“It’s probably wise of Harvard not to encourage their students to go into dangerous countries,” said Kristi “Gerby” Marks ’05, who was in Morocco during the Casablanca bombing. “If there’s a travel warning from the State Department, it’s there for a reason.”
But Pace and Jirmanus both said that the policy does not take into account students’ ability to assess their own safety.
“I think Harvard’s policy is paternalistic,” Pace wrote. “The administration presumes that we have neither the prerequisite knowledge of the region nor the wisdom to make an informed decision.”
“What do they really know what it is like for a U.S. citizen to travel abroad? You should be able to do what you want,” said Jirmanus, who has dual Lebanese and American citizenship.
Coatsworth said that the policy does not restrict students from studying in their home country, as long as parents are there to supervise them.
Because of these concerns that the College makes countries “off-limits” to students, Harvard Students for Israel is organizing a committee to address the travel abroad policy, according to Sunny Yudkoff ’06, the president of the club.
—Staff writer Tina Wang can be reached at tinawang@fas.harvard.edu.