In the wake of the recent escalation of violence in Israel, a number of colleges and universities nationwide have recently cancelled their foreign study programs there.
Last week, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California system all suspended their programs in Israel, citing security concerns.
Dartmouth's fledgling Language Study Abroad for Hebrew and Arabic in Jerusalem, approved in 2000 for the Summer term, did not run last year and will not run again this year due to insufficient applications to the program. No students signed up for this year's program, according to Peter Armstrong, director of off-campus programs.
Armstrong would not speculate about whether the LSA+ would take place next year, saying only that it would not if the lack of interest continues.
Harvard -- which currently has no undergraduates on university-sponsored study in Israel -- last week suspended funding for its students in Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip regions, for the rest of this year, said William Wright-Swadel, the director of Harvard's Office of Career Services.
The university does not maintain its own foreign study programs, but it gives funding through the Office of Career Services to students who wish to study or hold internships abroad.
Though no undergraduate foreign studies in Israel will be funded for the remainder of this calendar year, Harvard will examine the possibility of reinstating funding for Spring 2003 based on the situation in the Middle East, Wright-Swadel said.
Penn made its announcement on April 4, canceling its program for the current term and for the fall semester as well. "If things change dramatically, students would have the opportunity to study in Israel as before," said Geoffery Gee, director of Penn's study abroad program.
The study abroad program would re-start, Gee said, if a cease-fire were declared and the area were safe enough that students could still have "an enriching experience of study abroad."
Unlike Dartmouth's Language Study Abroad and Foreign Study Program trips, which are accompanied by faculty, Penn's Study Abroad is administered through four Israeli universities -- Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University, Hebrew University and the University of Haifa -- and does not involve Penn faculty.
"If it had been the way Dartmouth does things, we would have pulled the plug a lot earlier," Gee said.
The University of California informed the 27 students taking part in its Education Abroad Program in Israel that the program would be suspended on April 2.
Rigorous safety precautions were in place for UC students in Israel, UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman said, though under the present circumstances, "we thought the safest thing to do was call the students home."
"If things improve, it may be re-instituted," Eisenman said, though he said he was unsure when such a decision might be made.
UC has suspended its Israel Education Abroad Program in the past, recommending that its students come home during the 1991 Gulf War. Similar moves have been made for other EAPs -- in China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and in India after the recent military buildup along the India-Pakistan border.
While both Penn and UC recommend that their students return home immediately, they have different policies about whether students can remain in Israel.
Penn will not allow its students to remain in Israel and take classes for academic credit. "They can't switch and go on anyone else's auspices," Gee said.
UC will permit its students to remain in Israel, provided they make their own arrangements for transferring course credits. The 27 students currently in Israel have until today to begin the process of returning to the United States, where they can continue the program through independent study.
Enthusiasm for foreign study programs has waned since the outbreak of violence in Israel in September 2000.
Cornell University did not send students to Israel in 2001, and Orli Gil, Israel's consul for academic affairs in the United States, told the Cornell Daily Sun that he estimated a 50-percent drop in enrollment by foreign students in Israeli universities.
Tel Aviv University and Jerusalem's Hebrew University "probably attract the most students from this country," said Brett Schor, officer of academic affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, adding that they promote themselves on U.S. college campuses and through Jewish organizations.
"The security situation, I'm sure, is having an impact to a large extent on a student's decision to live there," Schor said.
Schor added that foreign study programs will only resume once the governments involved in the conflict recognize "the crucial need for there to be a cease-fire and a resumption of political negotiation."
