Rachel Allen
rallen19@uwyo.edu
Vikram Singh, the event coordinator of the International Student Association, moderated a panel on the Syrian refugee crisis yesterday at UW.
Thousands of refugees have been flooding to Europe since 2011, and 12 million total have fled the country. An additional 4.8 million are trapped in regions inaccessible to aid groups.
“Since the Syrian civil war began more than 240,000 have been killed,” according to the facts listed on the website World Vision. “One million more have been wounded or permanently disabled.”
With winter approaching quickly, Syrians are in need more than ever. There is a desperate requirement for food, warm clothes, blankets and heaters as the cold encroaches.
The four panelists at the seminar came from many walks of life. Speakers at the event included Ali Raddaoui, UW professor of applied linguistics; Thorsten Janus, associate professor of economics and finance; Ruth Shepherd, the exchange and study abroad coordinator; and undergraduate student Sarah Eftekharzadeh spoke during the question and answer session.
Raddaoui started the discussion.
“We need to establish the rules of engagement in this panel… we have to be moral, we have to be ethical and we have to be human,” he said.
He said the art of conversation requires, “listening deeply, suspending belief and sharing your viewpoints in hope that a consensus can be formed.”
Raddaoui stressed the importance of understanding why people should care about the crisis.
“It’s our chance to give a voice to people who are denied a voice,” he said. “We need to discipline ourselves into thinking that human life is valuable and nothing more valuable than another.”
Janus presented a PowerPoint on “The Economics of Civil War.” The audience was provided with multiple statistics about the refugees and where they ended up. According to Janus’ presentation, there are 7.6 million recorded internally displaced people so far, and half the Syrian population, originally 22 million, has shifted.
“I hope I lend a bit of optimism to the situation,” Shepherd said.
She insisted that universities open up free online courses for credit so refugees working low-end jobs can support their families and still get an education. “Countries in conflict risk losing future generations of engineers, physicians, teachers, agricultural specialists and many more fields of expertise,” she said. Shepherd carried on to present solutions like using organization funding to pay for refugee education. However, she said that while it might be “the most durable solution,” it requires billions of dollars. It would take massive amounts of very generous donations in order to educate the refugees.
“You all know UW, inexpensive as it is, is still expensive,” Shepherd said. Individual tuition goes up into the thousands each year, and with the current number of refugees, getting a degree to each one might be impossible, she said. Shepherd was enthusiastic about universities opening online courses up to international students.
The university already offers four degrees online, and the number of online students has increased since this option was first offered.
The questions and answer session that followed was full of passionate discussion between students, the panelists and other attendees.
During the session each panelist had a chance to speak. Shepherd made a powerful point.
“We the people of the United States forget how we got to where we are now,” she said.
She pointed out that by denying immigrants the U.S. would not have landed on the moon.
“We benefit immensely from immigrants,” she said. “We no longer recognize that we came into this country and we brought our knowledge and our skills with us.” “History has showed us again and again that it only takes a small group of people to make a difference,” Singh said. “When we go home and don’t do anything, by not doing something, we become the problem.”
Eftekharzadeh advocated for students to be actively involved in the events of the state and the world. Shepherd passionately encouraged the audience to “be the change.”
