International students accepted, but do not enroll
By: Edana Dillard
Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: News
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not enroll.
A Resident Assistant, Alvaro "Covi" Coronel, a junior international relations major, was fired last semester. He was accused of not paying for a meal at the World of Wings, an on-campus dining location. The Residential Life staff then told Covi he had 24 hours to leave his apartment and find his own housing off campus.
This was particularly difficult to do on such short notice, because Covi is an international student from Quito, Ecuador. WU students held a protest to voice their disagreement with the way the Residential Life staff handled the situation.
"As an international student, the first thing that I think about is where is Covi supposed to go," said Carlos Uribe, a sophomore business major. "I think that Res Life should think about what they are doing before it is done, because it may have decreased enrollment this year."
Colegio Americano de Quito, the American School of Quito, the high school many WU Ecuadorian students come from, is a private school and one of the most competitive high schools in Ecuador.
There is no specific program for studying abroad at The American School, but it does have a special counseling department for students who wish to study abroad.
The American School holds about four university fairs every year. Speakers at the fair come from all around the world to represent colleges and universities and to recruit students for college. Calvin Smith attends these fairs annually and he recommends WU to the Ecuadorian students.
Covi said that he doesn't know what happened to the Ecuadorians that were accepted by WU. He also said that he came from a small community, he was well known and appreciated by authorities, teachers and students at his high school. He said he is almost certain that the students found out what happened to him.
Smith said that the exact amount of tuition revenue based on the number of Ecuadorian students is hard to determine.
"I think that the general number of freshmen students is down here and all over the country," said Sarah Tetley, the assistant director of housing and Res Life. "I don't really think that it correlates to Covi's situation at all."
Most Ecuadorian students at WU understand why some chose not to come.
"It's better not to talk about what happened to Covi last year," said Juan Proano, a sophomore pre-architecture major. "It just shows that people shouldn't make drastic decisions."
Covi said that he thought it was a shame that those students chose not to come to WU because it's a wonderful place to study, full of wonderful people.
"I really hope that someday the relations between both this school and my school back home are solid again if there is a problem," Covi said. "It's sad to think that because of one department so many people had second thoughts about WU. I really hope we can all learn from this and be able to move on."
WU Ecuadorian students think this topic is controversial and strictly confidential. Ecuadorian students that chose not to come to WU could not be reached.
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