THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2011
PAGE 13
STUDY ABROAD
Students are prohibited from visiting some of the countries on the map Sue Lorenz, director of the study abroad program, has in her office. Currently, 34 countries have State Department travel warnings.
Committee to rethink banned countries
BY MATTHEW GALLOWAY
mgalloway@kansan.com
Sue Lorenz, the director of the study abroad program, has a map of the world painted onto a wall in her office. Since she took her position two years ago, she has often looked at the map and counted the number of countries within social or environmental chaos to which the University of Kansas is barred from sending students.
The University prohibits the study abroad program from sending any undergraduate students to countries with travel warnings issued by the U.S. State Department. However, Lorenz said her department is discussing the creation of a committee to explore changing the university policy.
"There are movements and other kinds of things happening around the world that cause us various problems," Lorenz said.
The current policy applies not only to the study abroad program but to several other traveling entities at the college. It is designed to put safety first in every conceivable situation. Graduate students and faculty can petition to have exceptions issued in certain situations, but those occurrences are rare.
"Traditionally the precedent is that we do not send students to countries where there are State Department advisories, period." Hodgie Bricke, assistant vice provost of international
When a tsunami hit eastern Japan on March 11, the State Department issued a travel warning that applied to the entire country. Following university policy, the study abroad program moved to withdraw all KU students from the country, even those far from the area of impact. Shortly after the students were ordered to flee Japan, the State Department lifted the travel warning.
The ordeal in Japan spurred the study abroad program's desire to examine the University's wide-sweeping policy, Lorenz said.
"The policy is pretty direct in what it says right now," Lorenz said. "There is some discussion about whether the University's upper administration should decide whether they should implement a more complex policy that might allow for sections when dealing with undergraduate students."
The committee would not operate out of the study abroad office, Lorenz said, and it would be composed of upper administration officials, legal experts and faculty members with a familiarity of some of the troubled countries currently barred.
Thirty-four countries are on the State Department's travel warnings list, including Mexico. The study abroad program suspended its partnership with Puebla, Mexico, last summer even though the areas most affected by the drug cartels are much further north, Lorenz said. Under a
new zoning policy, the study abroad department could petition for an exemption in the case of Puebla.
Under the new proposal, a committee would be asked to review a situation and decide the best course of action. Any officials on the committee must be willing to meet on a moment's notice, Lorenz said.
"They would have to act very quickly in a situation like we had in Japan, because it isn't an on-the-
ground political situation that might develop or intensify over time, it's something that is right there," Lorenz said.
Students studying abroad who do not adhere to evacuation requests must withdraw from school.
"In terms of emergency work, we will do that when we need to do that," Lorenz said. "But we want to reduce the chances that something other than the daily thing like a sprained
ankle or a broken arm will happen to you, because those things are very difficult to deal with. We want to maintain the minimal risk and the most efficiency in helping students."
There is a certain comfort level in trusting State Department declarations, Lorenz said.
"It's a decent thing to pin to" Lorenz said. "They tend not to act precipitously and without investigation."
COUNTRIES WITH STATE DEPARTMENT TRAVEL WARNINGS
The State Department issues travel warnings to recommend that Americans avoid the risks and dangerous conditions in that country. These are the most recent travel warnings.
1. COTE D'IVOIRE 06/16/2011
2. PHILIPPINES 06/14/2011
3. BURUNDI 06/01/2011
4. YEMEN 05/25/2011
5. SYRIA 04/25/2011
6. UZBEKISTAN 04/25/2011
7. MEXICO 04/22/2011
8. BURKINA FASO 04/19/2011
9. NIGERIA 04/15/2011
10. COTE D'IVOIRE 04/14/2011
11. IRAQ 04/12/2011
12. LEBANON 04/04/2011
13. ALGERIA 03/16/2011
14. MAURITANIA 03/11/2011
15. AFGHANISTAN 03/08/2011
16. MALI 03/02/2011
17. ERITREA 02/27/2011
18. LIBYA 02/25/2011
19. PAKISTAN 02/02/2011
20. HAITI 01/20/2011
21. CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 01/14/2011
22. NIGER 01/12/2011
23. NEPAL 01/12/2011
24. SUDAN 01/07/2011
25. KENYA 12/28/2010
26. SOMALIA 12/27/2010
27. SAUDI ARABIA 12/23/2010
28. CHAD 12/08/2010
29. GUINEA 12/03/2010
30. CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE 11/25/2010
31. COLOMBIA 11/10/2010
32. IRAN 10/08/2010
33. KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF 08/27/2010
34. ISRAEL, THE WEST BANK AND GAZA 08/10/2010
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