Illness leads UA to call off classes in Italy

Like others in state, across U.S., students told to return

Students study at the University of Arkansas Rome Center at Palazzo Tavernas, Rome, in this undated courtesy photo.
Students study at the University of Arkansas Rome Center at Palazzo Tavernas, Rome, in this undated courtesy photo.

Arkansas universities are joining other U.S. colleges in having students return from Italy after what health authorities have called a "rapid increase" of the coronavirus in that country.

Italy's first case of the virus was reported Jan. 31. The number of cases has grown to 900, the highest number in Europe, according to health organization reports Saturday.

Just before midnight Friday, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville announced that it was suspending academic operations at its Rome Center for the remainder of the spring semester, and all of its American students there are returning to the U.S.

UA spokesman John Thomas said Thursday that 40 UA students were studying at the Rome Center this semester, with about 60 students from other universities also taking classes there. For years, the Rome Center has been UA's largest study-abroad program.

Officials at Harding University in Searcy said last week that it was closing its campus in Florence and pulling its students after only three weeks into the semester as a precaution during the illness outbreak in Italy's north. Rome is in central Italy.

The Florence students can finish their course work remotely, Harding University said, adding that it is continuing with its Greece and Peru programs.

The UA Pat Walker Health Center and the state Department of Health are "recommending self-isolation" for students returning from Italy and South Korea, UA said Friday.

Amy Unruh, a UA spokeswoman, said fewer than a dozen UA students had been studying at programs operated by other schools in South Korea. She said the students have either left or are leaving South Korea, where there are 3,150 confirmed virus cases, according to the World Health Organization.

No confirmed cases of the virus have been found in Arkansas, state authorities said Friday. One Arkansas patient is being tested for the virus, and health officials are monitoring 10 other people who recently returned from countries where the virus is spreading, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.

The 10 people being monitored are under 14-day quarantines in their homes after returning from China or other affected countries, according to the state Health Department.

Unruh said the UA students returning from Rome and South Korea have been told that they "will self-isolate" before being allowed to return to campus. Unruh said Saturday that some students have already left Rome, and others are waiting to depart.

Jennifer Dillaha, the Health Department's medical director for immunizations and outbreak response, said the home quarantine requirement applies to all people who return to Arkansas after traveling to a country that has a Level 2 or Level 3 travel alert issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Italy has a Level 3 designation.

In a statement Wednesday, Harding University officials said they were "heartbroken" about students having to return early from Italy. "This is obviously a huge disappointment for these students," the statement read.

Hendrix College's lone student in Italy -- who arrived just two weeks ago to study in Milan, which is north of Florence -- has left the country for London to stay with a former Hendrix College exchange student.

The student was to start classes Monday of last week, but the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, under regional authority orders, closed for the week, said Peter Goss, Hendrix's director of international programs.

"The current plan is for the student to return to Milan when Italian authorities deem it is safe for universities in the region to reopen, but only if the U.S. Department of State and the CDC do not issue a travel warning for Italy," Goss wrote to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

If the Italian university remains closed, he wrote, "students will be able to begin their studies online; our student in England will be able participate from there."

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has a dance student in Arezzo about 50 miles south of Florence. She is "doing well and is adhering to all of the warnings and information provided to her by the institution," Accademia Dell'Arte university spokeswoman Angela Faller said last week.

UALR has three students planning to study in Italy this summer, and is monitoring the situation there going forward. The university has decided, however, to switch a faculty-led summer program from Italy to Greece.

UA's statement Friday, time-stamped at 11:59 p.m., cited the CDC travel advisory from earlier that day recommending that "travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Italy."

The university also cited a "Level 3" U.S. State Department travel advisory to "reconsider travel" to Italy.

"In light of this information from reputable sources, and in an effort to protect the health and safety of our faculty and students, the University of Arkansas has determined the best course of action is to suspend academic operations of the Rome Center for the remainder of the semester and return all students to the U.S. to continue studies," UA said in its brief statement.

Several Arkansas colleges and universities told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that they had no students studying in Italy this semester.

Those include Arkansas State University, Henderson State University, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, University of Central Arkansas, Southern Arkansas University, Arkansas Tech University, Lyon College and John Brown University.

Across the nation, schools have notified students in Italy that they must return to the U.S. for the semester.

Among them is the University of Connecticut. Stanford University in California has asked its students to return home beginning this week, according to The Stanford Daily, the university's student newspaper. Two cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in California as of Saturday afternoon.

ABC News reported that Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and New York University in New York City; Fairfield University in Connecticut; and Elon University in North Carolina had all canceled their Florence programs.

Earlier this year, UA canceled three study-abroad trips planned for China, where the coronavirus was first detected and where there have been the most cases.

On Thursday, Thomas said in an email that the Italian Foreign Ministry had asked colleges to restrict travel excursions. Field trips for UA Rome Center students had been postponed, Thomas said.

Thomas said Friday that the university relies on advisories from the CDC and the State Department as "primary indicators for safety" overseas.

"Evaluating those levels, along with secondary indicators, provides a consistent decision-making process. In the midst of a global health crisis, the factors are evaluated on a case by case basis designed to provide the best possible outcomes for our students," Thomas said.

The next group of students to attend the Rome Center had been scheduled to arrive May 12, Thomas said Thursday. UA has not announced whether those summer programs will continue or be canceled.

UA has established a webpage with student travel updates at studyabroad.uark.edu/coronavirus.php.

Information for this article was contributed by Andy Davis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 03/01/2020

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