Students warned not to study in Mideast

By Jodie Kaufman

Daily Staff Reporter

Recent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians have prompted concern over the safety of American students in the Middle East and the future of college study abroad programs there.

The University of Michigan does not sponsor study abroad programs in Israel but does report that students are currently there.

"Students abroad on non-University programs are detached from the University - we don't maintain contact with them," said Jordan Pollack, assistant director for the Office of International Programs.

But students coming to OIP for study abroad information are advised to not travel to Israel, Pollack said.

"We discourage them from going, at least in the current period," Pollack said, "but we encourage students they can apply on a conditional basis, in case the current conditions change."

As of now, Pollack said, "the situation is too volatile and unpredictable to responsibly condone a study abroad program there or anywhere close by in the Middle East."

The University of California-system, which will not disclose the number of its students studying in Israel, is not bringing their students home.

Participants in the school's one-year program are all being accounted for on a daily basis, said Gloria Blakemore, University of California regional director of the Middle East for Study Abroad Programs.

"We are making sure all students are safe and accounted for and are in close counter with the director in Israel," Blakemore said.

University of California students "know all security precautions and are taking them, and until we decide that we can no longer provide a program there, which allows students to pursue a normal academic program, the students will remain in Israel," Blakemore said.

Blakemore said having an on-site director available for daily contact keeps the program "in a condition to continue operating."

Michigan State University's Office of Study Abroad suspended its Israel program after the U.S. State Department advised against travel to Israel last month.

"We recommended students come home, but two out of the three remained in Israel," said Cindy Chalou, assistant director of Michigan State's Study Abroad office.

The student who returned home was studying in Jerusalem, while the other two students are in Be'ersheva and Tel Aviv, Chalou said. "We are not canceling the program because the universities the students are enrolled in are continuing to hold classes," he said.

Michigan State students who choose to stay in Israel will not be penalized, and the office is willing to work with students who choose to go next semester, Chalou said.

"We do not recommend students to study there now or next semester," Chalou said.

The University of Illinois advised their students as well to come home. One returned, and one is still in Israel, said Barbara Hancin-Bhatt, associate director for study abroad programs at the University of Illinois.

"The University has done everything it can to get him home besides going and getting him, including offering to pay his airfare and tuition," she said.

The University of Illinois is not refusing to permit students to enroll in Israeli universities for the coming semester, said Hancin-Bhatt, but "we told them to make alternate plans, and around Thanksgiving, decisions will be made."

"It is pre-mature for the University to take a position right now; we are watching and waiting," Hancin-Bhatt said.