ISSAB Accomplishments, Advocacy, and Action
- Per ISSAB member recommendation, ISS sent specific travel guidance messaging before Spring Break during uncertain times (Spring 2025)
- Served on 10+ search committees to choose new ISS professional staff including SEVIS Specialists, International Student Advisors, International Engagement Coordinators, and Assistant Director of Operations (Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025)
- ISSAB expressed dissatisfaction with drop-in advising structure, transparency, and organization, which led to the adoption of QLess a queue and line management software to streamline our advising services (Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024)
- ISSAB members shared international student perspective through “Day in the Life” ISS Instagram Takeovers (Spring 2023, Spring 2024)
- Following meeting with MHS, offered in-person Mental Health Services Let’s Talk in the International Student Services office rather than just virtual (Spring 2024)
- Created ISSAB Corner in newsletter to introduce ISSAB members to the international student community and share key takeaways from recent ISSAB meetings (Fall 2023)
- Purchase of Sprintax codes for tax preparation and filing (Spring 2023, Spring 2024)
- Gave edits, feedback, and suggestions for the Color of Drinking Survey to be more inclusive and accessible for international students to share their experience with drinking/alcohol culture at UW–Madison (Spring 2023, Fall 2023)
- ISSAB members served as Diversity Forum Panelists- We are here: UW-Madison from an International Student Perspective (Fall 2023)
- ISSAB delegate met with International Division Board of Visitors (Fall 2023)
- ISSAB delegate met with Chancellor during her tour of the International Division (Fall 2023)
- Met with campus communicators to discuss campus wide communications following instances of discrimination targeting international community (Spring 2023)
- Per ISSAB recommendation, ISS was able to send a specific message of support to all international students in response to a racist incident that occurred on campus (Spring 2023)
- ISSAB member was interviewed on the Connecting Badgers podcast with Mental Health Services to talk about International Student Services (Spring 2023)
- Elevated and addressed common HR issue for international graduate students (Fall 2022)
- Campus Climate Survey administrators came to ISSAB meeting for feedback and Campus Climate Survey committee spot for international student was created as a result (Spring 2022)
