International House Reboot
I-House Re-created as a Living-Learning Community Within Mabee Residence Hall in the 1990s.
The final version of the International House (or I-House) brought the concept back to campus within a wing of Mabee Hall. The I-House was a living-learning community for international students, third-culture students (students whose parents are from the US but who have grown up abroad), and students who thought of themselves as global citizens. It had several locations in its years of operation.
After being housed in a separate building on campus and off campus from 1974-1987, there was an attempt to revive the International House as a living-learning community on the first floor of Mabee in 1994 by Dr. Steven Davidson and Dr. Hulya Unlu, two professors of International Studies. The program launched with 38 residents with a few other non-resident students assisting in event organization. The resident program and accompanying student organization operated from 1994 to 2003.
Even though the percentage of international students on-campus has increased since this last iteration of the I-House, the university has done less to include its international student population within the social campus sphere. Academic programs have encouraged a greater number of students to study abroad after a hiatus during the pandemic, and there are several new initiatives for recruiting international students. However, the lack of on-campus events and specific spaces has made it difficult for international students to gather.
One result is that we no longer have a central student-focused place that promotes the discussion of global issues in a non-academic setting. Although we have greater access to that information today with online news and social media platforms, relegating these discussions to the digital sphere makes it difficult to identify the campus climate on these issues by creating a sense of disassociation from international affairs. The more significant result is that international students, third-culture students, and aspiring global citizens do not have a place to belong together on campus.
