Campus with a world view.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Hoping to expand both its horizons and its budget, Lane Community College is going global.

The LCC board has approved a plan to boost marketing to international students. The idea is to give resident students more exposure to the broader world by drawing more people from other countries - and at the same time to bring additional money to the general fund through the higher tuition paid by foreign students.

Depending on how aggressively LCC markets itself, the college over six years could raise international enrollment to between 250 and 500 students from the current 130, according to estimates provided to the board. That could bring $890,000 to $2.2 million more into the general fund, after program expenses are paid.

LCC President Mary Spilde said the college thought about pushing international enrollment several years ago but, at the time, the college was dealing with steep budget cuts.

The budget is still a challenge, she said, but the opportunity to bring in additional revenue at a critical time, as well as the advantages of a more diverse student body, made the idea worth pursuing.

"Last year we started to again think seriously about the opportunity to internationalize the campus and also to create revenue for the institution that will help support our basic mission," Spilde said. "The two goals of a exposing our domestic students to international students to help prepare them to work in a global economy, plus the fiscal sustainability of doing it, came together and resulted in this request to the board."

LCC already has the second-largest number of international students of any Oregon community college after Portland Community College. But Spilde said LCC has advantages that should allow it to attract substantially more foreign students.

Those include being close to both the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, having a recognized program in English as a second language and being located in an attractive region with relatively little crime.

Like U.S. students, international students are drawn to community colleges by the chance to earn college credit at a lower cost before transferring to a four-year college, and by career education programs such as aviation maintenance and energy management.

"What we do have to offer is place, product and price," said Cathy Lindsley, director of ESL and international programs at LCC.

Some international students already find LCC through word of mouth or on the Internet or through other means. Current students say they like the smaller classes, access to faculty and the chance to study alongside Americans whose first language is English.

Yan-Jen "Jessie" Huang already has completed a degree in finance in Taiwan but came to LCC to improve her English so she can pursue international business opportunities. She said she likes LCC because with few other students from her country she has to speak English all the time.

"If there were a lot of Chinese here, then I would speak my native language," she said.

Saya Yoshino, from Japan, also needs good English skills to get work as a flight attendant. She said LCC has been very welcoming and that she has persuaded a friend to come to the college this spring.

"I really feel like LCC has lots of nice American students," she said. "I feel really happy here."

Lindsley also noted that no state support goes to pay for international students. Community colleges receive state general fund revenue based on the number of students enrolled, but international students are not included in the enrollment numbers used to calculate the state allocation.

Resident students pay $78 per credit hour at LCC, while international students pay $210. That doesn't include fees, which are the same for all students.

Spilde said administrators were careful not to overestimate how much net revenue the college would receive by enrolling more international students.

"We feel like we've been very, very conservative in our budget projections," she said. "We don't want to mislead the board or lay out figures so aggressive they would be hard to reach. We think these scenarios are very, very doable."

Spilde said LCC worked with a vice president at Green River Community College in Washington to help develop estimates and lay out a plan for raising international enrollment. Green River used the same type of program and now has 1,033 foreign students out of a total enrollment of 9,500.

The budget plan includes hiring additional advisers and staff to assist international students as their numbers rise. But LCC already gets good reviews for its support of students from other countries.

"Lane is really open-minded toward international students," said Anthony Gamboa, a business student from Argentina. "I can't express the way I've been treated here. I'm learning so much."