Guest op-ed by Jin Heo
The sudden and untimely death of Zhifan Dong has shocked and saddened our campus community. Although many of us never had the opportunity to meet her personally, her contribution to our campus and greater Salt Lake community will never be forgotten.
Despite our sorrow, the university lacks action and responsibility surrounding her death. Only a mass email was sent to the students with the superficial and repetitive statement, “we feel deeply saddened.” How many times have we read this statement over the past few years, decades? Instead of implementing preventative measures, the university foregoes responsibility and avoids the spotlight with this superficial statement when her death was far from simple.
The university is responsible for their international students; however, they have failed them in every way. What responsibility you may ask? How could the university possibly predict and prevent domestic violence? While the university was not directly responsible for the tragic death of Zhifan Dong, they are not free from any guilt or responsibility. The university favors certain student populations and unfortunately, the international students are not one of them, clearly shown by their inaction. The death of Zhifan Dong cannot simply be chalked up as a victim of domestic violence because domestic violence was not the sole determining factor in her untimely and tragic death. Her death represents the absence of community, support, and resources allocated to international students at this university, not to mention the lack of platforms to voice our concerns and frustrations at this institution. We are systematically silenced through our lack of representation and voice.
The university treats international students as little piggy banks, an easy source of income. We are real people, real students with real lives. We refuse to continuously be treated as outcasts and only be merely tolerated by the campus community. We need to address the othering international students face from other students and the university.
The time has come to discuss about the outcasts on campus and the absence of community and resources for international students. The lack of community and support fosters dependency on the few people willing to interact with us, breeding dangerous spaces that admits abuse and exploitation. If we continue this trajectory of systematic silencing and isolation for international students, these tragedies will continue.
