Student studying abroad returns home from China due to SARS fears

On April 14, Annie Taff ’04 returned early from studying abroad in China. With only a week before mid-terms, her parents urged her to leave the country because of their concerns about SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). With hype about SARS mounting in China, Taff ultimately chose to be safe rather than sorry.

"I essentially left for two reasons—a little bit out of concern for my health and a lot out of respect for my family," Taff said. "My parents called me out of the blue at 3 a.m. with the request that I come home."

Taff had been studying on the Lexia program in Shanghai at Fudan University. She said that she does not recall hearing much about SARS until just before she decided to leave.

"Actually, the first night I arrived in Shanghai, a year long student on my program had just returned from Hong Kong with news of the virus—we jokingly called it the ‘superflu’—we didn’t actually know it was called SARS until about a week before I left China," she said.

At first, though, the Chinese government didn’t reveal much or any of what they knew about the virus. "It was a non-issue," Taff said, "as no one knew anything about it. As the country hesitantly opened its doors to the W.H.O. [World Health Organization], more local reports were released, though they contained, as I’m sure you’ve read, very inaccurate numbers. In Shanghai, there were no known cases, . . . so alarm was low. . . if you washed your hands and ate well, you would be fine."

Slowly, as the media took hold of SARS, Taff pieced together what she could about the SARS virus. News media was difficult to access because there were few English language newspapers and the Chinese government restrictd access to Internet news sites.

"I got a lot of news by word of mouth, whether on the phone with my parents in the U.S., looking at links sent by relatives and talking with my friends. As you can imagine my viewpoint was pretty scattered and uninformed," said Taff. "Unfortunately, being caught between some people overreacting and others under-reacting was really stressful on decision making."

Back in the U.S., Taff is finishing her academic work in Seattle.

Dealing with the frustration of having to leave China early, she said, "Now that the despair of leaving has dissolved into disappointment, I am more worried about how to describe my interpretation of China to anyone. I feel that current events and actions will now dominate most opinions, and I don’t know how to begin to explain or rationalize."
 

Student projects from taken Art Department during break-in

Early Wednesday morning, an unidentified perpetrator broke the lock to the sculpture studio in the art department. Several student art projects were stolen, and art supplies were left in disarray.

A project by Annie Battistiti valued at $500, was listed among the items taken. The Senior Art show, scheduled for Friday, will be affected by the missing art, but will continue as scheduled.