Student Leaders Left to Pick Up Pieces of Plymouth’s Defunct International Student Support
Kay Bailey
She/Her
Editor-in-Chief
4/28/25
16 out of Plymouth’s 18 person ski team are international students, recruited from their home countries to compete on the university’s behalf. Over the summer of 2024, PSU dissolved its dedicated international recruitment position and with it, much of the dedicated support for international students.
Sandra McGarr, the former Associate Director of International Student Recruitment at the admissions office was an integral resource for international students prior to the position’s dissolution.
“She’s the one who would handle our visa’s, get us settled into our dorms, pick us up at the airport, she did everything for all the international students.” said Gill Hamilton ‘26.
The removal of this position has left student leaders to pick up the pieces. Ski team seniors Ronja Dahlin and Vanessa Naas were set up to assist with the programming before its cancellation, but suddenly found themselves taking on the task independently at their own expense.
“[Dahlin and Naas] still came early,” Hamilton explained, “They picked [international students] up at the airport. They made them goody bags, all with their own money, their own prerogative.”
Dahlin explained to The Clock how one student was dropped off from the airport by a member of admissions later into the night, without access to their dorm. “It was after the dining hall was closed, and we couldn’t really get into the dorms. No one wanted to help and we didn’t really know what to do,” she said. The student was only able to get into their dorm through the intervention of university police.
Hamilton described a similar situation where an international student needed a letter to return home for Christmas confirming he was in school so that he would not be drafted by the Russian Army.
She said that Dahlin took initiative to help this student but that there were no administrators to guide him in the process was “really, really upsetting.”
During the winter semester, a student from Sweden was attempting to transfer to PSU to join the Ski Team, but ran into an issue with his transcript. When there was a designated international recruiter, transcripts were located by the university with no cost to the student. In this instance, however, admissions directed the student to pay for their own transcripts, a bill upwards of 200 dollars, according to Hamilton and Dahlin.
International students also lost their orientation week, an important milestone for incoming students as well, allowing them to move into their dorms a week prior to class starting and comfortably acclimate into American culture.
“A lot of the Europeans and Scandinavians, they don’t know that you need to tip, important things that you need to learn before you’re at school. And it’s just fun, it’s nice to get to know everyone,” Hamilton noted. For Hamilton, having a member of staff prioritizing international student experience was crucial.
When these issue were brought to admissions by Ski Team seniors, namely Dahlin and Nass, director of admissions Phil Dunbridg allegedly told them to “stay out of it.”
“The school doesn’t rely on student athletes,” Hamilton said, recalling Dunbridge’s sentiments. “He ended up sending an email to our coach and to the head of athletics, saying, your athletes are too involved and they need to stop interfering in the administration process. They have no business.”
The comments from Dunbridge resulted in a meeting between admissions, the Ski Team seniors and their coach, and President Birx. Hamilton described the meeting as positive but ultimately unproductive– noting that Birx at least appeared sympathetic to their situation. Dahlin shared similar views of the meeting; a nice sentiment, but did little to reassure her that more would be done for international students going forward.
In the coming years, Hamilton shared that the IDEA Center will be taking on any issues concerning international students. She is still speculative on their ability to handle some of the more complicated, paperwork heavy responsibilities that come with international students, like student visas.
“We don’t have a contact point right now for our visas, which is a problem because they can expire,” Hamilton explained, “Sandy used to [sign our] visas, and she’s certified to do that. But Paige at the IDEA center, she’s hired now to work with internationals, but I’m pretty sure she’s not certified to sign her visas yet. So, not only is she not certified yet, I couldn’t just go to her and ask her a question about my visa. She hasn’t been trained for that yet.”