SF State attracts and retains a large number of foreign exchange and international students, many of whom acknowledge that a crucial point of adaptation to their new American life resides in getting involved in on-campus sports activities.

Many of the foreign students, unafraid of the strict and often demanding U.S. immigration laws requiring them to fill out an incredible amount of paperwork to obtain their student visa, share the belief that San Francisco is a city that draws its strength from the diversity of people and lifestyles that coexist.

Foreign students usually spend between a semester and several years at SF State as exchange or transfer students.

“Somehow, sports allow us to meet people more easily than in class,” said Kim Anh Truong, a second semester French exchange student studying finance. “By being part of the [salsa] class, I don’t feel like a stranger, which sometimes makes me feel part of the university.”

In fall 2007, nearly 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at SF State. Of that number, 1,732 were coming from abroad. According to statistics provided by the Office of International Programs, 21.6 percent of these international and foreign exchange students were Japanese, 11.5 percent Chinese, 8 percent Taiwanese, 3.2 percent Indonesian and 1.5 percent German.

Harry Strelec, the International Education Exchange Club sports officer and an exchange student in psychology from Melbourne, Australia, said he will remember his introduction to San Francisco. Used to the warm Australian weather, he immediately caught a cold when he was confronted by the unpredictable San Francisco climate.

Since early February, Strelec devoted his free time to tennis, basketball, volleyball and soccer intramural sports teams. The IEEC students usually join intramurals every semester for the club teams.

This spring is no exception with about 55 IEEC members joining the club to play sports, half being international and half U.S. students.

“After the intramural sports will be settled, we will also organize weekend events at school and outside, distribute posters and organize meetings with the committee,” Strelec said.

“Our goal is to socialize and have fun, introduce people to new sports and get along together.”

Strelec said he is a sports fan himself. As the captain, he competes with his IEEC Emus and Wombats intramural basketball team every Wednesday evening and says he finds it competitive but friendly.

“There are fairly enough [sports] opportunities offered at SF State. I think most sports people are using the opportunity,” said Keiko Takayama, a Japanese senior and psychology major who transferred to SF State in fall 2006.

However, if the number and diversity of sports seems to satisfy holders of student visas, they can’t help but notice the flagrant lack of pride of SF State students regarding Gator sports teams.

“I hardly ever hear about sports on campus, so there might not be a real sense of pride,” Takayama said.

“I sometimes hear or see friends supporting the Gators, but except for that, I haven’t heard a lot of people supporting sports teams,” Truong said. “Maybe the school is relatively small which explains the fact that they are not really competitive.”

Romain Cochet, a French exchange student studying finance, plays intramural tennis. He said that he was expecting bigger complexes for an American university and laments the lack of publicity on-campus sports receive.

“Events, some funny activities, especially from the clubs, would help promote sports,” Cochet said.

“The people who organize sports events should make more advertising about the games and training and make something more visual,” said Truong, who heard about sports by word of mouth or by looking on on the Web.