American students like going to school with people from different countries, and many undergraduate applicants look for a geographically diverse student body when choosing a school. Exceptionally good students also provide benefits to everyone around them if they take up teaching assistant or club leadership positions on campus. Alumni might give more money to their alma mater if advertising shows that the university has a “global perspective.”

It’s kind of like universities spending hundreds of millions of dollars on fitness or sports centers. The funding doesn’t make sense on paper, but students and alumni who donate money want schools to have them anyway.