Princeton University considers options, but outlook is bleak.
By: Jeff Milgram
Princeton University may cancel or relocate its Princeton in Beijing summer program because of the SARS outbreak in China.
"It’s looking bleak," said Professor Perry Link, co-director of the 11-year-old total immersion Chinese-language program. The decision will be made by May 15, he said.
The most likely alternative would be to hold the program, scheduled for June 20 to Aug. 16, on campus. Professor Link said the decision will depend on the availability of space on campus and if between 40 and 50 students are willing to attend the program in Princeton.
It would be difficult but not impossible to hold the program in which students are penalized for speaking English on campus. Middlebury College and the University of Indiana hold similar programs on campus, Professor Link said.
Princeton in Beijing is located at Beijing Normal University in the northwestern part of the capital. "It’s not in the area of the highest (SARS) incidence in the city," Professor Link said.
China is at the center of the outbreak of Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the mysterious flu-like disease that has killed more than 375 people around the world, mostly in East Asia and Canada.
This week, Beijing’s new mayor denied speculation that the Chinese capital was about to be sealed off, but admitted its hospitals were overloaded with SARS cases.
Throughout East Asia, 21 new SARS deaths were reported Wednesday. China, which reported 11 new SARS fatalities, announced 166 additional cases of infection. Seven new deaths were reported in Hong Kong, two in Taiwan and one in Singapore. Beijing has reported 1,448 SARS cases and 8,924 people quarantined. Nine of the new deaths reported Wednesday in China were in the capital.
Mayor Wang Qishan denied rumors that the city of 13 million people would be closed off from the rest of the world or dusted with anti-SARS medications by aircraft at night, but admitted the outbreak had overwhelmed 21 Beijing hospitals designated for SARS treatment.
Princeton University has relaxed its travel ban to Asia this week, approving travel to Vietnam.
On April 4, the university began monitoring the SARS outbreak to determine whether the program could be held in Beijing. "We very much hope that the situation improves so that the program can proceed," according to an update on the Princeton in Beijing Web site.
Princeton made major changes in its Princeton in Beijing curriculum, eliminating a first-year course and adding a fifth-year course designed to make students almost fluent in Chinese as native speakers.
Students must sign a pledge to speak no other language than Mandarin Chinese throughout the eight-week program. Students can be penalized by lower grades or even expulsion for repeated violations of the pledge, Professor Link said.
Two years ago, the program was at the heart of a dispute with Chinese officials over the content of some textbooks. University officials eventually rewrote some course work rather than make changes demanded by the Chinese.

