A More Global Gator Nation (My Column)

We have heard it a lot in the last few days: UF is strapped for cash. The administration was blindsided by the Florida Legislature with a substantial 4-percent decrease in state funding, prompting the current hiring freeze, as well as the tightening of budgets all over campus. I’m not here to generalize about the huge impact that this will undoubtedly have on the entire school, but rather focus on one seemingly small event that, to the dismay of dozens of foreign students, will not take place this semester.

I am talking about the International Coffeehouse.

The International Coffeehouse is (or was) a casual gathering during GatorNights that provided a low-pressure and friendly environment for international students to meet up with friends or make new ones. The coffee wasn’t amazing, and there were never enough cookies, but the company couldn’t be beat. In one small meeting room in the Reitz Union, you could meet an Austrian astronomer, a Chinese geneticist, an Italian business student, and everyone in between. The event began two years ago by the UF International Center, and began to pick up serious steam in the last few semesters—often attracting as many as 200 people a night.

For a while, I thought that the administration actually cared about programs like the International Coffeehouse. Clearly that was why they gave the UFIC a brand-spanking-new office in the heart of the HUB. Obviously that’s why Bernie Machen spoke on the promise of UF’s international community during the UFIC dedication in April. Surely the importance of fostering a global culture was not lost on those in power. Surely.

Well, maybe they remembered it in April, but forgot it in August. Maybe they decided that the International Coffeehouse was really not so important to the future of a more globalized Gator Nation. I later learned that several employees, including my own UFIC mentor, and the International Student Speakers’ Bureau were considered equally unimportant and had also been axed.

A few days ago, I spoke with Debra Anderson, the coordinator of international student services, about these cuts. Ms. Anderson explained to me that the UFIC has traditionally been a bureaucratic body, focused on the paperwork for helping domestic students study abroad and foreign students study here. The concept of using the UFIC to promote an international culture on campus was something they had just begun to explore. Therefore, when push came to shove, these more experimental programs were the first to go.

Ms. Anderson did leave me with one encouraging piece of news: The Reitz Union is considering covering the tab for the International Coffeehouse and moving it into the Orange and Brew. It’s not a done deal, but there is hope.

It is understandable that, in times of financial hardship, the university has to trim the fat, and that may cause complaints no matter where they do it. Nevertheless, if the UFIC cannot foot the bill for the International Coffeehouse, then let’s not give the Reitz Union a chance to say no. And I would hope that the new event becomes not simply an International Coffeehouse, but a Multicultural Coffeehouse—a place for students, domestic and foreign alike, to make cross-cultural bonds and embrace the diversity that exists right here in Gainesville. The world is becoming more connected every day. Let’s make sure that the Gator Nation can keep pace.