According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the new federal regulations, which came into effect June 30, state that educational trips to Cuba must be at least 10 weeks long, and that students must be enrolled at the college that is offering the program. Furthermore, the regulations state that only full-time, permanent employees of colleges that run the programs may go on the trips. Virtually none of the approximately 300 educational trips to Cuba meet these requirements.
The new policy is based on May's recommendations of the President's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. As part of the president's hard-line stance on relations with Cuba, they hope to deny Fidel Castro's regime tourist money.
For Kathy Hamlin '06, one member of last year's spring break trip to Cuba, the trip provided a valuable experience that ought not be discontinued. "This stepping-up of the travel ban seems to me to be quite a wrong-headed move on the part of the Bush administration," she said. "It frustrates me to think that I might have been one of the last students to have this experience legally, especially since I don't see any convincing reason for the heightened restriction on travel."