University officials have proposed a new policy that aims to discourage students from studying abroad in dangerous countries.

Yet, if a student chooses to study in a country declared too dangerous, the student must take a leave of absence from the University or face losing his or her financial aid and health insurance, said Eugene Allen, vice president of international programs.

“This is a policy to make sure we’re not sending students where there are serious dangers that we determine they should not be exposed to,” Allen said. “This is not an unusual policy in any university.”

Though the Board of Regents must approve the policy, Allen said, it is not as conservative as similar policies at other universities.

The other Big Ten universities all have stricter policies, he said.

Lynn Anderson, an associate director of the Learning Abroad Center, said approximately 383 University students – including Morris, Duluth and Crookston students – are studying abroad this year.

Learning Abroad Finance Director Trish Blomquist said the new policy was designed out of concern for the safety of students.

“What we had before was a verbal arrangement and nothing formal, so in order to implement that Ö we needed it to be a formal University policy,” Blomquist said.

To determine whether a country should be off limits to students, the University will use U.S. State Department travel warnings and information from foreign embassies, Blomquist said.

It is difficult to determine the number of students the policy could affect, Mark Rotenberg, general counsel for the University, said.

“The real point of the policy is not to increase the number of off-limit sites around the world,” Rotenberg said. “It’s to come up with a rational process for determining when University-sponsored education abroad needs to be suspended.”

The University doesn’t keep a list of countries it considers off limits, Blomquist said. Student requests to study abroad will be evaluated on an individual basis, she said.

Few students have wanted to study in unsafe countries, she said.

The U.S. State Department currently has travel warnings issued for 28 countries that it recommends Americans avoid, according to the department’s Web site.

Kenya is the only country listed on the State Department warning list where University students are currently allowed to study, Blomquist said. The University researched the Kenya program and decided it was still safe for students, she said.

First-year student Samantha Mecklenburg said a warning from the University might not deter her desire to study overseas.

“I think I would still go, because this is a good time of my life to do that sort of adventure,” she said. “I would still need to make sure I was protected and secure.”

It’s understandable that the University would want to limit its liability for students studying abroad, said Dhiren Patel, a first-year engineering student.

“In these days with lawsuits, I can see how you could sue the school if something happened,” he said.

The need for financial support and the necessity to stay on track with her studies would keep first-year student Iman Mefleh in line with the policy, she said.

“I’d like to be able to go wherever I want,” she said. “But I want it to count for something. I want to make sure I’m still on track with my studies when I come back.”