California State University, with 420,000 students on 23 campuses, has resumed its Study in Israel program at the University of Haifa, after a 10-year hiatus.
During the initial application period, which has now ended, only three students applied for the program that will begin this fall.
However, because many students may have missed the initial announcement, CSU has extended the application deadline up to April 10, provided all required forms are in order, university spokesman Erik Fallis said.
Interested students are urged to contact their campus international programs advisers as soon as possible.
CSU suspended its Israel Study programs in 2002, at the height of the second intifada, citing security concerns. For the same reason, the administration decided not to resume at this time the previous programs at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Even so, the CSU chancellor’s decision to restart the Haifa study program triggered some protests on a few CSU campuses. Some 81 faculty members and 46 students and alumni signed a petition opposing any relations with Israeli universities.
The University of Haifa campus is located atop the Carmel Mountain range, southeast of the city of Haifa, and is populated by some 18,000 students, studying in 55 departments and 60 research centers.
The university’s International School hosts more than 800 foreign students during its fall, spring and summer semesters, of whom some 60 percent are from the United States.
In addition, the university has recently launched several international MA programs, taught in English, including peace and conflict management, business administration and patent law, Holocaust and genocide studies, creative art therapies, and maritime civilizations.
