Other Californian Universities Not to Ban on Students from SARS Areas

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Other Californian Universities Not to Ban on Students from SARS Areas

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Major universities in the US state of California said Tuesday they have no plans to follow the University of California (UC) in Berkeley to bar students from areas hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) this summer.

The University of Southern California (USC) said in a statement that neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nor any of the USC medical experts had suggested banning on quarantining students or visitors going to the USC for personal or professional purposes.

The UC in Irvine (UCI) and the UC in Los Angeles (UCLA) also said on Tuesday they did not plan to impose a similar ban to that of UC Berkeley, which refused to accept about 500 would-be students from China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, places hit hard by the flu-like SARS that has killed nearly 500 people worldwide.

Max Benavidez, spokesman of the UCLA, said earlier that the planning for the summer sessions is proceeding without any ban on students from the SARS regions in Asia. He noted that only 100 of the expected 15,000 students on the summer sessions were from the regions.

The UC Irvine also "has no plans to follow the Berkeley plan asof yet," said Tom Vasich, a UCI official. The subject "is under discussion at the system-wide level, but in issuing its policy, Berkeley acted alone," he added.

The UCI administrators are discussing the matter, and "we will have a better idea of how to address the issue of visiting summer students later this week," he said.

As the UC system's policy stands now, it is up to individual universities to decide whether to bar students from certain areas because of health concerns. The chancellor at each UC university has the final say.

UC Berkeley's decision only affects summer classes, and the school would not bar new full-time students from the designated parts of Asia from enrolling in the fall or returning to school in the fall from a visit home.

Meanwhile, Stanford University and the California State University system all signaled that they would not impose a ban on students from the SARS-affected areas this summer.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Dozens Injured as Nearly 200 Cars Collide on Calif. Freeway

Magnitude-5.4 Quake Hits Southern California

University of California Bars Students from SARS Areas

SARS -- an Opportunity China Reshuffles Public Health, Disease Prevention System ( 3 Messages)

SARS Virus Genomic Sequencing Raises Vaccine Hopes ( 2 Messages)

70 Chinese Navy Sailors Killed in Submarine Disaster ( 8 Messages)

Iraq War Reshapes Military Landscape: News Analysis ( 9 Messages)

CCTV English Channel Landing in United States ( 2 Messages)