UAlbany Launches 2 Relief Initiatives for Japan

Recommends Exchange Students in Japan Leave Nation

UAlbany's Japanese Student Association is fundraising for earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 18, 2011) --

As the University at Albany announced today new relief efforts to aid Japan, it notified the 21 SUNY students on its partner campuses in Japan that they should leave the nation as soon as possible. UAlbany will provide assistance to the students in getting tickets back to the U.S. and will purchase tickets for some students who do not have alterable round trip tickets.

The University's current two relief initiatives for Japan are:

• The UAlbany Disaster Relief Fund for Japan serves as a clearinghouse for humanitarian contributions made by and through the UAlbany community. Donations up to $25,000 will matched, dollar for dollar, by University Auxiliary Services at Albany. Pooled funds will be distributed evenly between the American Red Cross and The Japan Society. Donations to this Fund will be accepted through June 30, 2011;

• The UAlbany Student Relief Fund is an emergency fund set up to support UAlbany students who have been impacted by the tragedy in Japan.

All SUNY students in Japan — 13 from UAlbany and 8 from other SUNY campuses — are located well outside the area currently under warning by the U.S. State Department, defined as 50 miles from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Four students are enrolled at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), which is currently on semester break. The other 17 are at Kansai Gaidai University near Osaka, which is well south of the area affected by the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima.

James M. Pasquill II, UAlbany director of Study Abroad and Exchanges, reports that UAlbany’s four students enrolled at TUFS have either left Japan or have been moved to Kansai Gaidai University, whose spring break begins today.

UAlbany’s request for students to evacuate Japan immediately comes in response to a recommendation from the State University of New York’s Office of Global Affairs. UAlbany will initiate plans for all students to continue their studies at their home campuses. Contingency plans also are in the works to allow the students to finish their coursework from wherever their homes may be.

UAlbany advised the students of the U.S. government’s official statement, as well: “The State Department strongly urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Japan at this time and those in Japan should consider departing.”

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Raising money for relief efforts in Japan is just one of the many ways UAlbany faculty, staff, and students make a World of Difference. To learn more about how UAlbany contributes, visit UAlbany's Community Connections.

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