In October, a week after the United States began its bombing campaign in Afghanistan, a new student group, United World@Colby, advertised a Tuesday night event in Dana Lounge. Billed as "a discussion of global perspectives on the United States of America," the conversation was not a rehash of news reports; it was, primarily, international students talking about how they and people in their countries viewed the U.S. before and since they arrived here.

United World@Colby, the host group, is open to all students and has, as its core, alumni of the United World College (UWC) system-a group of 10 international pre-university-level schools for students of all nationalities. This year, 27 new UWC graduates hailing from Albania to Zimbabwe enrolled at Colby as Davis-UWC scholars, helping to make the Class of '05 the most international in Colby's history.

In 2000, Trustee Andrew Davis '85, his father, Shelby M.C. Davis, and their family announced a scholarship program to pay the full financial need of any UWC graduate who is admitted to Colby (or one of four other U.S. colleges and universities). The 26 Davis-UWC scholars this year joined 12 in the Class of '04 and five upperclassmen who came to Colby from the UWCs before the scholarship program began.

As a group they have enhanced the already strong international flavor on Mayflower Hill, and this fall they formed the United World@Colby organization to hold weekly discussions and programs on politics, international issues and contemporary world events.

Overall, the forum on outsiders' perspectives on the U.S. held Oct. 16 was fairly balanced. Mark Chapman '05, a citizen of Zimbabwe who spent two years at the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada, said there is "a lot we respect and admire about the United States," particularly the work ethic of Americans and the civil society. American politics and policies are not widely admired, however, he said. And though much is made of America's free press, "I think it is perceived as one of the most biased and one of the biggest propaganda machines going except for state-sponsored media," he said.

Students from Argentina, Serbia, Pakistan, Singapore and India talked about their impressions of the U.S. as others, including several American students, listened and responded. One American student who had traveled abroad extensively told the group about anti-American sentiment she had experienced--including getting threatened and ripped off in North Africa--and said she began claiming that she was Canadian because she thought that would be safer.