Students discouraged from studying abroad in Israeli universities

Amid the escalating violence in the Middle East, American universities have been increasingly hesitant to send students to Israel for study abroad.

The Office of the President at the University of California decided to suspend all its study abroad programs to Israel until the situation improves, said Hanan Eisenman, a UC spokesman.

The decision places the UC system in the same position as the University of Washington and the University of Colorado, both of which have already suspended their own study abroad programs to Israel.

Princeton University is also discouraging students from studying abroad in Israel, despite differences in the way its study abroad programs are set up.

The UC system will strongly encourage the 27 students that are studying in Israel to return to the United States, Eisenman said.

After next Thursday, students will no longer receive credit from the university but will have to be reapproved for credit as international students.

"In light of the escalating violence [in Israel], the safe and prudent thing to do was to suspend the program and call those students home that were studying there," Eisenman said. "None of the students were threatened nor had they been hurt. This was a safety decision."

With the exception of the Wilson School, Princeton's study abroad generally works by approving a foreign university's curriculum for University credit, said Associate Dean of the College Nancy Kanach, director of the study abroad program.

"We are not facing the same exact type of issues [as the UC system]," she said, "and study abroad does not have students in Israel right now, so any that would be there would be there on their own."

At least one student, Dena Schlamowitz '04, is in Israel. However, she is taking a semester of advance standing and did not have to gain approval from the University, her roommate Courtney Homan-Jones '04 said.

Because admissions into other university's programs is entirely independent of the University, Princeton cannot stop students from applying to Israeli universities.

Schlamowitz is studying at Ben Gurion University in Beer-Sheva — an area which has not been a center of violence.

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"She is doing well but basically says it's scary to know that everything is so close," Homan-Jones said.

Students that have expressed interest in studying abroad in Israel since the violence intensified have been strongly discouraged by the University.

"This spring we had a student ask about going to Israel," Kanach said. "But this is not the best time to go. When there is a travel warning in general we strongly discourage, if not outright forbid, students from going."

Schlamowitz considered the violence strongly before deciding to go, Homan-Jones said.

"She actually was debating it seriously before she went," she said. "She thought if the situation gets worse, then she might not be able to go at all. So she wanted to go when it was possible."

Kanach also said if the Wilson School study abroad program was still at the Hebrew University, as it was a few years ago, there is no question that a task force would not be organized there.

"That is not something that we would have done," she said.

In spite of the current violence in Israel, and general uneasiness since Sept. 11, interest in study abroad has been relatively strong.

Two years ago there was a 48-percent rise in student interest in study abroad, and interest has continued to increase.

Anxiety from the current Mideast violence is more likely to affect where students choose to study, rather than dissuade students from studying abroad entirely, Kanach said.