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International Students Feature: Syria

Alexandra Detweiler
CO PY E D ITO R

This week, three international
students from Syria, Bashar Alisber, a senior
studying aerospace engineering, Fadi Eshak, a
senior studying civil engineering, and Hamze
‘Leo’ Sukkar, a senior studying computer
engineering and engineering management,
were interviewed ab out the differences
between their life back home and their life at
Illinois Tech. As always, all interviewees were
quick to say that they missed the food back
home. According to Alisber, “food—wise, it’s a
lot healthier back home...I used to rarely go
and eat [out], like fast food or something, that
was rare. . .even sometimes when you’re going
hiking, we would cook our own food and then
take it with us.” Alisber mentioned that food
was commonly cooked using olive oil, and
that his diet consisted of a lot of vegetables,
especially salad. “Salad is very, very essential,”
Alisber explained. “Every day, there has to be a
salad dish before you get to a main meal.” Both
Eshak and Sukkar also mentioned that the diet
was much healthier back home. According to
Sukkar, the “food [in Syria] has always been
way, way healthier than the food we get here...
It always felt right. Whereas here, a lot of times,
it’s good but you don’t feel right when you’re
eating it. And your mom’s cooking is always
the best.” A typical dish you would find in
Syria, Sukkar said, was usually served with rice
or bread. One of the best dishes that Sukkar
remembers from back home consisted of rice
and ground beef stuffed in grape leaves, which
was called yabra or diwali.

The weather, of course, also differs.
“In winter, it’s cold, but not that cold,” Eshak
said. Although, while winters are less harsh,

due to electricity problems and less insulation,
“you feel it more than here,” accordingto Eshak.
“You freeze inside more than outside.” Both
Alisber and Sukkar also mentioned how the
temperature inside buildings was much colder
in Syria than in the US. In Sukkar’s words,
“once you’re inside, you expect something
warm but you get something cold.” In Alisber’s
opinion, this difference may also be because
“prices of fuel for warming the house is going
way up.”

In terms of general culture, Sukkar
explained how odd it was to be questioned
about things about yourself that you thought
were commonplace, such as religion or attire.
In his words, “you don’t have to explain
yourself as often as you do here. When you
come here, you start noticing that people
realize different things about you. You never
thought that would be something you would
have to explain.” Eshak mentioned that Syria
is “more conservative than here.” Eshhak
explained that young people dating is frowned
upon, and is usually done in secret, which is
especially important for the women. “There
is no gender equality there,” Eshak said,
although he added later that “there is gender
equality in the well—educated families.” Alisber
had similar thoughts, and in his words,
“dating doesn’t happen as public as here. I
had a girlfriend at home, but holding hands
in public was frowned upon...Thing that I
hate most is the inequality....You would still
find people who have problems with their
wives working.” Sukkar, however, presented a
different perspective. “The school that I went
to is a co—ed school, so I grew up with mixing
both genders all of the time. There are parts of
society where you can see issues with gender
inequality. If you go there to day, you might not

think it’s as it should be. But if you ask both
parties, both parties are happy with what they
have.”

Academically, Alisber mentioned
that, “'t is busier here. School keeps you busy.”
In Syria, Alisber was used to solely a final exam
at the end of the semester, with no homework.
Alisber, however, appreciated the homework
and found it useful. “I find it helpful,” Alisber
said, “it’s a lot better to absorb the material
that you’re learning.” Alisber also appreciated
the internship opportunities he found here.
According to him, “[internships] are not
something common back home, it’s not at
all common.” Sukkar commented on the fact
that while high school is considered easier
than college in the US, it is the opposite where
he was from: high school was much harder.
“I guess it’s a good thing, looking at it now,
because now I’m used to all this, regardless of
what pressure is put in my hand. The amount
of work, what I’ve experienced in Syria, is way
more. And a lot of it is the way they teach,
it’s very dry: here are the textbooks, do your
homework, do you exams. There’s nothing
practical, nothing hands—on.” Perhaps the
reason why high school was so difficult in
Syria was because of the largely stressed exam
that takes place at the end of high school. “Our
last year, the graduation year,” Sukkar said, “is
a standard test across the country where you
have to memorize nine books cover to cover
in two months. Then you have two weeks
to get tested on all nine subjects...lt’s the
most disciplined I’ve ever been in my life...
Thankfully I performed well, because this is
the deciding factor of what you can do with
your life...If you get over 300, you can go to
medical school, which is the highest, usually.
The lower your score, the less your choices are.”

