Unrest in Bolivia threw Duke University’s study abroad program at La Paz into a precarious position this October, forcing students to leave the country until the situation stabilized and placing a spotlight on the way study abroad departments handle international crises.
In September, protests of various actions by the Bolivian government and action against then-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada gained momentum, resulting in blockades and a potentially dangerous environment for civilians. This included Wesleyan student Corinna Zeltsman ’05, who was in La Paz on the “Duke in the Andes” program.
“The police’s favorite method of crowd control is tear gas, so we’d be going to class and the wind would blow the gas into our faces and we’d start crying and coughing,” Zeltsman said. “I never felt scared, though it was a little nerve-wracking to walk down the street and hear the guns firing tear gas. Bolivians never flinch when they hear gun shots, but I get a little nervous.”
The protests intensified in October, while students on the Duke program were on a field trip to Santa Cruz. Airports in La Paz closed, leaving them stranded for a week before the State Department issued a travel warning and Duke sent them home. The day before they left Bolivia, the President resigned. The situation stabilized shortly thereafter, and the students returned to La Paz after two weeks.
“Classes were often canceled, and I missed two more weeks of class thanks to the whole send-you-home-and-send-you-back fiasco,” Zeltsman said. “It was frustrating because the day we left for the U.S., they resumed flights to La Paz. If Duke had only waited another day!”
According to the University’s Director of International Studies Carolyn Sorkin, the tenure of programs are questioned for safety reasons related to politics, health and individual issues. Institutions take U.S. State Department travel warnings and information from the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization into consideration in evaluating the urgency of the situation, but the institution running the program has the last word about the status of the program.
“If they’re removing nonessential personnel, instead of just saying ‘keep off the streets,’ it’s pretty dangerous,” Sorkin said. “We also talk to staff on the ground to find out what’s going on locally, and especially in political situations. We’re likely to talk to diplomats or resident directors to keep our finger on the pulse.”
The University is solely responsible for five programs abroad: Paris, France; Madrid, Spain; Bologna, Italy; Regensburg, Germany; and Puebla, Mexico. Three years ago, the department indefinitely suspended its program in Israel for academic and safety reasons.
According to Sorkin, the University’s policy regarding countries where students’ safety might be threatened leaves the choice to travel to these countries up to each individual student. The office does, however, inform students and parents of potential risks and ways to protect themselves, and obtains a waiver for liability reasons.
“Wesleyan doesn’t say ‘no, you can’t.’ A lot of Universities don’t do it that way,” Sorkin said. “Both parents and students take it pretty seriously. Sometimes places in turmoil are places where students can be exposed to ideas and issues Middletown may not have to offer.”
Zeltsman has found her experience in Bolivia valuable in spite of the threats facing her and other students studying there.
“It was amazing to see how the people enacted change. After peaceful protests failed to move the government, they resorted to violence and actually achieved change,” Zeltsman said. “The level of political participation at this moment was really incredible and I’m really lucky to have witnessed such a strong, popular movement.”
Sorkin recommends that students considering travel abroad to locations where political or health conditions have been unstable apply to more than one program to avoid having to scramble for new options at the last minute.
There are times, however, when there is no good solution for students whose study plans are put on hold. Students planning to travel to China last summer had few options after the outbreak of SARS closed down programs throughout the country.
In some situations, an institution cannot predict when turmoil will erupt, as in the case of the terrorist attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
“We can’t protect everyone all the time—things can happen anywhere,” Sorkin said. “Very few of us would have thought New York City would be unsafe in terms of planes flying into buildings. Some of what happens is not predictable, and one of the questions is how you deal with things that aren’t.”
According to Sorkin, there is no right or wrong answer about whether to travel somewhere without a guarantee of personal safety because situations of international turmoil affect students differently.
“I worry sometimes that people don’t take seriously the hazards that are there,” Sorkin said. “Well-informed, cautious, and circumspect students can do really well in these situations—they can be laboratories for learning about development or psychology, but they can also be real pressure-cookers.”
For more information about traveling abroad, visit www.wesleyan.edu/ois.
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