SARS Curtails College Programs in Asia

Citing concern over the outbreak of the mysterious respiratory illness known as SARS, colleges in California and elsewhere are suspending or canceling their academic programs in China and urging students to return home.

Scores of students from the University of California, USC and many other institutions are being affected by the program suspensions in mainland China and Hong Kong -- the two epicenters of the disease -- officials said. None of the students has been diagnosed with the disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome, they said.

On Thursday, the UC system announced that it has suspended programs it maintains at Peking University and Beijing Normal University, both in the Chinese capital, and instructed its 44 students there “to depart immediately.”

University officials said they made the decision after confirming that a faculty member at Peking University had been diagnosed with SARS and that other cases were suspected in neighborhoods near the campus in northern Beijing.

“That just got too close, and we decided we could no longer feel comfortable with the level of risk,” said Bruce Hanna, spokesman for UC’s education abroad program.

Hanna said UC is helping the students, who are enrolled at its Los Angeles, Berkeley and Irvine campuses, among others, to arrange travel back to the United States or elsewhere. He said a few, however, may decide to stay in China on their own, despite the risk.

“They’re adults,” Hanna said. “But they’ve been informed that the program is essentially over for now and that their arrangements through us with the host university are over.

“We feel they are now at an unacceptable risk level.”

He said UC will decide by May 10 whether to go forward with its summer programs in Beijing.

With the announcement, UC joined other universities and independent study abroad providers in placing their academic programs in mainland China and Hong Kong on hold. Several schools acted earlier this month, including Syracuse University, which announced April 1 that it was cutting short its spring semester program in Hong Kong and canceling two summer programs on the mainland in response to the SARS outbreak.

At USC, officials said several dozen students participating in various programs in Asia have been affected by the SARS concerns.

Michael Jackson, the university’s vice president for student affairs, said three students were taking classes in Beijing this spring in a program run by the Council on International Educational Exchange. That program was canceled this week, and the students are en route home, Jackson said.

Other USC students were taking classes in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the university has recommended that they return home. “Some did, and some decided to stay,” he said.

Jackson said the university also has decided to shift students who were planning to go on internship programs in Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong to programs elsewhere in Asia or even Latin America. The university will make decisions about a summer program in Nanjing, China, within the next few days.

Officials with two major independent providers of overseas academic programs for colleges -- the Council on International Educational Exchange and the Institute for the International Education of Students -- said they were shortening or canceling their Beijing programs.

Some colleges are still monitoring the situation, however. A California State University spokeswoman said eight Cal State students in a program at Peking University are continuing with their classes for now, but a decision could be made to pull them out as early as today.