Office for International Students and Scholars

Office for International Students and Scholars Student worker and intern training session

Overview of Presentation • Role of the Office • Role of the Student Worker and Intern • Staff Roles • Job duties

What is Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS)? • 11 full time staff members serving approximately 5,000 international students, scholars and their families • The primary responsibility of the office is to provide immigration advising to MSU’s international community. OISS also does programming for international students and scholars like orientation, coffee hour, the essay contest. OISS also supports international student groups and liaises with campus offices and community initiatives.

How is this office judged? • On the quality and accuracy of the immigration information and services we provide • We feel responsible for all information (including the consequences of incorrect information) provided to our students and scholars. Because of this we have developed a culture of consultation. No matter how much we think we know about immigration rules and regulations, we often consult colleagues to make sure we have understood the full range of issues on a particular case. • Unless something is truly straightforward, we do not answer alone.

Student Worker and Intern • OISS has two types of student help in the office. A student worker may be someone who does not necessarily want to go on in the field of international education. An intern is usually a graduate student with an interest in the field of international education. • Both interns and student workers perform the same jobs, however interns will over time gain additional responsibility at OISS in line with their career goals. • Does this mean interns can skip filing, answering phones or photocopying? No. They perform duties as needed in addition to being peer advisors and part of projects.

Staff Roles • Director—oversees the office and is responsible for external contacts • Assistant director—responsible for SEVIS, OISSInfo and special projects • Immigration Specialist—responsible for H and PR processing. Is also responsible for keeping the office updated on immigration rules and regulations • 3 International Student/Scholar Advisors—responsible for advising students on immigration and other issues. Each advisor has primary responsibility for an additional area(s): one is responsible for orientation, another is responsible for web, publications and communications and the third has the lead role for scholar advising and community programming • Sponsored Student Coordinator—responsible for administration of the sponsored student program including advising and programming for sponsored students • Office Manager—assists the director, budget and back up on SEVIS • Front Office Coordinator—responsible for smooth running and staffing of the front desk. Also handles fundraising, event planning, and readmissions • Production Assistants—responsible for production of I-20s/DS-2019s as well as monitoring alert lists in conjunction with assistant director and office manager. Provide other support where needed

Two things to keep in mind about staff roles • Each OISS Staff person does more than is listed above and is pulled into various projects throughout the year. • Clerical staff in OISS have a lot of knowledge about the immigration process. As new students in the office you will learn from them.

Student Job Duties • Phones • Front Desk • Special Projects • Peer advising

Answering Phones • Good Morning/Good Afternoon Office, for International Students and Scholars. Saying “OISS” might not be enough, especially for people who do not know what OISS means. On the other hand, our office name is long so leave out lengthy introductions. What you say is important • How you say it is important. No need to yell in the phone and don’t whisper either. We have had cases of both and neither are appropriate.

Answering Phones • In addition to answering the phone, you will need to know how to transfer a call, to access the OISS voice mail box, and to take a clear written message. • If one of the staff members is not there or is busy, first offer to transfer to voice mail. If the caller is not satisfied, offer to take a message on paper or ask if someone else can assist. • Students on the front desk and peer advisors on the second desk need to be first on the phones. Staff will back up if the phone is not answered. The goal is no more than three rings before the phone is picked up.

Answering Phones • If the call is urgent or the caller seems agitated, get an advisor or someone to take the call. Don’t ever argue with the caller • If the call is coming from overseas, try to find someone to take it. If no one is available, get complete phone number and best time to call back. • H visa phone calls should go to Chris or Peter • Media phone calls should go to Peter, then Rosemary • Phone calls from Immigration or another government or law enforcement agency should go to Peter, Chris or Rosemary. If they are not available, check with another advisor.

Phone DOs and DON’Ts • Do talk in a normal clear tone. Don’t yell or whisper • Do try to determine if the caller needs voice mail, a hand written message or if the call is urgent and needs immediate attention. Don’t automatically transfer to voice mail. • Do not give out any information to media, or to a government agency. Someone once called from Fox News and asked if we had any Iraqi students. The front desk should not give out this kind of information. • Do use the office greeting—a student was in the habit of not using the greeting. One day someone high up in the administration called and then paid us a visit to let us know that the student was not professional on the phone • Do respect other office staff and refrain from saying something negative about a staff member—once a student was overheard saying to a caller, “she never answers her phone anyway” • Do take all calls seriously. Calls about students in distress/mental distress • Do remember that what you say on the phone reflects on all of OISS and does get back to us

Front Desk • OISS serves a range of people from international students to international scholars, MSU Faculty and administration. • A large portion of the students and scholars come to OISS for a specific reason that is either critical or perceived by them as critical to their status in the US • Because of this, they must be handled professionally and with confidence

Front Desk • The key to performing well at the front desk is knowing what you do not know • Become familiar with the phones, the filing system, the forms and handouts, walk-in procedures and other duties described for the front but refrain from giving out immigration advice. • If an advisor is not available, it is preferable to have the person wait or make an appointment instead of leaving with incorrect information.

