SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is partly to blame for the cancellation of two study abroad trips to China this summer.
A planning and landscape architecture trip to China was canceled last week because of the SARS outbreak and lack of enrollment, said professor Richard Lai, co-director of the program. Only nine students signed up for the program and several have since dropped out.
Last month, the W. P. Carey Master of Business Administration also cancelled a study abroad program because of SARS, and is sending students to Mexico City instead.
The summer sessions office will decide today whether to cancel the Chinese language program's trip, said Carol Switzer, director of the office.
As of Thursday, 3,638 probable SARS cases and 170 deaths have been reported in China by the World Health Organization.
Lai said going overseas might have put students' health in jeopardy.
"It didn't look like a very wise thing to do," Lai said.
Although the summer sessions office set the deadline for Thursday for the decision to cancel the trips, Lai said he wanted to give his students more time to find other study abroad opportunities.
"The trip was canceled last week to give students more options, in case they wanted to go somewhere else instead," Lai said.
Switzer said even if students don't study abroad, the same classes are offered at ASU.
"I think the students were disappointed," Switzer said. "They are not going to get the same experience as traveling abroad, but their credit needs will probably be fulfilled at ASU."
Associate professor Gary Tipton, director of the Chinese language study abroad program, said setting up study abroad programs is difficult.
"However, we put safety first, and indeed do not want to put anyone's health in jeopardy," Tipton said.
About 20 students had signed up for Tipton's program and three students had dropped out.
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Reach the reporter at meagan.pollnow@asu.edu.
