The same night that Jules Toney’s professor told her that Western Washington University’s Intensive English Program (IEP) and Asia University America Program (AUAP) were being discontinued, Toney created a petition asking Western to save these programs.
“It was late that night, and I was thinking about it,” said Toney, a 23-year-old Western student. “The start to making a change anywhere is raising awareness and getting people in on it, right? What better way to do that than to start a petition?”
Three months later, that petition has garnered nearly 1,000 signatures.
The IEP and AUAP programs, both established in 1988, are language and culture orientation programs at Western, designed to immerse international students in American culture and provide short-term language tutoring in classroom environments. IEP aims to prepare English as a Second Language (ESL) learners for degree study or social purposes. AUAP acts as a study abroad program for students from Asia University in Taiwan.
According to Toney’s petition, these programs do much more than just teach language and culture. They offer guidance to international students for planning trips, finding housing, seeking medical care and receiving academic aid while in the United States. They also help foster close friendships and offer miscellaneous support to struggling students.
Toney first became involved with the IEP and AUAP programs last November through a communication and conflict class taught by Western Professor Tara Perry. Perry holds a doctorate in cultural and disability studies.
Toney found herself attending a classroom exchange between Dr. Perry’s class and the IEP and AUAP programs. Here, international and domestic students would ask questions back and forth, getting to know each other's backgrounds, personalities and cultures.
She soon returned to volunteer with the international student programs in a class that taught them about American norms and information, such as tipping culture and where to access emergency services.
“It was so cool, walking into a room and being able to talk with people from 10-plus different countries. That doesn’t happen to people every day. It’s not just something you can decide to do,” Toney said.
After that class that Toney attended, Dr. Perry informed her that Western planned to discontinue these programs.
In an email, Robert Squires, Western’s vice provost of Outreach and Continuing Education (OCE), said “WWU’s intent to discontinue the programs is based on the strategic realignment of all international activities under the new Global Engagement Office.”
As part of the structural realignment of Western’s internationalization efforts, the university is now focusing its international priorities on increasing access to its study-abroad and exchange programs and shifting from recruiting international students to focusing on prospective degree-seeking students, Squires said in the email.
Squired said that in addition to this reorganization, Language and culture programs such as IEP and AUAP are self-sustaining, meaning that tuition paid to these programs for student involvement must cover the cost of instructional and operational expenses. Tuition has been unable to cover these operating costs.
“This is due to challenges with visa issuance to international students, the shifting priorities of English as a Second Language education among non-native speaking countries and the strength of the dollar, among other reasons,” Squires said in the email.
Toney turned to change.org once she heard of Western’s plans to discontinue the programs. In the early hours of Nov. 8, 2024, Toney launched the petition.
“At first, it skyrocketed. When I first posted it, I got super excited when it hit 40 signatures, then when it hit 100, I was like, ‘Wow.’ Then, all of a sudden, it was up to 700 within the week,” Toney said.
Toney printed flyers and pasted them all around campus and Whatcom County. She contacted friends, family and acquaintances and spread it all over social media.
By Feb. 11, 2025, the petition sat at 992 signers, just eight shy of the goal.
This show of support for the programs has yet to convince the Western administration to reconsider their decision. As of Jan. 27, 2025, the IEP and AUAP programs are planned to be shut down at the end of spring quarter.
“It’s not like this type of thing is happening every single time they shut down a program, it’s not like there’s hundreds of people advocating and saying, ‘Hey, we want this program to stick around!’” said Toney.
Squires indicated that the shutdown, while seemingly decided, is not yet final. As of Jan. 23, 2025, Western is still hearing feedback from the Senate OCE committee, Faculty Senate and faculty and staff unions to consider feasible alternatives.
“Our motto is to make waves,” Toney said. “You can’t make waves if you just shut down the waves that are trying to be made.”
Jae Ranney (they/them) is a campus news reporter for The Front this quarter. They are a second-year journalism news/ed major. When they’re not hounding you for a quote or chasing a lede, they enjoy playing the drums in their metal band, or making folk music with their guitar and banjo. You can reach them at jaeranney.thefront@gmail.com.
