It’s 3:00 a.m., you’re sleeping and the phone rings. You don’t bother to pick it up. A shouting voice leaves a message, “Don’t ever come to my f—–g country. If you trace my call, I will kill you.”This is what happened to one international student two weeks ago.”I was scared,” said the student who asked not to be identified. “There was not only one guy, but four or five of them screaming and screaming.”The student received numerous calls since then, but has no idea who is calling or why.For some international students, this kind of harassment is not a shock. Rather, it serves as a reminder of the lack of integration between international students and American students on campus.Maki Yoshida, a senior majoring in linguistics from Japan, said she wasn’t surprised when she discovered graffiti like “Foreigners suck,” and “OSU needs to eliminate large number of foreigner. They are everywhere,” at the main library. Yoshida said she wasn’t angry or shocked by the situation.”I felt like it can’t be helped,” she said. “I don’t see much interaction between international students and American students. So, it’s kind of hard for Americans to understand international students and it might have led to such harassment.””It’s like there is a barrier” between the two groups, said Bethany Lee, a senior from Taiwan majoring in international business and marketing.Lee said American students are afraid to get close to international students because Americans are not exposed to foreigners.”On the other hand, most international students think their English is not as good, so they are afraid to talk to American students,” she said.Also, Americans hang out with each other and so do the international students, Lee said.”But, it’s human nature that people like to hang out with people with the same background and same experience,” she said.Although he has international friends, John Boggs, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, also sees a separation between international and American students.Boggs said it’s understandable that international students hang out with each other and speak their own language. He said he would probably do the same if he were in another country.”It’s easier to make friends with someone who speaks the same language,” he said.International students may know English, but sometimes it’s not strong enough to fully communicate, he said.Julius Mayo, director of the Blackburn House, which houses international students, said students must have patience in dealing with people from other cultures.Mayo said he hasn’t heard of any harassment cases in his complex. However, he has seen some instances which international students might have interpreted it as harassment by Americans. For example, American students deliberately speaking very fast just to get the foreign students away from them.”Unfortunately I don’t think every student, when they first come to OSU, is ready to appreciate the differences in culture,” he said.Sherif Barsoum, coordinator at the Office of International Education, encourages students to embrace these differences.”It’s important to have an open mind because there is so much to learn from each other,” he said.”In general, Ohio State is an open and welcoming place,” Barsoum said. “But, I also think that there are many people on campus that are racists, have narrow views of the world and need to be educated, especially on multicultural issues.”People should change their mindset, take advantage of the international diversity at OSU and start by asking questions, Barsoum said.”Don’t just ignore race and culture, but embrace differences and similarities in race, culture and color,” he said.