LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing to express my deepest displeasure about the annual budget bill for the fiscal year 2010-11 passed by Student Congress.
On March 1, I went to appeal before Student Congress to challenge the decision made by the finance committee that the Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars will receive $0. The 30 seconds we were allotted for our appeal proved to be just a pathetic gesture to fulfill legal requirements.
At this meeting, I heard for the first time that the reason for denying funding to our organization was that our programs did not meet the three criteria for funding: representation, vitality and specialization.
I would like to challenge the finance committee’s judgment on this matter. FACSS is one of the largest international student group on campus. It consists of more than 300 graduate student members from China. Is this not a unique student population?
There are Chinese-American students on campus, but one fact should be clear — Chinese-American students are a very different group than Chinese international students.
Failure to recognize the distinct difference between these two groups is a huge mistake. The University has made great efforts to internationalize the school, and the large Chinese graduate student population is a wonderful reflection of these efforts.
The failure of Student Congress to support or give voice to Chinese or other international students on campus is a direct assault on these laudable efforts.
Lei Zhang
Treasurer
Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars
