International students protest new Purdue fee

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Updated: February 21, 2012 11:29PM

WEST LAFAYETTE (AP) — A group of international students is upset with Purdue University’s plan to charge incoming foreign students next fall an additional $2,000, saying it’s unfair and that Purdue’s out-of-state tuition is already high enough.

Members of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association gathered hundreds of signatures Monday on a petition opposing the fee.

Graduate student Yang Liu said that there’s concern that some of the revenue will go toward the university’s general fund, not those who pay the fee, and that international students “want to have a say in this.”

“The fee is for new students, but all of us are worried,” Liu said. “What if they make students already here pay a fee?”

Purdue’s board of trustees approved the fee in May, when few students were on campus. A recent New York Times story about such fees that mentioned Purdue’s raised awareness of the issue among the West Lafayette campus’ international student community.

Foreign students currently enrolled pay $1,000 on top of 3.8 percent tuition increases for all out-of-state students, bringing their tuition to $28,646 per year. Beginning in the 2012-13 academic year, a $2,000 fee will be added to an overall increase, boosting foreign students’ tuition to $30,702.

During Monday’s protest, students directed some of their complaints toward the school’s dean of international programs Mike Brzezinski. Liu and others handed out fake, oversized $1,000 bills sporting Brzezinski’s face.

Brzezinski told the Journal & Courier there are ongoing proposals how the fee money will be spent, but that a significant portion goes toward the students who pay it.

“There are special allocations that will go out to meet the needs they have,” Brzezinski said, including hiring of staff and training faculty on how to handle the influx of foreign students.

Since 2008, international enrollment has soared by 44.8 percent. Last fall’s international enrollment of 7,934 set a Purdue record. Those students hail from more than 100 countries.

Compared with even a year ago, the number of foreign students on the campus grew by 17.3 percent.

This current academic year’s freshman class is comprised of 1,325 international students, 3,480 Indiana residents and 1,854 out-of-state residents. Total campus enrollment is 39,637.