Ourview
Berkeley
ban on SARS unfair
University of California, Berkeley has initiated
a controversial ban on summer students from
SARS-afflicted areas in Asia. The ban follows
the U.S. Center for Disease Control and
Prevention’s “advisory” list of regions
which it warns against travel to — China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan. UC Berkeley lifted
its ban on students from Singapore when
the CDC removed the country from its travel
advisory list.
This ban affects about 500 enrolled students
for the summer session at UC Berkeley. So
far, it is the only school in the UC system
to formally enact a ban after the University
of California issued guidelines urging officials
at all of the system’s campuses to strongly
consider suspending or postponing upcoming
programs hosting groups of students from
SARS-affected regions.
Critics, such as prominent civil rights
group Chinese for Affirmative Action, argue
that the ban is discriminatory because it
targets students from specific nations without
considering enrollment on an individual
basis.
“This policy excludes people from educational
opportunities based only on their country
of origin without any possible exceptions
made for individual circumstances,” Diane
Chin, the group’s executive director, said
in a statement. “As a public institution,
it is important for UC Berkeley to not get
caught up in the SARS hysteria.”
But health experts find no fault in the
UC Berkeley decision. Dr. George Rutherford,
director of the Institute for Global Health
in San Francisco, said that he believes
the university’s policy makes sense.
“It would be imprudent to have students
come directly from an epidemic area and
put them into a dormitory and essentially
expose everybody in the dormitory,” Rutherford
told the San Francisco Gate. “The University
of California is the second-largest provider
of congregate living in the state, after
the Department of Corrections.”
It makes sense to attempt to control this
virus that has caused the death of about
500 people worldwide and infected more than
6,800 since the disease surfaced last November
in China. But why won’t Berkeley consider
a more lenient policy to admit students
on a case by case basis?
Berkeley is the only school in the UC system
that works on the semester system. This
means that its summer session begins on
May 27, compared with June 23 for the other
seven undergraduate campuses.
University spokeswoman Maire Felde explained
that “We are preparing for the fall semester,
which begins in August, to ensure that every
student from the affected areas will be
able to enroll without a problem.”
UC Berkeley obviously has the welfare of
its students in mind in this situation.
International students bring in a lot of
money because of the high fees they are
required to pay. Perhaps the university
could make more of an attempt to accommodate
the international students who have worked
hard to attend the school.
Chin is proposing a program of monitoring
students for 10 days to make sure they are
not infected, or limiting enrollment to
students who can arrange off-campus housing
and arrive at least 10 days before classes
begin. This method would be just as effective
as the total ban and it would be consistent
with promoting the importance of education.
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