Smart Alec | The universal University

Cornelius Range, the Undergraduate Assembly presidential candidate and College junior who shares with this author a penchant for dramatic resignations, recently revealed in a UA debate that, along with so-called student government “oligarchs,” he really doesn’t like international students.

Declaring internationals were “well-off enough,” he defended Penn’s policy of depriving international students of need-blind admission, since we “have to look out for our domestic students first.” He went further, arguing against even admitting international students, since “we can’t be drawing students from all overseas when we have great students here.”

I will neither point out the obvious — that poor international students don’t apply to Penn because they don’t get accepted need-blind — nor describe the moving defense of universal international student aid offered by his opponent, Wharton and Engineering junior Tyler Ernst. What is much more interesting is what Range’s statement reveals about an acute question at Penn and our peers: are we a primarily American school with some international students or a primarily global school with a predominantly American population?

True, it’s harder to give aid to international students, since the federal government subsidizes domestic low-income students to a degree, but a realignment of our policies could very easily make admissions need-blind for everyone. And recall that Range wants not only to cut financial aid for internationals but also cut internationals themselves from the student body. There is more to this than money.

His argument, and the argument of those who agree with him, goes like this: every country has its own top university, so why should American schools bear the burden of educating the brightest young minds everywhere? Let the brightest lights of Chinese scholarship go to Tsinghua; those of Britain, Oxbridge; of India, the University of Delhi; and so on. If a country’s universities aren’t up to the same standards as American schools, well, it’s that country’s fault.

The above may strike you as a straw man, but it is at work in the heart of our undergraduate admissions process, predicated as it is on the assumption that the overwhelming majority — in excess of 80 percent — of students at Penn will be American (and we have the largest international student body of our Ivy peers).

The idea that poor, brilliant students on the streets of Kolkata, India, should somehow be penalized for a country’s recovery from a century of colonialism is almost comically evil. If we believe for a moment in our educational mission, if we believe in universal human rights or if we believe in democratic education, then our course is clear. We ought to treat every student equally, regardless of national origin.

But to those who would argue that we must put America first, I say this — by extending our hand to young people across the globe, we are not only serving our national interests. We are feeding the nation’s soul.

I will dwell here not on the considerable economic benefits of international students even at private institutions, nor the benefits for our foreign policy when so many foreign leaders have been educated here, nor the benefits to our scholarship and expertise when the best minds in the world choose to settle here. This is not just about material benefits. It is about our soul as a nation.

Taking on the education of all persons of talent is in keeping with the highest aspirations of the American experiment. We live up to our vision of a free, open society when we continue to open our doors to any who can make their way here.

This is why international students at Penn are so important. This is why Penn is, very slowly and bureaucratically, moving in the right direction — toward support for its international students and the place of a universal university; and why, I pray, Range will never win power within it.

Alec Webley is a College senior and former chairman of the Undergraduate Assembly born in Boston, Mass., and raised in Melbourne, Australia. His email address is webley@theDP.com. Smart Alec appears every Thursday.

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