China is a popular study-abroad destination for U.S. students. But American schools are advising against travel to China amid the coronavirus outbreak — and some are working to evacuate students already there.
A self-imposed quarantine — in which administrators voluntarily sealed off Capital Normal University — has meant the Middlebury program administrators, who are based off-campus, could not reach the campus to plan an evacuation face-to-face with the students. Renton, who has been to China many times before and is able to navigate the language and the bureaucracy, has become an intermediary, coordinating with program directors working to get him and his fellow students home.
Renton has also gone on grocery runs for the group and organized group meals, to relieve some of the tension. The university canteen only serves breakfast. Students can't leave without explicit permission and takeout delivery people can't enter. Administrators at the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Beijing's Tsinghua University also decided to cancel the rest of its spring semester this week. Some of the 40 or so U.S. students are hoping to work out an alternative to continue their studies, perhaps through online courses, while others may transfer to similar programs in Taiwan.
He says the program's decision to terminate classes for the spring"came down really quickly." These days, he passes the time by reading and writing Chinese, but says he feels unsettled and finds it difficult to concentrate.
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