As most of the world knows, Syria
is currently involved in a civil war. Eshak
remembers mornings in Syria where he would
go outside to collect empty bullet shells that
could be found on the ground. He remembered
six separate incidents in which a bullet came
into his house: once, Eshak recalled, “taking a
shower, a bullet came through the bathroom
window.” Because of this unrest, Eshak initially
decided to move to Lebanon; however, the war
in Syria spread through the Middle East. At
that time, wanting to go to the United States,
Eshak was pleased to receive a scholarship at
Illinois Tech that allowed him to attend school
here. However, Eshak said, the “visa process
was difficult.” Eshak spend a lot of time on
the phone with a counselor, who asked him a
little bit about his education but mostly what
he was doing in Syria. In the airport, after the
20 hour flight, he was sent to an interview
room and sat for two hours, waiting, while the
Illinois Tech bus came and went. Eshak said
he was “asked same questions but in different
phrases,” things like “are you planning to go
back after graduation?” Alisber had a similar
experience at the airport, where he got held up
at customs for three hours; however, he recalls
that nobody actually asked him anything
during that period of time.

At the end of his interview, Alisber
made sure to mention that he wanted to thank
Illinois Tech for the opportunity to go to school
here. “Without the scholarship I got here, my
life would be a lot different,” Alisber said.

This section of TechNews needs
volunteer international students in order to
continue! Please contact adetweiler@hawk.iit.
edu if you are willing to sit down for a short
interview

UGSC debates the presence of pass/fail credits in honors designations during latest meeting

Soren Spicknall
CO PY E D ITO R

Proposed by the Academic Affairs
Committee of the Student Government
Association (SGA) and formulated throughout
last year in a process that involved SGA, the
Undergraduate Studies Committee (UGSC),
and eventually the University Faculty Council
(UFC), Illinois Tech’s new Pass/Fail grading
policy will finally come into effect next
semester. The policy will allow undergraduate
students to take up to three courses outside
of traditional A through E letter grading,
earning a grade of “Pass” for any performance
which would typically result in a non—E grade.
Intended to allow students to earn credit from
free and technical electives that might lie
outside their usual realm of study, the program
is currently being logistically implemented
by offices across campus to ensure that the
university’s systems and rules are in concert
with the new policy when it becomes active.
At the most recent UGSC meeting on Tuesday,
October 25, one such logistical facet turned
into a lengthy debate over the previously

unconsidered question of how exactly to count
pass/fail courses toward a student’s GPA for
the purposes of graduation with honors.

Following some brief initial votes
(including the passage of two co—terminal
programs which were discussed in previous
TechNews coverage of the UGSC), group
Chair Ray Trygstad presented a proposed
change to the qualifications for graduating
with honors. The change itself was miniscule,
simply removing the word “graded” from the
existing policy because the definition of that
word at the university level does not include
pass/ fail courses. However, the act of including
pass/fail courses in consideration for honors
brought up concerns from many present
representatives of academic departments, and
began an extended discussion of whether the
change should be considered at all.

Many of the present UGSC
members, who each represent an academic
or administrative unit of the university, were
concerned about whether counting pass/
fail credits toward the 60—credit minimum
required at Illinois Tech to qualify for honors
we de—value the very idea of graduating with
honors. The stated intent of the proposed

change was to accommodate fringe cases
in which transfer students barely meet the
60—credit minimum for honors under the
current system, recognizing that adding just
one or two pass/ fail courses could force those
students to take additional courses beyond
their degree requirements in order to graduate
with honors. However, many present were
concerned about more traditional students
using the pass/fail policy to manipulate the
honors system, achieving a higher GPA
through judicious application of pass/fail
course designations.

Some alternatives were offered,
including the possible standard practice of
counting pass/fail courses as a D grade within
the GPA calculation used to determine honors
status. The underlying argument for that
particular proposal held that a passing grade in
pass/ fail grading essentially represented a D or
above in standard grading, and that using the
minimum was the most useful metric when
applying the high standards for graduation
honors. Some faculty, though, expressed
concern that tackling this single issue wouldn’t
actually cause much change, arguing “there's
always a way to chase that 3.75, or whatever

you need” and that students would find other
options to twist their GPA. Following that
argument, barring pass/fail courses from the
60—credit minimum would do more harm to
transfer students than the potential harm done
to the honors designation itself by abuse of the
pass/ fail program.

After generally agreeing that the
standards for graduating with honors should
remain high, Trygstad suggested that the group
bring the issue back to their departments to
gather a broader range of opinions before
the next UGSC meeting. Nick Menhart, the
representative from the Biology department,
offered to draft alternate language which would
address many of the problems representatives
foresaw with the proposed change. A draft was
emailed to UGSC members a few days later,
and will be discussed when UGSC meets next.

UGSC gathers once every other
Tuesday at 12:45 pm. in Wishnick Hall.
Official minutes and information about the
organization can be found at iit.edu/~ugsc.

National Society of Black Engineers hosts fair to promote STEM higher education

 

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