Thirty-eight OU students learned Monday that their semesters studying abroad in Italy will be cut short because of a virus that some students say has yet to significantly affect their experience.
OU announced Monday that study abroad programs in Italy would close until further notice due to the spread of coronavirus. Students have been encouraged to leave Italy by Friday, meaning that third-year architecture student Elizabeth Ross will miss weeks of learning her field of study in Rome.
“It feels like it sinks in so much more because you’re able to experience it on a very personal level,” Ross said. “It’s not just about the sightseeing, the tourism, the excitement of it, though of course that’s a factor. It’s the fact that I have never loved architecture more than I have this semester.”
Ross and nine other students are studying in the architecture program in Rome. Mitchell Smith, interim dean and professor of the David L. Boren College of International Studies, said 28 students are at OU’s study center in Arezzo.
In Oklahoma, concerns about coronavirus have continued to grow — particularly after Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Friday that the state's first case of the virus had been reported in Tulsa County. Across the country, other universities are beginning to take precautions. The University of Washington became the first U.S. college to move all classes online in order to protect students from the virus.
Smith said the decision to end the Italy abroad programs is the right move for student safety.
“This decision came about through extensive discussions involving a wide range of people on all our campuses. ... There was extensive discussion of all the risk factors involved and all the concerns involved,” Smith said. “Frankly, it came down to what was and what is the right decision for the safety of our students. There’s so much uncertainty — it’s a difficult decision, but that was the focal point.”
The decision to close the programs leaves students with financial and academic challenges. Third-year architecture student Hannah Reed said the architecture program cost students a $10,000 program fee, in addition to OU tuition and the cost of flights.
And beyond those costs, the students stand to lose the opportunity to live and study architecture in Rome.
“We came on this trip because of the professors that are here for architecture,” Reed said. “We’re architecture majors, and that matters a lot to us. And it’s an incredible city.”
OU Director of Media Relations Kesha Keith said in an email that the university asked affected students in a survey whether they need financial assistance to book their flight. If so, the university will provide that funding through the OU Foundation.
Students leaving Italy will also have to undergo a 14-day self-isolation period required by the university before returning to any OU campus, meaning students cannot return until after spring break.
Keith said if any students are in need of housing during that period, the university will find appropriate single-space housing for students during the isolation period.
Smith said students in the Arezzo program will finish through online courses that are being set up now, and Rome students may return to campus after their self-isolation period to finish their semester in a special class that’s been set up for those students.
Reed said the students have been offered free university housing once they can return to campus, but that it can’t compensate for living in Rome.
“I don’t want to seem ungrateful that they’re offering that — it’s great that they’re able to,” Reed said. “But it just seems like a slap in the face when they haven’t truly considered the impact that it will have on the students who have emotionally committed to being here.”
Arezzo and Rome, the two cities where OU students are studying, have been largely unaffected by the coronavirus — a fact that Reed said makes the closure hard to bear. More than half of Italy’s confirmed coronavirus cases are in the Lombardy region, hours north of either Arezzo or Rome.
“I don’t think I’d be as upset about leaving if it was happening in Rome,” Reed said. “But it’s not, and that’s what upsets me, is the university is seemingly caring more about their own liabilities and what the PR is going to look like for them instead of the perspective of the students and our financial liability, and our parents’ financial liability. And the money we would not get back.”
Smith said many of the students and parents he’s heard from want to stay, and that the university wishes they could, but closing the programs in Italy is the right move to keep students safe.
“When this group (of administrators met), we ran through all the risks and concerns,” Smith said. “We don’t know if tomorrow, for example, there is going to be a report of cases in another region of Italy. And what if it were to become quarantined, as happened in the north of Italy? And then suddenly our students can’t go anywhere. And how long would that quarantine last? And how long would students be kept there?”
Smith said another potential scenario administrators considered was that a protocol could be created requiring people returning from Italy to be quarantined for a period of time.
“Those scenarios are not necessarily likely, but we just don’t know,” Smith said. “So we factored all those things into the situation, knowing that their preference and our preference would be to have them stay and finish their program, but it just didn’t seem like the prudent thing to do for their safety.”
Smith said a report from the director of the Arezzo program described daily activities taking place as usual in the city.
“The grocery store shelves are well-stocked, and people are going about their business,” Smith said. “So it becomes hard to understand the decision to get out. But there’s just such massive uncertainty. … We have to act in the interest of safety, even though I understand students looking around and saying, ‘Life here seems to be pretty normal. We don’t want to come home.’”
Reed said the fact that most people with standard immune systems recover contributes to her disappointment that the program is being shut down. According to the World Health Organization, about 80 percent of people who contract the disease recover without needing any special treatment, while older people and those with underlying medical problems are more likely to discover serious illness.
“We understand that they probably want what’s best for us,” Reed said. “And we obviously want what’s best for us, and our parents want what’s best for us. And I do not want to underestimate the fact that the coronavirus is bad. I get it. But the impact that it’s had on us specifically in Rome is nothing. Life goes on as normal.”
This story has been updated to include information about how Arezzo and Rome students will be able to finish their academic semesters through online courses or a special course at OU.
