How to Improve Kent Cssa Relationship with Other Student Organization - Research Paper Example

Despite the fact that Kent State University offers numerous opportunities for students to be involved and enjoy the campus life, most international students find it hard to get involved in the student organizations in the University. With a specific focus on Chinese students, this paper aims to explore the relationships between Chinese Student Scholar Association (CSSA) with other organizations and how these relationships can be improved to better the academic life of Chinese students in Kent University.

With a membership of approximately 300 students in Kent State University, CSSA achieves its goals by cooperating with the University’s main Student Government as well as the Administration. However, in spite of their efforts to sustain Chinese culture and enable the students to live a “Home far from Home” lifestyle, most Chinese students continue to live outside the peripherals of university life.
They find it very hard to get involved in campus life. This has been caused by one of the several factors discussed below.   Firstly, the objectives of CSSA, to help Chinese students experience a Chinese lifestyle in the diaspora cause a conflict of culture. Culture, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. The dictionary goes on to identify several cultures such as the popular culture, guilt culture, and Café culture.  Among these, University culture could be mentioned. It is, hence, probable that the attempt to sustain the Chinese culture in a dynamic and hype environment has been a difficult challenge, since the University culture is superior. This has, in turn, led to the Chinese secluding themselves from the larger University population and maintaining ties only amongst themselves, rarely engaging in any relationship with other students.

  Secondly, CSSA has very few associations with other groups, whether in the business world or even in a cultural level. The main activities in the association include the Mid Autumn Festival, held either in September or early October, and the Chinese New Year Festival, held in varying dates in January and February. In attendance during these two festivals are usually the Chinese students and scholars. With the lack of foreign performers, exhibitors or guests, the festivals do little to promote the contact between Chinese and other students.   This project will use research tools such as questionnaires, observation and statistical analysis with the aim of realizing the objectives of the project. In this project, the researcher will consider using both positivist (quantitative) and interpretivist (qualitative) paradigms.

  This project is qualitative. A qualitative research is a type of research that yields descriptive material based on observation, spoken or written word. It is important to note that elements of experience and interpretation in context-specific situations such as in the case of Kent State University are characteristic of qualitative research.

  The inquiry is exploratory, descriptive and qualitative in nature. It was exploratory because it sought to explore the perceptions and views of students in the Kent State University towards scholarships, initiatives taken by their parents to help them face the challenges they face on their daily lives (Costley, Elliott and Gibbs 67).