South Africa becomes latest canceled trip abroad

For students and staff planning out the study abroad program to South Africa in the spring, the writing was on the wall: low vaccination rates, virtual-only learning and an unclear semester start date.

An official announcement on Sept. 2 finally became the bearer of bad news: the South Africa program was canceled. Issues involving COVID-19 in the country and the current virtual class format at Nelson Mandela University drove the decision.

“Getting that email was really devastating,” said Annie McGuire, a CSB junior who was supposed to go on the trip. “I had imagined what my entire semester was going to look like, and then it all changed with a singular email.”

South Africa joins Austria, Ireland-Galway and Australia as the fourth study abroad program canceled for the 2021-22 school year. Each program was called off due to issues involving COVID-19.

For the South Africa trip, the classes students would take at Nelson Mandela University are currently virtual, NMU has no confirmed dates for the spring semester, service learning in the country is currently suspended and as of Sept. 2 the country’s vaccination rate was 16%.

“We recognize that a program may have to move virtually for some point in time, but we also hope that there will be an in-person model that will be available at our study abroad sites,” Director of CGE Kevin Clancy said.“That’s not something that we could confirm in our sites in South Africa.”

Clancy also indicated that the current political unrest in South Africa did not play a role in the decision to cancel.

The Center for Global Education evaluated programs’ COVID-19 protocols based on each area’s vaccination rate, ability to provide quarantine spaces, access to healthcare and ability to provide hybrid learning should cases spike.

“What we hope to do in all cases is to just communicate and convey to students the reasons why [a program] was cancelled, and, if at all possible, try to make the decision soon enough so that, in the case of South Africa, all those students could have an opportunity to study abroad, if that is something that they still wanted to do, even if it couldn’t be South Africa,” Clancy said.

Once students planning on traveling to South Africa received the email about the trip’s cancellation, they had two weeks to decide whether to switch to a different international experience or to stay on campus for the spring semester.

McGuire eventually opted to travel to Cork, Ireland, in the spring, although it did change her mindset for the study abroad experience.

“My goals for studying abroad have shifted a lot because of the location that I’m going to,” McGuire said. “I was super devastated because I’ve been planning on going to South Africa for over six months.”

SJU junior Matt Anderson, who also was a part of the South Africa program, chose to participate in the London program after the cancellation.

“I was still very happy that the Center for Global Education put in measures to allow us to go to another program,” Anderson said. “I originally had London as my second choice, so it kind of worked out perfectly.”

If the trip had gone on with the current restrictions in place, students would have taken all their classes online, and the service learning component, one of the highlights of the program, would not have happened.

“I’m sure we would have made the best of it,” said Ellen Block, sociology professor and spring 2022 South Africa program director. “But if we went it would basically be like being in our apartments, doing stuff online and then going on trips. To me, with school being online and with no service learning it would just be like taking a vacation, and then I don’t think it’s worth it.”

Even if the trip wouldn’t be the same, that didn’t lessen the blow for students planning on making the trip.

“I was disappointed, to say the least,” Anderson said. “South Africa has always been a place that I dreamed of going.”