Asian students feel economic pinch

A year ago, Park exchanged currency from his native South Korea for thousands of U.S. dollars, just before the Asian economic crisis turned the financial tables on overseas students.

Park, 28, bought dollars when they were cheap.

Other foreign students, especially those from Asian countries, are caught in a strong-dollar financial crunch that's challenging UNR's foreign population.

"It's a little bit tough," Park said.

He is a graduate student who pays $4,000 a semester for tuition. He exchanged currency in 1997 when 700-800 South Korean won bought one U.S. dollar.

Since then, the economic hardships in South Korea have worsened and the exchange rate has soared to 1,400 won per American dollar.

That means the cost of studying in the U.S. has doubled for South Korean students.

"The reason I can survive is I bought dollars a year ago," Park said.

UNR, with about 650 overseas graduate and undergraduate students, has seen its foreign population hold steady through most of the 1990s. The school's overseas total ranked 13th among the nation's universities 19 1996-97.

But the nation's colleges, including UNR, might have a tough time keeping foreign students.

Enrollment in UNR's foreign-student English language program, the gateway to a U.S. college education for many, has dropped 28 percent this year. The Intensive English Language Center classes, which cost $2,700 a semester, have 123 students.

"It's really impacted enrollments," said center Director Deirdre Vinyard. "The exchange rates make it impossible for students to come over."

Vinyard said many South Korean students left UNR to return home at Christmas. After the stability for most of the decade, Vinyard has seen a 40 percent drop in Korean and a 30 percent reduction in Japanese enrollment in the English classes.

"Last fall, I kept hearing it wouldn't impact us," Vinyard said. "We probably felt it before anyone else."

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