Faizi Ghodsi leaving International Student Center

Faizi Ghodsi has been at Seattle University for longer than most people can remember.

While he is now the director of the International Student Center, he has also played the part of student, graduate student and teacher since he first arrived at the university in 1976 at age 19. He plans to leave Seattle U early this November for a new job but said the university has made an indelible mark on him.

"I feel like I grew up here and was raised here, in a way, by many people who have helped me grow—like the son of a family," he said.

Looking back on his career at Seattle U, Ghodsi recalls a time when the International Student Center looked very different from what it is now.

"When I started as director, the office was a one-person type of shop…the director plus a few students," he said.

Under Ghodsi, the office expanded: it now employs five administrative staff members, and serves more students. Ghodsi also contributed to the moving of the ISS from the small blue house above Logan Field to the Student Center Pavilion, allowing the ISS to have more space. He estimated that he has ushered around 4,000 international students through the center.

But Ghodsi said the school has given him just as much as he has given it.

When he was a student here, away from his native Iran, he says Seattle U gave him a support system like the one he had received from his family back home. Because S.U. has been so supportive to him, he described leaving the school as a very trying process.
"This has been one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made in my life," he said. "I have not been able to fully digest the fact that I am leaving Seattle University."

Ghodsi's new job is at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, where he will be the director of Student Development and Support. The school, which opened its doors just this fall, specializes in post-graduate education and boasts an internationally diverse faculty and student body.

Ghodsi estimated about 80 percent of faculty and 70 percent of the students at King Abdullah are international. He said that it was this aspect of KAUST that attracted him to the school.

Ghodsi said he was not initially interested in leaving Seattle U when representatives of KAUST contacted him, but that, after a long deliberation, he decided going to teach in Saudi Arabia was the right choice.

Ghodsi, who also teaches Middle Eastern history at Seattle U's Matteo Ricci College, said his involvement with the school is far from over.

"I will be a good alumnus," he said. "In my own sort of imagining the future, I hope I will come back to SU in one way or another."

Ghodsi even entertains the notion of teaching his class at Seattle U by satellite.

Ghodsi also plans a future with Seattle U that brings the notion of the school as a family somewhat full circle.

He said his children, ages 12 and eight, are already making plans to come to Seattle U.

Doug can be reached at drudeen@su-spectator.com.