Thank you, Ms. Schack, for your lack of sympathy and sweeping generalizations about international students and your failure to look at all of the facts concerning the Asian financial crisis in your letter to the editor.

All students at Iowa State are effected by the new tuition hike: in-state, out-of-state and international students.

You couldn’t pay your U-bill on time. I’m sorry. Think how hard it would be to pay twice as much per year.

The Office of Admissions estimates in one year, an international student will pay $19,254 for tuition, fees, room and board and other expenses.

The measly estimated $10,290 I pay as an in-state student and the estimated $16,568 out-of-state students pay pales in comparison.

I agree with you that a college education is not a right. However, ISU opens the privilege to all. International students have to meet the same requirements that American students do to attend ISU.

In addition, the office of admissions states: “a letter outlining the details of your support is required from your financial sponsor, and supporting financial statements documenting the source of the funds and their availability are required.”

The problem is, with the falling currency rates in Asia, the finances that students from these countries rely on are drastically reduced.

If your family had to declare emergency bankruptcy, I’ll bet that financial aid could supply you with a short-term loan in order to make it through the school year. Of course, you would have to pay it back.

In March of 1998, the Daily reported that ISU President Martin Jischke and other university officials arranged a $100,000 loan fund for students from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, the four countries having the most financial difficulties.

The university has also established programs, but they only help the students manage their money better and possibly draw on other methods of funding.

The financial aid amount given out to aid Asian international students is only a fraction of the vast amounts of aid given out every year to American students.

Ms. Schack, you are working to pay for your own education? Congratulations! So am I! So are many other students across the nation!

You tell international students, “If you need money so badly, GET A JOB!”

The United States Department of State Web site states a student with an F-1 visa (the type of entry visa required by international students to enter the United States) “may not accept off-campus employment at any time during the first year of study … F-1 students may accept on-campus employment from the school without INS permission.”

My experience in working for Iowa State University is that the wages are above the minimum wage, but you are limited to working no less than 10 hours and no more than twenty hours in one week.

Let’s say the average wage is $6.00/hr., and you work fifteen hours a week during the school year, which is reasonable if you are maintaining a full class load.

That’s only $3,240 for the entire school year! No student could afford to pay their college expenses simply by working an on-campus job.

However, that is the only option for international students.

If paying your tuition is “no one’s responsibility but yours,” give up all the government loans you receive, and then pay for college.

Difficult, isn’t it?

I can’t completely comprehend the financial struggles that our fellow students are going through, but I do know what it is like to be dependent on currency exchanges.

While living in Germany for a year, my residency permit did not allow me to work. I was dependent on money wired to me from the United States.

I did not have all the expenses that college students have, but it was still frustrating to deal with low exchange rates.

My school expenses were paid by a scholarship, and I lived with a host family, so mine was not a dire situation.

The situation for Asian international students here is far worse.

I believe Iowa State is doing a good thing by helping them through their financial difficulties.

Ms. Schack, it is you who seems to be whining. Next time you complain to 30,000 plus students and faculty about being unfairly treated, please get all the facts first.

Talk about and treat others as you would wish to be treated, and we’ll see you in line at the Treasurer’s office, paying your U-bill.

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Leigh Ann Rice

Junior

Agronomy