California’s community colleges aren’t in very good shape at the moment. Drastic state budget cuts are leaving colleges at a loss of how to provide to students. Available classes get cut, faculty and staff are minimized, and tuition fees increase. Colleges scramble to provide their students with the same quality education on limited budgets. If depending on government funding for our school begins to look this bleak, we must become self-sufficient and produce funding for ourselves. De Anza College, like many others, has turned to their international students programs. 

An in-state resident pays $24 per unit to attend classes at De Anza, while an international student is expected to pay $159 per unit. This produces great revenue for the school. 

Many students at De Anza are paying for their education using Board of Governors fee waivers, financial aid grants, or just managing out of their own pockets. For many in-state students, De Anza has become a choice for their two-year pursuit of general education classes. Attending a four-year university as an underclassman just isn’t financially practical, compared to taking the same courses at a community college. So for many, community college is the best economic choice in our increasingly depressed economy.

De Anza’s mission statement states that the college strives to create students who are socially responsible leaders in their communities, the nation, and the world.

Despite the dire need for more classes to meet the growing student body needs, perhaps the presence of international students isn’t exactly taking from the students. As students of the school, we should view international students as an asset to the school’s culture, not just the large revenue their attendance produces.

By exposing De Anza’s residential students to international students, many people could learn about an outside existence beyond Cupertino, beyond California, beyond America. For a country with a ghastly low 37 percent of citizens who own passports, perhaps a little international exposure in the classroom is beneficial.

When it’s time to enroll for classes, De Anza students must brace for their given window of opportunity to get in there and add. We know that with such a large student body it’s dog-eat-dog getting the classes you need. 

Those persistent enough will always get the class times they want. There are many factors out there preventing us but they have nothing to do with the school’s newly shifted attention at the International Students Program.