THOUSAND OAKS : CLU Groups May Be Recalled to U.S.

The prospect of war in the Middle East prompted California Lutheran University officials to warn students studying in Europe that they may be recalled to the United States, a university official said Tuesday.

Four CLU groups, composed of 90 students and eight professors, are taking courses in history and politics and visiting Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Soviet Union and Turkey.

Faculty members were ordered to contact U.S. embassies and consuls for travel advisories issued by the State Department, said Dennis Gillette, vice president of institutional advancement for the university. Students have not been asked yet to cut short their studies, he said.

“We just want to make sure our students and faculty have the information they need,” he said. “Sometimes in a foreign country, that information isn’t as available as it is in the United States.”

University officials were concerned because the students, mostly U.S. citizens attending the university in Thousand Oaks, will pass through international airports and visit areas where they might be targets for terrorists, Gillette said. Some parents contacted the university after their children called them from Europe. The students were scheduled to return to the United States at the end of this month.

Gillette said university officials were particularly concerned about a group of 11 students and a professor traveling through Turkey and Greece to study the area’s regional history. “Because of their proximity to the potential problem areas, it is the one of greatest concern to us,” Gillette said.