I remember when I first began writing international student stories as a staff writer in the 2012-2013 school year as a freshman. Members of the international affairs administration were always asking me to write stories, cover events and shed light on the on-goings of international students.

In late February of this year, I decided I wanted to work on a story describing the trials and tribulations international students face during their time at UNA. I wanted to focus on testing, classes, the switch to academic classes and the large amounts of paperwork throughout.

I reached out to as many people on staff as I could — the administrative assistant, the coordinator of international services, the executive assistant and a handful of instructors. They proceeded to ignore me, offer up that they were “very busy” and redirect me to each other for a total of one month.

As a journalist, I understand how difficult it can be to track down a source. That difficulty changes entirely when you have been, on multiple occasions, asked to cover more of a certain topic, then said people do not give up their time to help make that coverage happen.

If anyone has an event they have asked our paper to cover and we deem it appropriate for the student body to learn about, engage us. Don’t drop it into our laps and expect us to utilize our resources when you are our resources.

Our international student community is of vital importance. They encourage us to learn about their culture and often provide incomparable friendships that last long past graduation. To refuse to speak on the subject of their education for an entire month, claiming constant hustle and bustle, is outlandish.

As a part-time reporter and full-time student, if I can find the time in my day to ask for education on our campus, it is not unreasonable to ask a faculty or staff member to offer up 10 minutes of his or her time to indulge those questions, particularly at their convenience of phone, person or email.

I was able to publish a decent story in the April 3 issue on the front page of the Life section, with many thanks to ESL adjunct instructor Brian Mulack and Arabic instructor Ali AlNasar as well as ESL student Ye Bojie. I send out my deepest thanks and gratitude for those offering campus involvement because without you, this paper is irrelevant.