University of Utah will keep study abroad tie with Israeli school — but says no students have participated

The University of Utah’s study abroad program in Israel is currently on pause.

No applications will be accepted for the coming spring semester — or for the full following academic year starting in fall 2025 — due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The U. made the announcement Thursday in response to pro-Palestine student activists who have continued to host campus protests since spring. Students have specifically called for the university to cut ties with the program, hosted by the University of Haifa, which has ties to the Israel Defense Forces.

“U of U, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide,” about 70 students chanted Thursday evening in their latest demonstration in front of the Park Building, where the school’s main administration is housed. It was at least the third protest from student groups since classes started this fall. Activists held another event on Friday, a “die-in,” at the student Union where they laid down as if they were dead in commentary on the more than 41,000 Palestinians who have been killed in the war.

The biggest protest at the U. in spring included hundreds of students who brought out tents and set up an encampment in Presidents’ Circle on April 29, vowing not to leave until their demands for the university to divest its endowment from companies profiting off the war was met.

Several hours in, more than 100 police officers in riot gear charged into the protest, violently pushing students off campus and arresting 21 individuals total. The demonstration echoed similar protests and police confrontations at college campuses across the country. As of Friday, none of those arrested at the U. had been charged.

But while the U.’s Israel program is on hold, the school says it doesn’t have any intentions to permanently drop it.

“It’s not our role to deny a student that opportunity,” said Randy McCrillis, the U.’s senior international officer, in a statement shared by the school. “How are we helping our students engage and understand the world by limiting that exposure? I think having our students have diverse experiences is only going to help.”

The U.’s Learning Abroad program is operated in agreement with outside group University Studies Abroad Consortium, or USAC, which has had a contract with the Utah school since 2014. The consortium offers more than 50 programs in 26 countries. In total, 93 students from the U. have participated in those, according to the school’s statement.

A note on the U.’s website for the Israel program currently says: “USAC continues to monitor events in the Middle East and will keep students and universities apprised of any changes.”

Notably, no students from the U. have ever gone on the study abroad trip to the University of Haifa. That has been offered since at least 2015 but hasn’t seen any sign-ups. Students, according to the program listing, can go there to learn Arabic or Hebrew, as well as to study business, communication, economics, history and other topics.

The student protesters say there should be no connection to that Israeli school — which is about 100 miles away from the fighting in Gaza — because of its connections to the Israel Defense Forces.

The university, for instance, currently has about 1,500 military reservists enrolled as students who have been called up to fight in the war, according to The New York Times; those student-soldiers are required to keep their weapons on them at all times, meaning they can carry semiautomatic rifles into classrooms.

The school boasts its diversity, with an enrollment that is roughly 60% Jewish and 40% Arab. Eight students there have recently been suspended for allegedly posting comments in favor of the militant group Hamas on social media.

And some Arab students have recently said that they’ve been intentionally blocked from running in student elections, leaving them with no representation, according to The Jerusalem Post and Middle East Monitor.

During a Sept. 10 rally at the University of Utah, graduate student Sebastian Miscenich mentioned that and questioned why the U. would want to partner with the University of Haifa.

He led a protest across from a study abroad fair held by the U. Demonstrators, yelling, “Shame!” One held a poster that said, “Cut ties with University of Haifa!”

None of the booths at the fair had any information about the Israel program.

Still, Miscenich handed out fliers to protesters with the number for the U.’s Learning Abroad office, encouraging them to call and push them to end the University of Haifa connection. The fliers included a script that callers could read from, with a demand that the U. “divest from Israel,” should they choose to contact the office.

Polly Redd, 26, a senior at the U., noted that other schools have dropped their ties with the Israel college. That prominently includes Pitzer College, a private, liberal arts institution in California, according to Inside Higher Ed.

But the school said its tie to the University of Haifa was already on the chopping block, and came with the end of 10 other study abroad programs with low enrollment; it was not the result of protests, Pitzer officials say.

“As students, we need to stand up,” Redd said. “Students in Gaza can’t go to school because their universities were all destroyed by bombs.”

U. students protesting on Thursday claimed their calling campaign efforts resulted in the U.’s Learning Abroad office closing on both Thursday and Friday. A University of Utah spokesperson said that was actually due to ongoing construction.

The university, though, advised students to weigh in this coming spring by filling out a study abroad survey, which will ask where students would like to go and where they would not.

The U. says it considers locations for its study abroad program based on interest, as well as where faculty could conduct research projects. It also looks at how easy it is for students to get visas, as well as safety, according to the school’s statement. The U. factors in risk assessments from the U.S. Department of State.

“We have to know what’s happening and have boots on the ground to make sure that it’s a viable option for our students,” McCrillis said.

Brigham Young University in Utah also has a “home base for study in the Holy Land.” The private Provo-based school that’s sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints runs the BYU Jerusalem Center.

The 93 students, faculty members and their families there were evacuated last October days after the war began. The school hasn’t announced when it might resume operations there.