On December 2nd, 2021, students were informed that studying abroad had been canceled through Summer 2022. Students were not aware this decision was being seriously discussed beforehand and were under the impression to continue to plan the extensive process of studying abroad. 

Flights, deposits, applications fees, and passport/visa fees were already paid and most are non-refundable. 

The UHD personnel who are responsible for this decision announced this devastating news and have been unreachable since then. It has left the affected students without answers or resolutions for almost a week.

Most students' departure date is within the next month.

The untimely cancellation has caused mental and emotional distress especially during the week of finals. Also, there is a student who has planned to leave on December 16, 2021, which is essentially LESS THAN A WEEK from now. So decisions need to be made immediately. 

There has been a complete lack of contact or any in-person meetings offered in order to reach a solution to resolve this issue. 

Amongst the risks, the students face upon this cancellation is losing thousands of dollars in hard earned scholarships.  Students involved have spent countless hours, months, and even years working toward achieving this goal by taking multiple jobs, subletting their own apartments, and writing countless scholarship essays. 

At the moment, UHD is the only campus that has implemented this policy aside from all of the other UH campuses, including UH - Main Campus. UHD allowed a student to go abroad in Spring 2020 at the height of the pandemic. UHD also allowed a student to go to a level 4 country (according to the CDC) in Fall 2021.

Students understand the health risks, have been vaccinated, and are prepared to sign waivers to release liability from UHD. 

As a country, we have learned to adapt to these changing times during the pandemic and ask that those students who have finished the lengthy study abroad process be allowed to continue their programs just as those students mentioned above. 

Therefore, we ask for YOUR SUPPORT to help UHD students reverse this decision. Thank you.