Yale, Stanford Cut Business School Travel as Virus Spreads

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. universities including Yale, Stanford and Dartmouth have curtailed international travel for students in graduate business programs as the coronavirus spreads.

The Yale School of Management canceled all school-sponsored travel abroad for this month's spring break. All international travel sponsored by Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business this month has also been scrapped, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business has canceled study trips over spring break in Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Schools have been grappling with the outbreak for weeks, first recalling students taking courses in China and then Italy, one of the most popular study destinations for Americans. The virus has now killed about 3,300 people and the number of cases globally has surpassed 96,000.

“We're looking at it day by day and place by place,” said Kristin Harlan, a spokeswoman for Stanford's business school.

Read more: USC Halts China Study Abroad, Duke Venture Idled

Under guidance from Stanford officials to cancel all gatherings between March 4 and April 15 involving more than 150 people, the school also scrapped a seed-networking event with entrepreneurs in emerging markets, scheduled for next week in Mumbai, and a leadership conference on the California campus, she said.

In addition to concerns about Yale students contracting the virus, there is also a risk that they get stuck abroad, said Nathan Williams, a spokesman for the School of Management.

“To be stranded somewhere and not be able to graduate would be terrible,” Williams said. “Our faculty lead those trips. They could be stranded as well and the problems would really compound.”

All of the management school students need to complete a global studies requirement, generally out of the country, though online courses are available. One of the electives, called the International Experience, had students going to one of six places, including China, Japan and South Africa, Williams said.

A program in South Korea for Emory University's Goizueta Business School students over the mid-semester break was canceled last month, according to the school. All courses and experiential learning projects taking place internationally during spring break have been canceled at New York University's Stern School of Business, according to a school spokeswoman.

Master's in business administration programs increasingly are offering travel experiences as part of the degree, but trips abroad are also widespread for undergraduates and faculty.

Georgetown University put a moratorium on all university-sponsored or related student international travel through May 15.

Columbia University is suspending trips outside the U.S. led or financed by the school. Harvard University has prohibited university travel to jurisdictions with a Level 3 travel warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: mainland China, Iran, Italy and South Korea.

At Dartmouth's Tuck school, about 270 MBA students and faculty were set to leave the Hanover, New Hampshire, campus for educational programs across the world. Students had the choice of 10 course offerings March 10-20, from Armenia to Vietnam.

“We believe that the risks of moving forward with these hands-on global experiences outweigh their educational benefits,” Matthew Slaughter, the school's dean, wrote to students last week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Lorin in New York at jlorin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Dan Reichl

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