Matt Lenkowsky was optimistic about his opportunity to study for six weeks at The American University of Beirut this summer.

Lenkowsky, a graduate student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said he thought AUB, located in Lebanon, would be the best place he could go to study Arabic and be surrounded by the people’s culture. However, on Wed., July 12, during the course’s second week, the open war between Israel and Lebanon began. The course officially cancelled just three days later.

‘My interest is American foreign policy in the Middle East,’ said Lenkowsky. ‘The university has a strong reputation. I thought going in that Beirut was an unsafe place, but I thought things had settled down.’

Lenkowsky said he remembered the university area being a little tense the day after the bombings began, but couldn’t remember anyone thinking that the crisis between Israel and Lebanon would last for very long. The course seemed like it would continue as scheduled.

‘Then Friday, everyone had a bad evening,’ said Lenkowsky, recalling his experience at two or three in the morning when Israeli boats were firing right next to the university.

Even so, Lenkowsky emphasized that the university still tried to have classes the following day.

‘My class was watching ‘The Lion King’ in Arabic,’ said Lenkowsky. ‘It certainly wasn’t a normal class. It was pretty clear the course would be cancelled.’

As far as he can remember, no one left the course before its cancellation on Saturday. He said he would be the first to say that the university was in a fairly isolated area, so at no time did Lenkowsky feel physically threatened.

‘My general feeling was ‘okay, things are not very good, but I’ll be safe in the university area,” said Lenkowsky. ‘But I was able to hear all the bombs going off. I saw a lot of evacuees bringing their families into the university. I sort of knew that the southern part of the country was getting hit a lot worse.’

Lenkowsky described the time period from Wednesday to Saturday as happening ‘very quickly.’ He said some students had other programs evacuate them, while others took a cab ride across the Lebanese border to Syria to fly out.

Ada Porter, director of communications for AUB, said courses at the university would take place again next summer. While special courses, such as Lenkowsky’s Arabic course, will not resume again until then, the university’s regular courses, such as education, agriculture and business, will begin today in a condensed three-week session.

‘They’ve made the decision to move ahead,’ said Porter. ‘I don’t know what the enrollment will be. We’re going to wait and see. Usually we have over 7,000 students on campus. The war will influence that number. Eighty percent are from Lebanon, but I’m not sure how many are coming back.’

Daeya Malboeuf, communications manager at SU Abroad, said the Israel-Lebanon conflict has not affected its program in Israel. As reported in the Oct. 21, 2005 edition of The Daily Orange, the ban to study abroad in Israel – set after a security warning by the U.S. Department of State – was lifted.

It was speculated that SU Abroad’s first semester in Israel would take place this fall.

‘We haven’t cancelled the program, we have left it open,’ said Malboeuf. ‘Although, no one has registered for it. It’s limited interests, lets put it that way.’

Syracuse University began a study abroad program in Israel in the early 1980s, Malboeuf said. During the ’80s and ’90s, the program was always notoriously made up of a small group of students, typically between three and 14.

She attributed this low number to a variety of factors, including a student choosing to study elsewhere if he or she had already visited Israel in high school, a student finding a cheaper alternative and other reasons.

As for Lenkowsky, he said he does not plan to revisit Beirut in the near future.

‘It’s a fun city to be in,’ said Lenkowsky, ‘but I’m going to be in SU for the next twelve months. I don’t graduate until July.’

Lenkowsky, however, did point out that his future career might take him back to Beirut another time.

‘My interest is working in American government,’ said Lenkowsky. ‘I might get sent over there for a tour or dealing with foreign policy in the Middle East. Arabic studies is an interest of mine. You really need to learn Arabic and what people are saying and thinking over there.’

Published on August 27, 2006 at 12:00 pm