student visa regulations.
The group will address the F-2 visa status change. Under the new regulation, spouses of international students can no longer work unless they are studying full time, Nafziger said. Previously, spouses could take one or two classes, and work without applying for their own student visa.
Because spouses can no longer work or attend class, the group plans to help them find volunteer opportunities in the community in order to remain active.
"You have to have something to do or you go nuts," said Wren Fujimoto, a non-degree graduate student from Japan.
Nafziger said one such opportunity is the Park Forest Day Nursery, 1,833 Park Forest Ave., which has been looking for volunteers to help with nursery students.
Since spouses of international students can no longer take part-time classes, such as English as a second language (ESL), language barriers are another concern under the new regulations.
The group will be looking into English proficiency classes for the students or providing them with more conversation partners through the International Hospitality Council. Being able to communicate better might help the students feel much more a part of things, Nafziger said.
Additionally, because spouses do not work, they cannot get a Social Security number.
This in turn prevents them from even getting a driver's license, said Mine Gol, a graduate student from Turkey.
"It goes round and round and round," Fujimoto said.
International students said obtaining a driver's license can be problematic.
"They make it so hard," Gol said. "I've been to get my license three times and each time they'll tell me I have something missing, but they won't tell me what."
The group aims to provide students with this sort of information, Nafziger said.
"Often it is a communication problem. They send the students away saying something is missing but sometimes the students think they can't get the license."
Though there are other agencies on campus that provide information to international students, often, because of transportation or simply because they do not know about them, international students are not able to access the information, Nafziger said.
By holding the meetings in the White Course Community Center, where many international students live, Nafziger said he hopes the program will reach the students directly. "We need to take the information to them," he said.
The International Student Support Group meets from noon to 12:50 p.m. on Tuesdays in the White Course Apartments Community Center.
