Academic travel to Cuba has been banned since 2004, but recently a group of academics from the American Association of University Professors challenged the restrictions in a lawsuit filed against the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
They didn't win their suit.
"I think the ban is ridiculous," said Joe Starita, a professor of journalism at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Forty-five years of this isolation has obviously not toppled Castro from government."
UNL's College of Journalism and Mass Communications was able to send students to Cuba in 2003 before the academic ban was in place. It took several weeks of paperwork, but Starita said he felt the trip was well worth the effort,
"The students, in two weeks, did more to topple the Castro government than our 45-year-old policy of trying to topple Castro by isolating him has achieved."
Starita also said, "The government's position is that by denying the students and professors the opportunity to travel to Cuba - one they will topple Fidel Castro from government, and two, it will hasten the transition of Cuba to a free and open society."
Starita stressed the importance of academic travel to Cuba because people there could benefit from American exposure.
"The more Americans and students from other free societies that Cuban youth are exposed to, the more they will want the same for themselves."
Christa Joy, UNL's Study Abroad director, agreed.
"There needs to be international exchange and international travel ... It's the learning aspect, the educational aspect of it (for both Cubans and Americans) that's important," she said.
It may be a long time before students will be traveling to Cuba, and no one can say when for sure, said Starita.
"Travel to Cuba is really not an option at the moment," Joy said.
jamieklein@dailynebraskan.com
