Many students studying in China are now coming home to finish up the semester in the United States, hoping to leave the risks and fears of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome behind.
But although the University issued a statement a few weeks ago discouraging travel to Asia, Penn Abroad has not officially canceled any of its programs in China.
"There are still students over there," Office of International Programs work-study student Joseph Morrone said.
Instead, officials have recently encouraged many students to return. College junior Hannah Bolduc said that she has been receiving e-mails from Overseas Program Manager Inge Herman for several months to be careful about SARS -- but "five days ago, when [the epidemic] got really bad, she said that she would rather have us leave," said Bolduc, who was enrolled at Peking University in Beijing, China, until last week.
Herman could not be reached for comment yesterday.
SARS, a pneumonia-like disease that is believed to have originated in China, has so far infected nearly 4,000 people and caused over 200 deaths around the world, according to the World Health Organization.
The 15 Penn students living in China for the year were warned about the "mystery pneumonia" in November.
"We got notices that there was some disease and that we shouldn't travel," Bolduc said.
"We know that the information [about the number of cases] from the Chinese government is not correct," she added. "But we don't know by how much."
Bolduc and the other Penn students with her did not receive any new information until the beginning of March, when "the world identified [SARS] and knew what was going on."
Peking University did not release any additional information, but the U.S. Embassy -- where all American citizens must register -- and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent e-mails to the students studying abroad, recommending them to limit travel as much as possible.
But although the embassy had allowed its non-essential personnel to leave, it did not recommend U.S. citizens to follow their example, since "that would have caused a lot of problems," according to Bolduc.
Although the situation regarding SARS in Beijing was tense, Hong Kong seemed to be more relaxed -- at least during the first months.
The city's administration had been taking precautions against the disease for quite some time, but the situation has only grown worse, according to Engineering junior Howard Vegter, who studied at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
On March 28, classes at the university were canceled for a week due to the spread of SARS.
"I didn't see it as a big deal until the classes were canceled," Vegter said.
And while he had planned to take advantage of this break to visit his family in New Jersey, Vegter decided to take all his belongings with him in case he didn't have the chance to come back -- which turned out to be true.
Upon their return to the United States, both Bolduc and Vegter have voluntarily quarantined themselves in their own homes for a few days, waiting out the incubation period and watching for possible symptoms.
