Eduard Junelov, a sophomore finance major, waits patiently for a U.S. airport security guard to finish rummaging through his bag as a stream of travelers brushes by and easily pass through security. A nervous pang twitches in his stomach as the minutes tick by, and he hopes his delay won’t make him miss his flight home to Turkmenistan.
Halfway across the world, Italian graduate student Gabriella Mazza fills out an exhausting stack of paperwork, including an I-20 document that will assure her government of the need to obtain an F visa, or student visa, so she can finish earning her translation degree at Kent State.
Although Deborah Campbell, a student earning her doctorate in curriculum and instruction, misses her family back in the Bahamas, she is apprehensive about arranging a visit home because of the question and search she will undergo the moment she arrives at the airport.
These episodes are reflections of the hurdles — which include routine and rigorous security checks — that nearly every international student endures before stepping foot on a university’s campus, let alone crossing the border into a post-Sept. 11 America.
The Burr is produced by students at Kent State University twice per academic year.No part of The Burr may be reprinted without permission.