ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, reviewed international student taxes, which increased by at least $100 for all undergraduate international students this summer, at its Thursday night meeting, discovering extra funds are being used to support a work study program and ambassador program scholarships.
“The vision is two parts we have proposed, $100,000 toward the creation of an international work study program,” Director of the Office for International Students and Scholars, or OISS, Peter Briggs said at the ASMSU General Assembly meeting. “The other half of that, $150,000, is going toward a creation of a student ambassadors program in which a selected number of students (are) given scholarships, and they would have 50 hours per semester of cultural service to do.”
Briggs spoke on what the international student tax fee would be going toward at the meeting. The steep tax increase previously raised concerns from both the Council of Graduate Students and ASMSU as to what the money would be going toward.
The international tax fee was increased over the summer from $25 to $500 per semester for first-year international students, and an increase from $25 to $150 per semester for the rest of the international undergraduate students.
The State News previously reported an increase of $25 to $75 per semester as well for international graduate students.
Briggs pointed out that the MSU Board of Trustees was in charge of raising the tax fee, and the trustees set the price of the new tax.
The work study program will be put in place to help international students compete for better jobs on campus. Under the new program, employers can hire international students to lower hourly wages with the work study award paying the other half of the wage.
For example, if an international student were to be hired on campus without a work study award, an MSU employer would need to pay all of the salary the student receives, Briggs said, adding that students with a work study award would have half of their income made up of funds from different sources.
“I hire this student, and he has a work study award, I pay him $5 an hour and the other part of the wage comes from the work study award, so you can say it’s cheap labor,” Briggs said. “On the other hand, it’s a subsidy; therefore, I want to hire the student with the work study award.”
The other half of the tax fee will go toward creating the international student ambassador program, which will help international students engage in the community and teach Americans more about their cultures. Briggs listed working with local K-12 schools and on-campus activities as possible ways for international students to participate in the program.
ASMSU President Evan Martinak said the programs will benefit international students and makes the increased fees justified.
“I think that the program for them to put those funds into is going to be really beneficial to international students,” Martinak said. “Out of the international students fee, we can see an increased student programing for the international students and can get a positive out of it.”
The program will officially be announced by OISS in the spring, with the program launching fall 2013, Briggs said.
“I will say with great enthusiasm that the creation of a work study program and a creation of this ambassador program is something that we are very excited about,” Briggs said. “It’s something we’ve wanted for a very a long time, and it’s the beginning of something that is very good thing for international students.”
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