Red tape kills "globalization"

Little is certain in life, but I always thought I could be sure of two things. One was that SF State welcomes international students because internationalization seems to be important and very '90s, the other was that the level of education in the Netherlands is similar to that in America.

The former was proven at a recent committee meeting where increasing 'globalization' was proposed (see the Golden Gater, March 21). The latter was conventional wisdom. When I came to SF State last semester as an exchange student from the University of Amsterdam, I found nothing but help, interested people and hospitality.

I actually liked it so much that I decide to apply as a regular graduate student here. That's when I walked into incredible bureaucratic opposition.

I carry a baccalaureate degree in journalism from the Netherlands which consists of general and specific (journalism) education. I have been admitted to the Amsterdam master's program based on that degree, combined with the high-level high school diploma we all carry in the Netherlands. With all these qualifications under my belt I still ran into problems trying to get accepted into the university as a nonexchange student. At that time the political science department already had explicitly encouraged me to stay and pursue my master's degree here. University regulation said "no" to my application for admissions. Apparently the level of education in Western Europe was in decline. According to the state of California, a Netherlands baccalaureate degree cannot provide entrance into a graduate school.

The problem is not that I didn't get accepted -- I did. After pressing letters from the political science department chair, professors, the dean of my journalism school, and after meetings with the associate dean of graduate admissions, I eventually was, conditionally, accepted.

The problem is that a large diverse institution like SF State wields a bottom line which eventually tells perfectly qualified applicants who are willing to pay the much higher out-of-state tuition --"sorry, you don't qualify. See ya later."

I got all the help possible from wonderful people at the Graduate Admissions Office and everyone in the political science department. But, typical of large bureaucracies, it's not those individuals who think freely and then base a rational decision on that thinking, it's a faceless bureaucratic monster which does the thinking. Someone please tell this monster about how internationalization really works. And while you're at it, tell it about the Dutch educational system too.

[ Golden Gater Online March 28, 1996 ]

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