With the United States at war, what to pack isn’t the only thing students planning to study abroad this summer are considering.
The U.S. Department of State announced a worldwide caution yesterday that expires July 20 about the security of Americans overseas.
“I think it’s OK to travel, if you aren’t going to the Middle East,” said Rebecca Laumann, University of Memphis study abroad director. “But the war just started, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We just have to wait and see.”
Laumann keeps in contact with students currently studying abroad.
“Students are saying that people are upset about the war, but they don’t feel threatened,” Laumann said. “I haven’t heard any students saying they want to come home.”
For students who want to travel abroad this summer, Laumann suggested they check the State Department Web site for updates and just wait to see what happens.
Some of the programs this summer will be in London, Costa Rica, France and Spain.
“I’ve had a few students express concern about traveling in the summer,” she said. “But we don’t have any programs the Department of State considers dangerous.”
The application deadlines haven’t expired, so it’s too early to know if the war will cause a decrease in student travel, Laumann said.
“I probably wouldn’t travel abroad this summer,” said Minda Miller, senior marketing management major.
Miller, who has traveled to Jerusalem, studied in London last summer.
“Even after Sept. 11, I was a little scared,” she said. “You want to avoid being in the middle of all that stuff. I definitely wouldn’t go to Israel.”
The U of M Wang Center for International Business hosts summer abroad programs in South America and Eastern Europe for U of M faculty.
Last year, 21 faculty members traveled abroad through the programs.
“This might be the first time in 10 years that we won’t be going,” said Jeanne Tutor, Wang Center program coordinator. “It could be the effect of the Iraq situation or less people could just be going this year.”
Tutor said some schools have reported people being scared to fly abroad, but she hasn’t heard concerns from U of M faculty members.
“It’s more of a perception problem,” said Charles Hall, associate English professor and director of a summer study program in Pilsen, a city in the Czech Republic. “I’ve had many people say they’d like to go but they want to wait and see what happens.”
Hall, who travels abroad frequently, said he feels safer in some international environments than he does in the United States.
“The likelihood of being a victim in that kind of attack is low,” Hall said. “There’s a much greater chance of being carjacked in Memphis.”
