There has been a lot of discussion since Athens about foreign swimmers training in the United States. Most of them attend U.S. Universities, receive athletic scholarships, and compete at NCAA's. Some notable examples include Duje Draganja (Cal), Fred Bousquet and Kirsty Coventry (Auburn), Markus Rogan (Stanford), and the South African sprinters (Arizona). Some train in the U.S., but don't compete for a university (Inge de Bruijn). All of these athletes benefit from U.S. coaching, from training with U.S. swimmers, and in some cases, from financial support provided by U.S. entities (athletic scholarships). They all turn around and then win medals for other countries.
A couple questions: 1) What do you think about this arrangement generally? 2) Is it of benefit or detriment to U.S. swimming to have these foreign athletes training and competing here? 3) Should we be giving athletic scholarships, which are a scarce resource in swimming, to foreign athletes who will represent their own countries internationally instead of U.S.-born swimmers who will represent us internationally?
I'm sure there are other issues, but these come directly to mind.
Parents
Former Member
I know for a fact that UGA drops tutition for all of its out of state or out of country students IF they establish residency in the state the first year. However, if a student is still a dependent of his/her parents and that parent lives in another state or another country, then out of state tutition applies. The question then is, are the foreign students who are getting in state tutition legally establishing residency, or is someone just looking the other way and saying, yeah, they've lived here a year, they are a resident and entitled to in state tutition.
I know for a fact that UGA drops tutition for all of its out of state or out of country students IF they establish residency in the state the first year. However, if a student is still a dependent of his/her parents and that parent lives in another state or another country, then out of state tutition applies. The question then is, are the foreign students who are getting in state tutition legally establishing residency, or is someone just looking the other way and saying, yeah, they've lived here a year, they are a resident and entitled to in state tutition.
