Student grapples with language barriers in housing office

A Portland State international student recently emailed the Office of the Dean of Student Life and President Wim Wiewel with the complaint that personnel at University Housing misled her when she tried to cancel her dorm contract, but PSU administrators say that the housing staff made efforts to be clear. 

The student, Jungmin Cho, arrived in Portland from South Korea last December to begin her studies with PSU’s Intensive English Language Program, and moved into Stephen Elper Hall. When she tried to end her housing contract in February, she said she was told she’d misunderstood the deadline and would have to stay or pay a $1,500 fine.

 “This problem is a big and serious problem for me,” she said. “I’m really disappointed in this school.”

Cho’s housing records, however, reveal that Cho was scheduled to move out in March and was sent several reminders. Director of Residence Life Corey Ray said that Cho was not told to pay the fine. On March 28, she re-activated her contract. According to Ray, she told his staff that she had nowhere else to go, but Cho denies this.

“Clearly, something was lost in translation,” Ray said. “But we made every effort to reach out to [Cho].”

His staff contacted IELP and the Office of International Affairs for help communicating with Cho.

According to Dean of Student Life Michele Toppe, the university tries to be sure that housing contracts are transparent.

“Efforts are made to have good and clear information about contracts that students sign,” she said. The housing contract is translated into several different languages.

Cho said her problems began on Feb. 4. That day, she went to University Housing to cancel her contract. Her sister, Soomin, accompanied her to help her with language barriers.

According to Cho, she was told that the Feb. 4 cancellation deadline didn’t apply to her because she was an IELP student, and that she’d be fine if she turned in her paperwork by the end of the winter term.

“One of the staff…said that she can decide during the semester and let them know,” Soomin said.

When Cho returned to the office in late February, she said she learned that it was too late to cancel her contract without paying a fine, but the paperwork in her file revealed that her contract was cancelled.

“She was past the deadline, but we took her for her word,” Ray said.

After Cho re-activated her contract, she consulted with Brett Bolstad, a student academic adviser in the IELP.

In an e-mail to Cho, Bolstad wrote, “Please be patient and give us time to try and work this out.”

Bolstad then e-mailed Assistant Director for Administrative Operations and Outreach Jana Hain.

“I don’t know exactly how this misunderstanding came about, but since we are dealing with a student who speaks English as a second language, I was wondering if there is any room for leniency,” he wrote in the e-mail.

Cho and Bolstad met to discuss Hain’s response.

“I think every misunderstanding is 50–50; 50 percent is your fault, 50 percent is my fault,” Cho said. “But Jana made me feel like it is 100 percent [my] fault. That made me angry. I’m not a child.”

Cho emailed the Office of the Dean of Student Life to complain in April. She heard back from office assistant Lindsey Craven, who directed Cho to Assignment Coordinator Kyle Helland. According to Craven, Helland offered Cho a single room in Montgomery Court.

“As in any large bureaucracy, there are occasionally moments of miscommunication,” Craven said.

Cho declined the single room in Montgomery because she didn’t want to use the shared bathrooms there.

 “Other victims don’t want to fight with the housing office,” Cho said. “When they had the same problem with the housing office, they give up.”

Cho’s friend Poohoon Kim, also from Korea, ended up staying at the University Place Hotel for several days after his attempts to renew his living contract resulted in confusion.

 “I wasted my money, maybe $250, paying some hotel fee,” he said. “The housing office is crazy and unfair. I want a degree from here, but I’ll never go back to the dormitory. I don’t know the housing office’s rules. It’s not clear.”

Toppe and Craven said that, to their knowledge, problems like Kim and Cho’s are not a pattern.

“It’s not a situation I’ve heard of a lot,” Craven said.

Toppe added, “If there’s any sort of language barrier or culture barrier, it’s extra-important to make things clear.”  

Emmanuel Nteh, a student from Ghana, said his communications with the housing office went well because he asked a lot of questions.

“I’m a person who likes a lot of questions,” he said. “I went to the office and they explained a lot to me. They told me to cancel by ‘this date’ and to move out by ‘this date.'” ?