I am deeply concerned about numerous and serious inaccuracies in The Hatchet’s Feb. 19 article (“GW links to Al-Zaabi expand”). As a person interviewed for the article, I would like to correct some of the major inaccuracies.

In the first place, the inside headline (“GW sees trend of UAE, Saudi student failing”) on page 11 is absolutely false. The drop in enrollments of students from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia – along with a corresponding drop in enrollments of students from Korea, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, etc. – is due mainly to a complex mix of economic and political factors.

All students enrolled in the Department of English as a Foreign Language are high school graduates and many are university graduates. Not only are students from the UAE and Saudi Arabia proficient in their own language, but many of them also speak two or more languages.

I sympathize with the writer’s difficulty in untangling the complexities of the situation, but I am quite dismayed by serious inaccuracies in the article. Now, more than ever, the GW community needs to strive for an increased understanding of issues concerning international students.
-Patrice Connerton
deputy chair
Department of English as a Foreign Language