Kudos to U.C.‘s president

University of California President Mark Yudof followed through on a promise he made to our reporter Stacey Palevsky following his return from a trip to Israel in July.

He said he would re-examine U.C.'s 2002 decision to suspend its study abroad program in Israel. Well, this week he went a step further and reinstated the Israel program.

Because Yudof is an observant, kosher-keeping scholar, his action was not surprising. Still, he deserves our thanks for taking such a decisive step and doing so only five months after becoming U.C. president.

Yudof is on vacation with his family this week, but our guess is that he won't take credit for the change. He will say that a committee studied the issue and made the decision. But we know he played a very influential role.

In July upon his return from a summer trip to Israel with nine other university chancellors and presidents, he said in an interview, "I told Hebrew University that it's no secret — I'm going to take a another look" at the policy.

In announcing the program's reinstatement this week, a press release said the university "enhanced its risk assessment program" and now has "access to the services of a leading corporation specializing in risk management technology, integrated crisis response and the analyses and assessment of intelligence and changing conditions for regions around the world."

A travel warning from the U.S. State Department is the reason the university cited in 2002 for suspending its Education Abroad Program at the Rothberg International School at Hebrew University. But travel warnings are not unusual for Israel, because of the ongoing tension with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, high school students and students from other colleges have been studying there without any incident. The U.C. ban seemed discriminatory.

Apparently the university bowed to complaints, sort of.

Only weeks before Yudof arrived here in June from the University of Texas, a U.C. provost announced that students would be permitted to enroll in non-U.C. study abroad programs without losing credit, financial aid or readmittance to their campus, as had been the case for some students since 2002.

That was a good start.

But clearly such a large, prestigious university that sponsors study abroad programs in more than 34 countries had to go one better by fully reinstating the Israel program.

Yudof's quick action is proof that the Jewish community has a new friend running the U.C. system. We compliment him on this thoughtful decision and hope that he finds a way to further promote cooperation between U.C. and all of Israel's schools of higher education.