International students at our institutions of higher education have educational and personal needs which extend beyond the classroom. These needs are supposedly provided for by student personnel services, but little data has been collected which examines how international students use student services, and if their use differs significantly from use by American students. If their perceptions of students services and use of these resources does differ, what does that signify? This study measures the use and perceptions of student services by international and American students at Southern Oregon State College. Twenty-one philosophical objectives were examined for levels of importance, effectiveness, and resultant need. A list of twenty resources at the College were compiled and respondents were asked to rate the helpfulness of each resource. Demographic data on students included residence, length of time on campus, involvement in extracurricular activities, and other characteristics and was compared to knowledge of student services resources. International students were asked to identify their English language proficiency and this was compared with their need for student services objectives. All three hypotheses that there would be no differences between American and international students; in their perceptions cf the;:, importance, effectiveness, and helpfulness of student services were rejected at the . 05 level of significance. International students found three objectives to be ineffective, and the focus of these objectives suggested that cultural differences may contribute to student problems. A correlation between self-reported English language proficiency and satisfaction of needs for student services objectives was noted, while no relationship between TOEFL score and satisfaction of needs was found. Southern Oregon State College may want to reconsider its orientation procedures in light of the number of "don't know'' responses from students when asked about a variety of student services. Awareness of student services and the effectiveness of those services for both American and international students are issues which this study aims to help the college address.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-6146 |
| Date | 10 May 1996 |
| Creators | Emmons, Molly K. |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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