IU calls home students in Hong Kong

The Office of Overseas Studies and the Kelley School of Business made a joint decision this week that recommends seven international business students in Hong Kong return home to the U.S. in light of the spreading disease, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.\nAssociate Director for the Office of Overseas Study Susan Carty said six of the seven undergraduate students have responded with an indication they are making plans to return home. \nAccording to the World Health Organization, SARS has been responsible for 2,270 cases and 79 deaths in 16 countries. In the U.S., 70 non-lethal cases have been reported. \nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released a travel advisory strongly advising U.S. citizens against non-essential trips to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam.\nCarty said the Overseas Study has been following news reports on SARS since the beginning and paid particular attention to information on affected countries that currently have IU students enrolled in their universities. Travel advisories from the CDC and WHO were strongly motivating reasons to bring the students home, but the final decision was made after City University of Hong Kong suspended classes this week due to rapidly spreading SARS.\n"Any potential danger is a risk to students," Carty said. "We're in touch all the time with our students."\nThe IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis School of Law also called off its summer program in Beijing due to the virus. About 32 students had signed up for the four-week long China Law summer program which has been established at IUPUI since 1987.\nAssociate Dean for Graduate Studies at IUPUI Jeff Grove said he spent a day or so consulting with the law school dean to make sure the reactions were sound, and he was making the right call. \n"It's a terrible shame for the students who were preparing for four weeks in China," Grove said, "though it seems pretty clear we can't expose students to SARS when the CDC says, 'Don't go to mainland China.'"\nGrove said all the students had already made deposits, but not all had paid the full expenses for the trip. After cancelling the trip, they began a full-refund process.\n"One of my main worries was if we continued to wait, students would probably have had difficulties making other plans," he said.\nDr. Tom Hrisomalos, an infectious disease specialist for the Internal Medicine Associates in Bloomington, said he understands IU's decision.\n"In the face of something unknown, I can certainly understand not wanting to put anybody at an unnecessary risk," Hrisomalos said.\nHe said as time goes by, more data will be received and people can make more careful and sound decisions about what the true risks are. \nHrisomalos said the current theory about SARS is it is a coronavirus, a strain of virus that causes many other respiratory diseases like the common cold. He said SARS may be a new strain of a coronavirus that is more virulent than what thas been noticed before. \n"It's always difficult to judge the severity or extent of an outbreak when you are just using clinical syndrome diagnosis," he said. \nCarty said the Office of Overseas Study and the Kelley School of Business are working together to help the seven students complete the credits they would have received from the City University of Hong Kong here at home.\n"Having them leave mid-semester, we certainly didn't want them to leave without full credit," she said.\nCarty said each faculty member will make the decision about how the students will finish the course by distance. \nGrove said IUPUI has also offered its students alternatives to the canceled program.