A UW-Madison student studying abroad in Beijing, China was asked to return home Thursday, amid worries about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
The student is participating in a program organized by the University of California and co-sponsored by UW-Madison International Academic Programs. UC officials suspended the program Thursday after determining the continued expansion of SARS posed a threat to participants.
\There is a confirmed case of SARS at the university [where students are placed in China] and there are also other cases in the neighborhoods around the university,"" according to Bruce Hanna, director of strategic marketing and communications for Education Abroad Programs at UC. ""Essentially, once the closeness of actual cases got to the university... we felt that that was now jeopardizing the safety and too risky to all the students, so we felt we had to suspend the program and ask the students to leave immediately.""
The decision to suspend the program in China comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of State updating their travel warning for China and Hong Kong Wednesday. The update includes revised travel recommendations and outlines the Chinese government's practices regarding SARS, according to Department of State spokesperson Lou Fintor.
""We don't have the authority to tell them to leave... [but] the Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to recommend deferring nonessential travel to China because of SARS concerns,"" Fintor said.
Joan Raducha, director of International Academic Programs at UW-Madison, said her office supports Hanna's decision and has monitored the situation through updates from the Department of State, the CDCP and the World Health Organization.
Raducha said another UW-Madison student is currently studying in Vietnam. That student has not been asked to return. Raducha said her office is maintaining contact with staff in Vietnam and will confer with others on campus and in Vietnam before any decisions are made.
Students planning to study in China this summer and during the next academic year were notified by e-mail Thursday of the suspension of this year's program. At present, their programs hold an uncertain fate.
Currently, 19 students have been accepted to UW-Madison's summer program in China. IAP will make a decision by May 19. UC will make a decision about the status of their program in China for the next academic year by May 10.
""We obviously would not send a group of students to a place if we didn't feel that students could be reasonably safe there, but we fully inform students... Students have a place in the decision-making process and we keep students fully informed of all the factors involved,"" Raducha said.
