The increasingly important role of international students, promotion of understanding and community interaction were some of the key topics discussed Tuesday afternoon during a forum at the South Ballroom in the Memorial Union.

Richard Porter, coordinator of International Student and Scholar Services at the University of Missouri, spoke on the issues that he felt were most important for the office of International Students and Scholars at Iowa State.

“It is vital for international students to have interaction with the community,” Porter said.

“Most of them never enter into an American home in four years of being here. They never had the opportunity. If that doesn’t happen, we are falling down on the job.”

Porter said the international office should work cooperatively with other offices on campus, the community and student organizations to help international students.

Porter was the last of three candidates for the position of director of International Student Services to speak at a forum. James Dorsett and Dawn Wood participated in forums last week. Dorsett is currently in the International Student Services office at Wayne State University and Wood is the director of operations at Kaplan University in Davenport.

Along with the open forum aspect of the interview process, each candidate was required to give a presentation and meet with the ISU international office members for a question and answer session.

The three finalists for the position were selected by a five-person search committee and Marc Harding, director for admissions and committee chair, from a field of nearly three dozen applicants.

“This is an important position,” Harding said. “There are a significant number of international students on campus and they are important to what this university is. They are important to the vibrancy of this campus and vital to the university.”

The winning candidate will take over for Terry Mason, who has served as the interim director of the office since the department’s creation in July of 2005. The office was formed along with the Study Abroad Center after the International Education Services department split into the two different entities.

According to Mason, also the director of student counseling services and assistant vice president for student affairs, the lengthy wait to name a director had to do with the separation of the two offices.

“The way the finances worked wasn’t very distinct,” Mason said. “Everything was mixed together and it took a while to separate and figure out how the offices would be operated.”

Trevor Nelson was named as the director of the Study Abroad Center in July of 2005 after serving as assistant director of the International Education Services in charge of the study abroad program.

Harding said Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs, will then make the final decision in the next couple of weeks.