UNC study abroad program expands to Cuba.

UNC STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM EXPANDS TO CUBA. The University of North Carolina has teamed up with the University of Havana to allow students to study abroad in Cuba. UNC-Chapel Hill will send eight students there next month to study Cuban history, culture and international relations, along with Spanish grammar and language, reports AP (Dec. 24, 2003). The university has sent students to Cuba before, but traveled under another university's government license, a requirement of the U.S. government. UNC's license was several years old and was awarded before new federal restrictions were in place. The Department of the Treasury recently renewed UNC's license, allowing Carolina to send students and faculty to Cuba. "I think this might be the only country in the Western Hemisphere that Americans are denied the right to travel to," said Louis Perez, a UNC history professor who specializes in Cuba. "I think what the program allows us to do, among many other things, is to place our students in a country that is intrinsically fascinating in terms of its history and culture."