University Restricts Travel Due to SARS Epidemic

The spread of the deadly virus that causes SARS prompted Harvard this spring to cut funding and other forms of University support for travel to parts of Asia and Canada.

However, Harvard has taken a few countries, now deemed safe, off of its original restricted list. The University has also offered discounted housing to students who want to avoid going home this summer to areas affected by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Currently, the University still will not give financial support for travel to China and Taiwan.

SARS is caused by a corona virus and produces fever and flu-like symptoms. The virus, likely transmitted by aerosol droplets, had killed 764 people and infected more than 8,000 as of last week. The disease is thought to have originated in China last fall.

Before spring break, the University posted a warning on its website against unnecessary travel to the affected areas, echoing the advisory of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Some students took the threat of SARS very seriously.

Matthew A. Dalio ’06, a first-year in Straus Hall, quarantined himself upon returning from China after spring break.

“My roommates and the people in my entryway were uncomfortable with having me in my room,” he said. “So I just stayed in a hotel for the safety of those around me.”

In late April, students in the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) were informed that they could no longer receive academic credit for work done in SARS-affected areas.

But some students said they would travel to affected areas anyway.

Timothy A. Wickland ’04 said in April that he would go ahead with his plan to travel to China this summer, despite the University’s warning.

“I think people are getting a bit too hysterical about the SARS thing,” Wickland wrote in an e-mail. “I’m more likely to die in a car accident headed to the airport here in Boston than to contract and die of SARS after arriving in Beijing.”

Reached last week in India, Wickland said he hopes the University ban on going to China will be lifted in time for him to travel there with Harvard funding in August.

On April 24, the University announced that neither faculty nor students would be able to use Harvard money to travel to certain SARS-affected areas.

Students who had planned to do research in China and other East Asian countries despite the original warning had to change their plans when Harvard pulled its financial support.

“I can’t fund myself so I can’t go to China,” said Claudine C. Stuchell ’04, who was planning on doing research in the interior of China, in Yunnan.

The Harvard-Yenching Institute said that it would still support its grant recipients and encouraged them to postpone their travel to China until the spring or fall of 2004.

“We will help them,” said Associate Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute Edward J. Baker, in April.

The Institute also encouraged students to travel to alternate destinations.

Due to the University’s ban, Victor D. Ban ’04 changed his summer plans—instead of going to China to conduct research, Ban has decided to go to Korea instead.

Harvard officials say they have tried to accommodate students whose plans were derailed by the virus.

“The University has tried to help the students stuck with the moratorium by finding other ways for them to do what they need to do, such as giving them tuition wavers for summer school for the students to study languages,” said Philip A. Kuhn, chair of the east Asian studies department.

Kuhn said that he thinks Harvard acted appropriately.

“I don’t think the University had any choice,” he said. “It was unfortunate but it was the responsible response.”

Harvard Medical School Professor of Pediatrics Kenneth McIntosh ’58 said that a vaccine for SARS can be developed, but it is not likely to be available for a while, since it would have to be tested and approved.

“It will be at best a year and a half before the vaccine is available,” McIntosh said.

At its peak, the list of SARS-affected regions included China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore and Toronto.

“Obviously a crucial balance has to be struck between the public health imperative and our tradition about being an open community,” University President Lawrence H. Summers said last week.

Summers said that if SARS is still prevalent in the fall, students returning from SARS-affected countries might have to be quarantined before moving into Harvard housing.

—Staff writer Yailett Fernandez can be reached at yfernand@fas.harvard.edu.