With its large white pillars and a brick exterior, The Slutzker Center for International Services blends in seamlessly with the sorority houses beside it.

Behind its doors, both men and women meander throughoutthe building, speaking in multiple languages over loud piano notes.

But in Elane Granger’s office on the second floor, it’s quiet except for the clacking of a keyboard and her occasional remark into the phone balanced on her right shoulder.

Granger, the associate director of the center, hangs up the phone and presses one more key before swiveling around and flashing one of her seemingly perpetual grins.

‘I was accepting Orange Dialogue Peace applications,’ she said,referring to the program in which students split into groups to participate in a variety of bonding activitiesoff campus. ‘I just sent it out,’ she said and paused before exhaling.

 Granger has worked at Syracuse University for 11 years. She spent her first six years with SU Abroad before entering her current position. She helps international students cope with their transition into a new country, answering their questions about immigration forms and processing, and actively taking part in programming that fosters relationships between the international students and the American students.

The center currently receives about 200 to 300 students per day, Granger said. But in the past two weeks, the numbers reached as high as 800, with China and India providing the largest population of incoming international students.

Did she ever imagine sitting within an office doing duties such as lobbying on behalf of an international student to the Department of Motor Vehicles?

She shakes her head.

‘No, I wanted to be a professor, writer and an actress for many years,’ she said.

She accomplished all three. Looking for a more stable career, she left her acting career and got her master’s degree at New York University and her doctorate at the University of California at Los Angeles to begin teaching.

She enjoyed teaching with summers and breaks off to write and spend time with her family, but when she was offered the opportunity to direct NYU in Madrid, she decided she should take advantage of changing locations while her children were still young.

Her time in Madrid led to becoming a part of SU in Madrid, which eventually brought her to the room in Syracuse filled with knickknacks from a multitude of cultures.

Although she has now settled into this community, the transition in the beginning was difficult to handle.

‘Whenever you come back home, you see your world a little differently,’ she said ‘You’re more critical but more happy about some things.’

She said her time abroad opened her eyes to the fact that a large part of American society doesn’t value difference and how many people grow up isolated from foreign cultures. 

‘I think diversity is always better, but I think for some students it’s uncomfortable for them,’ she said. ‘The bias and antagonism against gender, sexual orientation or race can be aggravating, and that’s why I believe so much in what I do.’

The Center’s programs reflect her ideas of inclusion and acceptance. In the beginning of the year, a program called Connections for new and transfer international students orients them toward academic support, writing and English conversation groups. Mix It Up, an extension of orientation, allows individuals to come together in a circle discussion and share experiences. Later in the year, there is the International Music Festival, where artists and residents from the local community venture to the campus to work with students.

She said her favorite part of her job is the students she encounters because it aids her knowledge of the world.

‘If I meet a student and they start talking about a conflict, I look it up on the Internet, sometimes read books, and it enriches me,’ she said. ‘American students don’t always have those lights on, understand or care about someone from another country.’

She said she had to know five languages to get her doctorate, so she can say enough in German, Italian, French, Portuguese and Spanish to make students feel welcome in their own language.

She’s had her success here at SU, but has mixed feelings about Madrid — especially now that both her children are going there for jobs.

She paused for a few moments, leaning back in her chair. An uncharacteristic stern expression crossed her face.

‘I miss the people and I miss the life,’ she said before pausing again. ‘But I’ve gotten used to my life here, and I’ve changed continents and cities so much, I can find my niche.’

Throughout her lifetime, Granger has traveled to places in Europe and Central America, but she still wants to travel in the future, especially after the contacts she’s made through her job.

‘I’d like to fly over to Turkey, and someday go to India and China, because I could see my students and they could show me around,’ she said.

cbidwill@syr.edu

Published on August 31, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Colleen: cbidwill@syr.edu