As COVID-19 continues to impact UofSC, the country, and the world, the Student International Travel Oversight Committee (SITOC) continues to meet to discuss the state of international travel. Email communications from Study Abroad and the Global Carolina Department have been consistently sent to stakeholders across campus from January to now and can be found here. When SITOC met on April 15th, they made the decision to cancel the remaining international summer programs that were not previously recalled or impacted.

For Study Abroad, this meant that their 46 Maymester and Summer Global Classroom Programs (GCPs) could no longer move forward. However, Study Abroad is still celebrating a success. If Maymester and Summer programs had not been impacted by COVID-19, Study Abroad would have boasted a staggering 86.8% success rate of GCPs from proposal to actualization. Even amongst the impacts of COVID-19, 26.3% of GCPs successfully traveled during Fall Break, Winter Break, and Spring Break for 19-20’s academic year.

As the 20-21 academic year begins, SITOC will continue to review travel. When SITOC met on May 15th, they had not yet cancelled Fall international travel. They will meet again on June 15th to continue their discussions about Fall and Winter travel, using CDC and Department of State travel advisories, as well as SCDHEC to guide their decision.

As they do so, faculty are continuing to propose next year’s GCPs. The proposal submission opened on May 15th and will continue through August 30th. Faculty and staff interested in supporting and proposing a GCP for academic year 20-21 should visit the Global Classroom Resources organization on Blackboard. If you are not yet signed up, please follow the link here to be added as a user. The Blackboard offers information on developing a course, workshops, and resources for GCPs.