Coronavirus and the LIU Global China Center Programming
by Melissa Vargas
Shortly over a month ago, the LIU Global China Center programming was canceled for the entirety of the Spring semester due to the coronavirus. LIU Global China Center students began the first two weeks of the Spring semester in Taiwan and from there were supposed to continue onwards to Hangzhou China, where we would live and study for the remainder of the semester. However, the start of our semester in Taiwan coincided with the onset of the spread of the coronavirus in China. Just over a week into our travels in Taiwan, the US State Department issued a Level 3 Travel Advisory warning for travel to China. LIU Global does not permit students to travel to countries with Level 3 US State Department Travel Advisory warnings or higher, thus all programming in China for the remainder of the semester was canceled.
Upon hearing that the China Center was canceled, the pressing question of ‘now what?’ lingered for most. Because of the low threat of the coronavirus in Taiwan at the time, we were able to finish our academic programming to its entirety. Moving forward, students were given the option to continue the semester in Byron Bay, Australia (where our other third year center is located) or to return to the US and take courses at the LIU Brooklyn campus. Neither of these options was an ideal fit for me personally, so I decided to come home and take my core classes online. I had a significant amount of college credits from before attending LIU Global therefore this was a feasible option for me. Most students chose to continue the semester in Australia.
As COVID-19 has quickly spread globally, LIU Global has and continues to take similar preventative measures in different center locations in order to best protect the safety of students. Students in the Europe program studying in Italy this semester were relocated to the LIU Brooklyn campus when the US State Department Level 3 Advisory warning went into effect for the country. However, Long Island University has recently decided that all instruction on the New York campuses will be conducted online and will extend this way until the end of the Spring semester. LIU Global continued monitoring the situation in the Costa Rica and Australia programs to determine that classes would be moving online as well and students went back to the United States.
While the cancellation of the China program and the rampant spread of COVID-19 are far from ideal, unexpected situations and emergencies can be the nature of studying and traveling abroad at times. Our original China center group was also rather fortunate to have been outside of mainland China when the Level 3 Travel Advisory warning announced, as this avoided likely quarantine and a more complicated evacuation. I’m extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to study in China last semester during the Fall and was still able to visit Taiwan. The cancellation of the China Center has made me more deeply appreciate the incredible opportunities that we as LIU Global students have to explore the world and has reminded me that you never know when these incredible experiences could unexpectedly come to a halt.
