Students at CLU are a diverse group

A record number of international students have enrolled at California Lutheran University, helping to make this fall's freshman class the largest ever at the Thousand Oaks school.

International freshman enrollment more than doubled from a year ago at CLU, which started its fall semester Wednesday. It's the first time international undergraduate enrollment has surpassed levels seen before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which caused the numbers to decrease dramatically.

Howard Wennes, the private university's interim president, said he is delighted with the increased diversity on campus. He said the growing numbers of international students are vital to maintaining the university's identity and heritage.

"Our mission is to educate leaders for a global society," he said. "We can't do that without their input. There may be a tendency to think we're the center of the universe, but we are part of a global scene."

For some of the new international students, coming to CLU marks the first time they've left their families and home country, and it's a huge transition.

Wai Lwin Phyo, 18, left his home in Myanmar, formerly Burma, for the first time to come to CLU to study for a business degree. "My parents want me to graduate from an American college," he said. "I am fitting in pretty well, except for the food. I am already missing the spicy food from my home."

This fall, there are 455 students in the freshman class, a 22 percent increase since 2003. The increase stems partly from the 41 new international students from 24 countries, including Chile, Turkey, Austria, China, Germany, Norway, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, India, Italy and Vietnam.

Matt Ward, dean of undergraduate enrollment, attributed the huge rise of international students to the university's outreach program and a more efficient student visa process.

"I think some of the kinks have been worked out in the system that was put in place since the Office of Homeland Security was created," he said. "The fall class of 2007 is very different from the fall class of 2002 in terms of the obstacles those students in 2002 confronted in order to study in the United States."

As part of the outreach program, Dane Rowley, senior assistant director of international admission, traveled to Asia and Europe to promote CLU. He said there's been a sea change in attitude about coming to the United States to study.

"Definitely there's an anti-(Bush) administration attitude, let's say that," he said. "But the students still realize that in terms of wanting to get a strong English-speaking education, the U.S, is the top choice."

Ethiopian student Lulit Gizaw, 18, hopes that getting a degree from an American university will help her get a better job when she returns to Addis Ababa. "America is the best place to get an education," she said. "It's definitely a plus."

Kelly How Tam Fat, 19, from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, has joined sister Tracy, a senior at CLU. "It's totally different from the education in Mauritius," Kelly said. "There, they teach us in French and in English, so now it's going to be all about English."

The record number of freshmen means the campus is now operating at capacity, with more than 2,100 undergraduates, plus students in graduate and certificate programs.

"We are maximizing the use of our classroom space and maximizing the use of our residence hall," Ward said. "There are a number of challenges that will need to be addressed in the long term. We're in the planning stages to build a new residence hall on campus and there are also plans to raise money for a new academic building."