PROVO — Upheaval in the Middle East is being cited as the major reason Brigham Young University plummeted in the rankings of schools with the most students studying abroad.
BYU dropped from No. 1 to No. 10 on the Open Doors 2002 report, which is done annually by the Institute for International Education. The New York-based group released the report Monday.
Figures for 2000-01 — the most recent data used by researchers — show a marked drop in the number of BYU students heading to foreign lands to take classes, learn languages and experience local cultures.
In the 1999-2000 report, BYU landed at the top with 1,967 students.
The next year, however, as violence in Jerusalem escalated, BYU's enrollment in study-abroad classes dipped to 1,235 students.
To claim the study-abroad crown, Michigan State University sent 1,835 students to faraway lands for classes in 2000-01. That's up from 1,674 the previous year.
"We're 100 percent sure (the drop) is because students are no longer at the Jerusalem Center," said Carri P. Jenkins, BYU's spokeswoman.
Leaders at the LDS Church-owned school decided in late 2000 to cancel the study-abroad classes at the center until tensions between Israelis and Palestinians eased.
At that time, some 175 students were whisked from the center by commercial carrier before the end of the semester because of warring between Israelis and Palestinians.
The university remains unsure when students will return to the center, built near the Mount of Olives. A small staff is at the center to host tourists and concerts.
Before the classes were canceled, BYU counted on 820 students signing up for a semester at the center.
If the classes would have been held at the center, said Rodney Boynton, director of BYU's international study programs, BYU would have landed atop this year's Open Doors list.
"If we would have had the Jerusalem Center," he said, "we would have had over 2,000 students participating in study abroad."
Boynton said BYU's Paris, London and Madrid study-abroad programs are growing. "We are doing as much as we possibly can to make sure we're sending our students to safe places," he said.
Nationally, 154,168 students studied abroad in 2000-01, up from 143,590 the year before, according to the Open Doors report.
The report doesn't include enrollment counts after Sept. 11 that would show if the terrorist attacks affected programs.
E-mail: jeffh@desnews.com