UPDATED: Monday, Feb. 12 at 2:38 p.m.

Safety conditions for Chinese students studying at Syracuse University have improved in the past year, but one student leader says SU can do more by launching an official Chinese social media account called WeChat.

There’s still work to be done, said Yaqi Kang, president of the China Student Development Think Tank.

Kang said the university’s campus is much safer now, a year after The Daily Orange first reported on her organization’s efforts to improve Chinese student safety following the murder of Beijing student Xiaopeng “Pippen” Yuan.

But the president also said at present, an official WeChat account for Chinese students has not been set up by SU. One year ago, a university spokesman said SU was “actively exploring ways” to add either WeChat or Weibo to its website portfolio. Both WeChat, a mobile messaging app with nearly a billion users, and Weibo are Chinese social media sites.

A university spokeswoman on Sunday confirmed that SU is still working to develop an official WeChat account.

“It’s important to note that while we have been communicating and listening via WeChat, according to WeChat’s company policy, only entities with a physical address in China (and relevant documentation), as well as a Chinese citizen serving as the account administrator, can set up an official account,” said the spokesperson, in a statement to The Daily Orange on Monday morning.“We are working to formalize our communications via these important social channels.”

And Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, interim senior associate vice president for the student experience and dean of students, said in a statement to The Daily Orange on Sunday the university has expanded and strengthened its communications “with students and families in China, including through use of WeChat and Weibo.”

“Engaging on these channels stemmed from feedback we received from our students from China, and we began to use these channels to share helpful and relevant content in Chinese for our current and prospective students,” Kantrowitz said.

Chinese students typically don’t check their emails, but they check WeChat “every day, every time, every second,” Kang said.

She said a WeChat account would be a good way to reach out to Chinese and minority groups at SU.

“For international students, especially Chinese students, they don’t really go and search what kind of services they can get from the university or college,” Kang said. “And if they face a problem, the first person they turn to is their friends or any person they know, and most times they will be Chinese as well.”

An official WeChat account would allow parents to know what their children are doing while they’re at school overseas, Kang said. WeChat is not just used by teenagers, it’s used by parents and even grandparents, she said.

“The problems kind of come from a cultural difference … international students have different problems than local students,” Kang said.

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Yingyi Ma, director of SU’s Asian and Asian-American studies program, said, for example, Chinese students can be targeted by robbers because there is a stereotype that they are wealthy. Kang said she knew a Chinese student who was robbed while walking from his apartment in University Village, near South Campus, to a Tops on Nottingham Road. That student didn’t report the robbery to police, Kang said.

Off-campus areas are still perceived as dangerous by some students, Kang said, after a survey found last year that, of about 400 Chinese students, 80 percent of respondents said they “encountered a dangerous situation” in the city.

But, since last spring, the Department of Public Safety has stepped up patrols in areas where international students commonly rent rooms off campus, said John Sardino, associate chief of the police department’s law enforcement and community policing division.

Sardino said DPS has increased its evening patrols in the Ivy Ridge neighborhood, which is south of South Campus near the university’s Physical Plant. Many international students rent apartments in that neighborhood, Sardino said.

The increase in patrols there has reduced reports of harassment and robberies in the area, he said.

DPS will also try to increase the number of officers dedicated to international student issues if they receive requests from other organizations, the associate chief added.

Ma said there needs to be better communication from the university to Chinese international students in person, and with specialized outreach efforts such as student ambassador programs.

Kantrowitz, in the statement Sunday, said SU has also “incorporated information related to safety in editions of their weekly newsletter, as well as hosted sessions on safety with the Department of Public Safety during the international undergraduate and graduate student orientation programs.”

Kang said the think tank started talks with the Office of Off-Campus and Commuter Services last year to create an “off-campus ambassador” position to help students find better and safer places to live, Kang said.

As a mentor with the Slutzker Center for International Services, Kang said she found that some students were afraid to talk on the phone with English speakers because of the language barrier, and they may choose to not report any incidents and act as if problems don’t exist.

“They don’t talk, but that doesn’t mean the issue doesn’t happen,” Kang said. “The issue is still there.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

Published on February 11, 2018 at 9:04 pm

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001