Asian Students Banned for Berkeley Session

BERKELEY, Calif., May 5 – The University of California at Berkeley, has taken the unusual step of turning away about 500 summer students from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore because of the large number of SARS cases reported in those areas.

BERKELEY, Calif., May 5 – The University of California at Berkeley, has taken the unusual step of turning away about 500 summer students from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore because of the large number of SARS cases reported in those areas. University officials said today that the decision was based on advice from the city’s health officer and campus health experts. Students enrolled at other campuses in the University of California system will not be affected, but tonight the University of California system issued a statement urging its campus officials to “strongly consider suspending or postponing upcoming programs” involving such students.”I deeply regret that we will not be accepting enrollments of students from these areas,” Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl announced in an e-mail message sent on Friday to faculty and staff and posted on the university’s Web site.There have been no reported cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome at Berkeley, but John F. Cummins, an associate chancellor, said that the university was not prepared to deal with the “labor intensive measures” that would be necessary if any summer students became ill and needed to be quarantined.He said the Berkeley city health officer, Dr. Poki Namkung, strongly recommended the ban. A spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Health and Human Services said Dr. Namkung was traveling and could not be reached for comment.”If any of these students within their first 10 days of arrival became symptomatic, then the medical requirements, including the voluntary isolation, are very labor intensive and are something we would not be prepared to deal with,” Dr. Cummins said.”The concern is that a lot of this hasn’t been really worked out yet,” he said. “We have been very fortunate in the United States not to have to deal with a large number of cases. But in trying to think this through, if we did have an outbreak here, we would be overwhelmed in very short order.”Other American universities have not taken such major steps as Berkeley, but are being vigilant about visitors from SARS-affected areas, officials said. Many are asking visitors from Asia to avoid their residence halls, at least for 10 days after they have left areas affected by SARS. Colleges are also pulling back students from study-abroad programs in these areas and have canceled summer programs. Victor C. Johnson, associate executive director for public policy at the Association of International Educators in Washington, said the Berkeley decision was not surprising given the concern about SARS, but he said it was doubtful that it would set off a wave of similar restrictions.”Schools are seeing the same information and assessing it against their own situations and then making decisions, rather than following some other school’s example,” Mr. Johnson said.In his e-mail message, Chancellor Berdahl said all fees would be refunded to the affected students. Dr. Cummins said the ban would cost the university about $1.5 million in lost tuition and housing fees.In announcing the summer policy, university officials emphasized that it would not apply to the hundreds of new students from the four areas expected to enroll this fall. They also said the ban would be dropped if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ended the SARS-related travel advisories for the four areas. Berkeley’s decision on summer students was unusual, educators said. “We hope the SARS epidemic does not prevent Asian students from studying in the U.S.,” said Toni Beron, a spokeswoman for California State University at Long Beach. “We trust the mechanism already in place which identifies travelers from Asia at airports or ports.”Columbia University has said that students from SARS-affected areas who plan to live in university housing must obtain medical clearance before admission to the housing. Katherine Moore, a Columbia spokeswoman, said the university was discussing whether to have other students from SARS-affected countries seek medical clearance as well, but said no decisions had been made.Harvard University has said that students and faculty members may not use university money to pay for trips to China, Hong Kong, Singapore or Taiwan and that it will not “facilitate or otherwise endorse travel to these areas until further notice.” Harvard has also asked that visitors from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan not come to campus for at least 10 days after they have left those areas. And it has asked that people on campus who expect visitors from these regions contact the university health service before their visits or ask the guests to contact the health service directly. “Particular caution should be exercised in situations in which those coming from affected areas would reside in Harvard housing,” Harvard says on its Web site. Some colleges and universities have directed students in SARS-affected countries for the spring semester to come home and are placing them under quarantine and trying to find ways for them to complete their academic programs. (Source: New York Times, By DEAN E. MURPHY with KAREN W. ARENSON, 05/05/2003)