The Overseas Study Advisory Council's Safety and Responsibility Committee met on Thursday, May 2, and decided to suspend Indiana University's formal agreement with Hebrew University for the fall of 2002, because of the continuing violence which poses serious risks to student safety. The U.S. Department of State's Travel Warning for Israel remains in effect, warning US citizens to defer travel to Israel. This is only the second time in thirty years that IU has had to interrupt its program in Israel for security reasons (the other was in the spring of 1991 during the Gulf War). The Committee will meet again in early fall to determine if the security situation permits IU to reinstate its program for the spring of 2003.

Suspending our formal agreement means that IU will not facilitate study at Hebrew University for IU students; that is, we will not enroll them at IUB for study abroad, will not permit IU financial aid to be used on the program and will not provide the numerous support services that IU students abroad normally receive from the Office of Overseas Study.

The Committee decided, in addition, that this policy will also be applied to IU students choosing to study anywhere in the world where there are U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings in effect that warrant discouraging our students from study in that area.

Richard E. Stryker
Executive Associate Dean, International Programs
Director of Overseas Study

April 5, 2002
Indiana University News Release

Indiana University Media Advisory

Richard Stryker, IU director of overseas study, said the decision on the IU undergraduates was made because of student safety. He said a course in the fall also probably will be cancelled.

Three students are involved in academic-year and semester programs for IU credit at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A fourth student is studying at Tel Aviv University. The summer program would have been in a rural area near the desert settlement of Tel Bet Shemesh.

"We have been monitoring the situation in the Middle East very closely over the past several months and have been in regular contact with our students there," Stryker explained. "Our students who want to study in Israel are very passionate about going there, but we are comfortable with the decision made because it has just become too dangerous. Student safety is our primary concern."

Stryker said the names of the four students will not be released in accordance with student privacy regulations.

Several other American colleges and universities, including the University of California, Duke University and the University of Colorado, have suspended programs in Israel.