Spring break for Indiana University Students is March 16-22, but because of the virus, the university cancelled all school sponsored trips.
Gabe Kirsch was supposed to be flying to South Korea for spring break, as part of a Kelley School of Business sponsored trip.
“It’s unfortunate my spring break plans got cancelled, but we got to be safe, this is something that is more serious than we thought it would be in the beginning,” says Kirsch, a sophomore from Columbus.
Kirsch was supposed to be studying the world of autonomous driving cars with students at a university in Seoul.
The trip has been rescheduled for august, Kirsch says he’ll be on the trip, but some of his classmates won’t.
“I have some friends that are doing internships over the summer, so they are not able to reschedule during the summer,” says Kirsch.
The Republic of Korea is among dozens of countries with confirmed cases of the corona virus.
IU made the decision last week to cancel all international trips.
“We felt like this was a prudent decision, it’s one that colleges and universities around the country are grappling with as well,” says IU Spokesperson Chuck Carney.
Carney says the university is working with students to help them get reimbursed for their trip expenses.
They’re also figuring out the details to make sure students can make up the coursework.
“We started having meetings, at Indiana University, back in mid-January about this, when it was Wuhan Province in China, because you could see at that point, this was going to be something that could potentially spread, worldwide,” says Carney.
Carney says any IU student or staff member who comes into contact with someone who has corona virus will have to self-quarantine themselves, away from campus.
The same is true if they travel to a level where there is a virus outbreak.
Meanwhile Hirsch says he wasn’t that worried about the coronavirus when the pandemic first started, but now that it’s altered his travel plans – the virus has his attention:
“I’ve got to admit, I’m a lot more scared than I was coming in, but what can I do?”
