Cuba, a United States adversary since an embargo was placed on the island 40 years ago, is gaining growing attention from U.S. students looking to study overseas. More than 900 U.S. students traveled to the country, located 90 miles south of Florida, during the 2000-01 academic year.
More than 905 U.S. students were granted permission from the U.S. government to study in Cuba during the 2000-01 academic year, a 64 percent increase over the previous year. This number is expected to continue to rise as the number of interested students increases.
The University of Wisconsin is participating in a new study-abroad program beginning next fall where students will travel to the University of Havana in Cuba. Students engaging in this program will take regular courses offered by the university as well as an advanced Spanish course.
Before arranging a study-abroad program to Cuba, a university must first receive a license from the U.S. Treasury Department, which normally prohibits students from engaging in commercial enterprise while visiting.
UW’s Associate Dean of International Studies Michael Hinden is optimistic that the program will be a success.
“We expect Cuba to become a popular study-abroad option for students in a variety of majors, as there is a high level of curiosity as to what life may be like in a country so close to us in distance yet so far away in other respects,” Hinden said.
Harvard University senior Edwin Lee studied abroad in Cuba last year. Despite a great deal of cultural differences, Lee said he enjoyed himself and learned a lot.
“There are so many advantages to this program,” Lee said. “As students, we have a privilege that most others do not.”
Lee attributes part of this increase in popularity to the heightened political awareness about the situation in Cuba.
“I felt very safe in Cuba,” Lee said. “There were incidents of having things torn from your body or stolen from your room, but these were small things that could have happened anywhere.”
Some groups are in full opposition of these programs.
“U.S. students who travel to Cuba are being used by Castro,” Omar Lopez, spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation, told the Associated Press. The group is based in Miami and consists of anti-Castro exiles.
Lopez also cited potential threats to the personal safety of Americans traveling in Cuba; Hinden pointed out that this phenomenon is not uncommon in other Latin American countries.
“Our goal is to increase the options for students and faculty to study life, culture, politics and society in many corners of the world, allowing them to reach their own judgments and to interact with local peers,” Hinden said. “Creating a new study-abroad opportunity is a service to our students rather than an endorsement of a political system. We think students will learn a great deal from this experience.”
Applications to study at the University of Havana through UW are due the first Friday in March, a deadline Hinden said will be pulled back to the first Friday in February in future years.
