CU Cancels Language Program In Beijing

After four weeks of monitoring the severity of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in China, Columbia University has canceled its Summer Language Program in Beijing.

In the wake of the University's decision last week, 52 students are trying to find other ways to spend their summer since most will not be learning Chinese.

One of these affected students, Vicky Wang, CC '04, has had to scramble for last-minute plans. In mid-March, Wang was warned by family members who live in China that she could not rely on health reports from the Chinese government to give her accurate information about the magnitude of SARS. Wang then started to look for jobs as she monitored the threat of the virus and awaited Columbia's decision about the status of its summer language program, in which she planned to participate.

Columbia administrators met on April 16 to assess the impact that SARS was having in China and to discuss the reports they had received from their colleagues at Tsinghua University, the site of the Beijing summer program. Wang then talked with Dr. Le-ning Liu, the resident director of the Summer Language Program, about the status of the Beijing program, and Liu said that his office was considering moving the location of the program to New York.

A week later, on April 23, Columbia officially announced the cancellation of the overseas program. The same day, the World Health Organization extended its SARS-related travel postponement advice to Beijing. Liu refused to comment about the specifics of the University's decision.

Although she said that she is disappointed that the program will not continue, Wang has already made other plans for the summer. A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, Wang will be returning to her home country to do human rights work at a law firm.

Marjorie Yang, BC '06, is another student who had planned to take part in the Beijing program. Although she has been to China three times in the past three years, Yang has never become fluent in Mandarin, and she wanted to gain a command of the language this summer by participating in a full immersion program.

"I was all ready to go to Beijing, but then SARS came along," Yang said.

But according to Yang, Columbia's decision to cancel the overseas course did not come as a surprise. She said she was always confident that the administration would make the right choice in order to "keep its students and teachers out of danger."

"I was definitely expecting it," she said.

Beginning when SARS became a worldwide concern in February, Yang said she kept her eyes open for other summer prospects.
"I gradually gained an understanding that I wouldn't be going, but I wasn't just going to wait for someone to tell me that I wasn't going to be doing anything over the summer," she said.

Even though she anticipated the program's cancellation, she said she wished that Columbia had made the decision earlier so she could completely eliminate the program from her summer plans and look elsewhere for opportunities.

Yang said that she is disappointed that she won't be going to China this year, but that she is lucky because she already had a few jobs lined up. But she and Wang are two of a minority of the students affected by the cancellation's late notice who have found summer work in place of the language program.

Although Douglas Lee decided to withdraw from the program before the formal announcement, he is still at a loss for summer plans.

"I'm still looking for a job, but I don't think that I'll be able to find one," Lee said.

One option for students like Lee is the New York Chinese Language Program, which Columbia is offering on the Morningside Heights campus in place of the Beijing project.

"Le-ning Liu has just been spectacular in reorganizing things on a dime and creating what I'm sure will be an exciting and vibrant program here in New York," said Frank Wolf, dean of the School of Continuing Education.

The New York program will offer Chinese coursework for levels one through four of study. It will last for eight weeks.

"Co-curricular activities--such as films, Chinese-language television programs, and online materials--will enhance students' knowledge of Chinese culture and society. Students will have the opportunity to have a native speaker of Chinese as a conversation partner," the program's web site reads.

The application deadline for the New York program is June 2. It will cost about $7,000--nearly $2,500 more than the Beijing program. Students admitted to the Summer Language Program in Beijing students do not need to re-apply, and those who choose not to participate in the Columbia program will receive a refund for their payments.

But some students who were planning to study in China said they would not participate in the program at Columbia.

"I think that the whole appeal of the language program is that you're situated in Beijing; you're immersed in the culture," Wang said. "Taking Chinese at Columbia is not the same at all. You may as well just take classes during the school year."

On Tuesday, Columbia issued a temporary travel moratorium, suspending all University-sponsored and University-related travel for students, faculty and staff to the regions identified by the WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as most affected by SARS. These regions include parts of Canada, China, Mongolia, and Singapore.

SARS, an atypical pneumonia of unknown origin, was recognized at the end of February. There are 5,865 SARS cases in 30 countries worldwide as of yesterday, including 391 deaths. Fifty-four cases exist in the United States, but there have been no reported deaths.

The WHO issued a statement Wednesday that China, with 3,638 SARS patients, now accounts for more probable cases than the rest of the world combined. About 200 new cases are reported across China each day. Beijing itself continues to report a high number of SARS cases, with a total of 1347 probable cases and 59 deaths. Eighty-six percent of SARS cases in Beijing are current.

Ben Casselman contributed to this article.