Lack of “diverse interactions“ with other residence students, despite increase of international students over the past six years
For the past six years, SFU’s residence management has been collecting survey data on student satisfaction in residences on the Burnaby campus. They’ve been using the Educational Benchmark Institute (EBI) standards, which collects data every two years.
Now that three sets of surveys have been completed, the data is reaching the point at which it can be put together to determine if there are any existing trends in attitudes towards residence.
At this juncture, the statistics themselves remain unavailable to the public. However, sources working with the data have suggested some of the potential implications.
Perhaps the most notable are the alleged responses indicating that dissatisfaction with both the campus and residence is highest with international students. Both the Fraser International College (FIC) students living in SFU residence, as well as registered SFU international students living on campus were surveyed, and were categorized accordingly.
However, sources indicate that although the dissatisfaction seems higher for the FIC students, the trend of the relative international student dissatisfaction remains true for SFU students as well.
This is particularly notable on two fronts, the first being the rising proportion of SFU residence students coming from abroad.
Although 2006 was reported to have seen a spike in rez students from the Fraser Valley, the subsequent years are reported to have seen a drop in such numbers, as international students coming from numerous foreign communities have replaced them.
Further adding to the issue is the fact that diverse interactions have been reported to have been on the decline over the past six years, despite the increase in international students. “This really confused us,” said Chris Rogerson, associate director of residence life, at a student services ‘Lunch and Learn’ last Tuesday. “Our international population was going up, our number of FIC students was going up, but our diverse interactions were going down.”
However, Rogerson continued to attribute the drop to the nature of the Louis Riel building, which contains apartment style housing for grad students and families, an environment in which residents are reportedly more inclined to “stay to yourself, and do your own thing.”
Currently, sources could not yet indicate the time at which the full data set will be released to the public. However, the presentation of much of the information to student services staff last week would suggest that the time at which more conclusive answers become available may be approaching.