Front Desk DOs and DON’Ts • Do greet people professionally, “may I help you”. Treat all people well. • Do determine if someone is an international student or scholar or other client. Have them sign in and ask “what is your visit regarding?” • Do determine if they have an emergency or can come back during walk in hours. Give them options, walkins, appt, phone call • Do not give out immigration advice. Do give out general info • Do not try to handle angry or agitated people on your own. Say, “hold on and I will get someone who might be able to help” • Do not use phrases like “I am pretty sure,” “ I think this is what you do,” and “maybe”. If these enter your vocabulary the person probably needs to see an advisor. Do provide information you know is correct. • Do understand that you may be dealing with the same situations or questions over and over in a day. Do not get frustrated, each student is unique. • Do understand that sometimes questions that seem easy can be difficult depending on the context. For example travel to Canada.

Special Projects • Depending on the time of year or the needs of the office, students will be pulled in to different projects. Projects can range from pulling files, purging files and photocopying, to helping with coffee hour and assisting advisors with more substantive projects.

Key Morning Duties • If your shift starts at 8, open up the office door and check OISS voice mail, check fax, printer and copier • E-mail students who have I-20s to pick up. You must use prepared e-mail message. • Check outside wall to make sure forms are there • Take I-20s over to OAS and ELC • File away files and take mail to the mail room • THESE TASKS SHOULD BE ACCOMPLISHED BY NOON UNLESS THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH BATCH PRODUCTION OF I-20s. • It is essential that I-20s be delivered to OAS daily! Not delivering I-20s in a timely fashion will be grounds for dismissal.

Key AfternoonDuties • Managing walk in traffic (1-3) • Continue to file so that by 5:00 most if not all files are re-filed • If there was a batch problem with I-20s, the latest delivery is 4 p.m. • Take mail to the mail room • Friday staff to help with Coffee Hour if necessary • Fill outside wall boxes if necessary

Morning and Afternoon • Your goal is to get students who come in outside of walk in hours (1 to 3 pm) to come back during walk in hours on the next day or during that week, unless it is an emergency. If they can’t come in during walk in hours, set up an appointment. See appointment guidelines below. If the person is a staff or faculty member, new scholar or anyone whose case is urgent, get an OISS staff person.

Appointments • set up outside of walk in hours and no longer than 30 minutes • try to concentrate appointments between 9 and 11 and between 3 and 4. Not right before lunch or the end of the day i.e. no 11:30 appointments and no 4:30 appointments • no same day appointments unless staff member is asked before booking. If you book an appointment before 9 the next morning, notify staff member. • When you book an appointment for someone always include name, phone number, issue and then add your initials in parenthesis • if the student has questions about a particular topic give them the corresponding forms to prepare before their appointment and encourage them to fill out as much as they can • if a student comes into the office in the morning and needs to see an advisor, suggest that they come back during walk in hours.

Walk-ins • Walk-ins are Monday through Friday from 1 to 3 pm. All advisors are available for walk ins unless you are notified otherwise • When a person comes in have him/her 1) sign sheet, determine issue and have them sit and wait for next advisor. 2) Pull the file if it is a student or scholar and escort the person along with the file to the advisor • Remember to pull files for appointments too. • Communicate with other student workers so you both have a good picture of who has been helped and who needs to be helped

Peer Advising • Graduate interns after some time on the job will be more involved in advising duties and seeing students on a regular basis. • As Graduate interns gain more immigration knowledge, the job will become more interesting however more risky—consult others to make sure the information you are providing is correct. You will gain knowledge through attending the weekly advisor meetings.

Student and Scholar Records • Student workers will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. As part of your job you will see information on a person’s academic and immigration status. If there is any indication that you use this information in an improper way or discuss outside the office, you will be dismissed from your student job. There may also be other consequences at the university. • The only information you can release about a student is what is called directory information. This is what you would find if you looked them up on msu.edu. Nationality is not directory information.

Student status and OISSInfo • Travel signatures • Student verification letter • Social Security Letter • Invitation for parents • Sponsored student issues-refer to Mary • In all of these cases, student and J scholar should be brought up in OISSInfo Verify that they are SEVIS Tracked on the first line. For students make sure they are registered full time.

Immigration Lingo • F-1 visa and I-20 • J-1 visa and DS-2019 • F-2 and J-2 Dependents • Other visa types: H-1B, H4, L2, B1/B2, etc. • VISA Status/Stamp • Passport • I-94 card

Immigration Lingo • CPT/OPT • EAD • SEVIS-only F and J visa types • PR • In addition to immigration OISS helps with social security, financial issues and general assistance to help international students succeed academically.

A few other points • If you can’t make it in to work or need to call in sick, please do so as soon as possible, ideally within 15 minutes of the start of your shift. • We depend on students a lot therefore excessive absences and/or tardiness will be a factor in continued employment with OISS

Conclusion • When in doubt, do not hesitate to ask • Other good sources of information are: forms and handouts, the OISS web site • Keep up on the latest information by consulting e-mail updates passed to the front desk by OISS Staff.

Office for International Students and Scholars