“Currently, there have been no changes in our classrooms at UCM related to this matter,” UCM Director of Communications and Media Relations, Jeff Murphy, said.
As the Israel-Hamas war and the Gaza humanitarian crisis continues, UCM continues to monitor the situation. At time of press, there have been no campus changes. “If there are any updates to share on campus, UCM will do so through its official university communication channels,” Murphy said.
“We continue to monitor the tragic events that are taking place in Israel and Gaza and our hearts go out to all of those individuals who are severely impacted by the tremendous number of injuries, loss of lives and homes. These individuals are deeply in our thoughts while we hope and pray for peace amid this rapidly evolving, very serious situation,” Murphy, said.
UCM offers a minor in Middle Eastern Studies and a 2.5-week program abroad focusing on topics including the political, religious and cultural divides in Jerusalem. This study abroad program that travels to Berlin and Israel has not changed thus far, as the next trip will be the summer of 2025.
“Now as it happened, we don’t have a trip planned for summer 2024…that [non-trip] was already in the works,” Michael Sawyer, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences said. “Leading a Summer Study Abroad program is very, very time intensive and summer is when faculty tend to do their research and publishing, and so [it is] really difficult to keep up on your publishing if you take a student group every single summer, so the next planned trip is summer 2025. However, hypothetically speaking, had we planned on moving ahead with that program in summer 2024, we would not, at present, be planning to go to Israel, because we follow the U.S. Department of State guidelines.”
The U.S. Department of State put forth travel guidelines that state a four step system. Step one is to exercise normal precautions, step two is to exercise increased caution, step three is to reconsider travel, and step four is do not travel. At the time of press, Israel is a step three country.
Michael Makara, associate professor of political science and international studies, and is teaching a course titled “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, which is scheduled for the Spring 2024 semester, has already seen an influx of students interested in the topic.
“The impact that we’ve seen here at UCM is that we’ve seen a lot of questions. You know, in talking to students, whether in my class or just having students reach out, I know that there’s a lot of students that are trying to make sense of what has been going on,” Makara said. “I oftentimes get a lot of questions from students who genuinely just want to know what’s going on.”
Others have seen an impact across the UCM campus, especially with social media.
“Most of our students [in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences] are aware of the conflict, of the humanitarian crisis, they see a lot about it online or on social media, but they [most students] don’t really understand what the conflict is about nor what its origins are, and therefore they tend not to have deeply held beliefs,” Sawyer said. “They just more want to understand what the conflict is.”
Makara also shared how people can help others who are affected.
“I think the way we can help is actually something a lot more personal,” Makara said. “So reach out to those people who you know, check in with them, see how they’re doing. Give them an opportunity to talk because they’re certainly going through a lot right now.”
