This week’s Chronicle reports on 2-year colleges working to recruit international students (the link probably only works if you’re a Chronicle subscriber). But a sidebar with statistics reveals that BMCC, where I work, has absolutely no need for that. Without any extra recruiting at all, we’re already number 6 in the whole nation in terms of total number of international students. And if you look at proportions, we’re number 3! (Behind only our sister CUNY school, Queensborough Community College, and Santa Monica College). 10.6% of our enrollment is international students.

Of course, that’s no surprise whatsoever to those of us who teach at BMCC. I hear different estimates all the time of the number of languages spoken at BMCC. Sometimes it’s 17, sometimes 45. Basically, the number doesn’t matter much. We’re an incredibly diverse, international college. That fact brings some challenges, but it also makes the place incredibly rich, and incredibly rewarding, for teaching and learning.