SUNY Provost announces cancellation of study abroad for winter and spring 2021

To the New Paltz Community,

SUNY Provost & Senior Vice Chancellor Tod A. Laursen announced last week the cancellation of all university sponsored international travel, including study abroad and other student activities, for the winter and spring 2021 terms.

This is a continuation of the current suspension enacted in March 2020, and is driven by our ongoing concern for the health and safety of students, faculty and staff and our commitment to keeping the SUNY community safe.

The Study Abroad staff continues to encourage New Paltz students to explore virtual options for the spring 2021 semester. Options include internships, service learning and virtual coursework offered by many of our international partners.

Plans are currently being made for students to earn business credits for coursework and internships in Milan, Italy; contribute to a local community center in Guatemala through a Service Learning program; and begin a hybrid program in Seville, Spain, that will start online and hopefully conclude with a summer capstone study tour of Andalusia.

The SUNY Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program leads efforts within the system to integrate global learning into the curriculum and developed the highly successful Global Commons project last summer. Generous donors to New Paltz Study Abroad scholarships are contributing to the success of these efforts.

In addition to these opportunities, most students will also have the option to defer their study abroad applications to fall 2021.

The Center for International Programs will continue to monitor and assess all future study abroad opportunities and we look forward to innovation in global learning and an eventual return to international student mobility.

Best regards,

Beth

Beth Mugler Vargas
Executive Director, Center for International Programs

Study Abroad Advisors: Catherine Collado and Bianca Sylvain