International Student Union has a lot planned for this coming fall.
In the International Student Union general board meeting Monday, 14 organizations passed budgets for 27 projected events that totaled roughly $24,200 for the upcoming Fall Semester.
After the success and efforts of International Week, ISU quickly went back to work by bringing in the newly elected executives for next year as well as some fresh ideas for the fall.
Miguel Gomez, the newly elected vice president for ISU and a junior studying mechanical engineering, said he has a large project to improve some of the barriers between international and domestic students at Ohio University.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail, but next academic year I am planning on releasing a social networking site that will connect the international community and the domestic students on campus,” he said. “One of the reasons why I’m doing this is because I feel like there’s this gap between them, and I want to work on that.”
Gomez said he will be at OU during the summer to work on this social network and app. He already has a team and funding in place, and he will release them in 2015-16.
“Specifically, it will be released two weeks before school starts because that’s when international students arrive (on campus),” he said.
Gomez added collaborations are in the works with all organizations for next year.
Hashim Pashtun, the current and re-elected president of ISU, said the momentum has changed from members’ efforts to make ISU more successful.
“I’m really happy, especially with old executives going out with the new executives,” he said. “My main concern is to redraw the image of ISU, especially outside of ISU.”
Some organizations, like the Ohio Global Studies Union, which left under the leadership of the impeached president earlier in the semester, have now come back and are hopeful for next year.
“OGSU is once again a full member,” said Kathleen Ott, president of OGSU and senior studying global studies and Spanish, in an email. “We think the new leadership is very promising and look forward to being a part of this … organization again.”
Pashtun said nothing is finalized, but a possible theme for next year would be “giving back” to the Athens community and having them, not just OU, also experience international culture.
“We are not foreigners,” he said. “We also feel for Athens and campus as you do.”
ISU will have its annual International Dinner, which is one of the main events of the Fall Semester but with ideas to make it more inclusive.
“Last year, I was kind of not happy, that (ISU) sold out of tickets within three to four days,” Pashtun said. “I felt bad only because more opportunity should be given to more local students to come to International Dinner. ISU is not only for international students.”
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