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EAST LANSING – Michigan State University junior Sam Spitzley has been studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany since the fall.

Last week, she was told she had to be home in a matter of days. The threat of COVID-19 had sent her program and many others like it into a tailspin.

"We were given a deadline, by March 22 to come home," said Spitzley late on Thursday evening. "It's crazy, none of us know what's going on."

Then she received a second email, saying she had to be back by March 17, she said.

She’d already booked a flight but past the deadline.

"Now, I don't even have enough money to get back to the U.S.," said Spitzley.

Like Spitzley, many students are scrambling to leave their lives in other countries to return to not so normal lives in the U.S., with more questions than answers.

Close to 250 students have been called back from programs run by MSU’s Office for Education Abroad, said Executive Director Opal Leeman Bartzis.

"As we consider all aspects of having this premature return of students from abroad, we make decisions solely according to (students) safety and not cost," said Bartzis.

Getting those students back safely, along with those like Spitzley who are on programs sponsored by other schools, is the university’s top priority.

MSU has provided financial assistance to students on programs run through the Office for Education Abroad, reimbursing them for plane tickets or even helping cover the costs up front.

"We are asking students to first contact their airlines," said Bartzis. "For students who are forced to buy new tickets, we will reimburse. They were given directions in an email."

Bartzis said students were also made aware of what may be required of them upon return that include self-quarantining or screening for coronavirus.

Cost of returning home

The situation is different for students in programs run by other schools, like the one Spitzley is participating in, American Year in Freiburg.

Since MSU education abroad doesn't oversee the program, it leaves some participants to pay out of pocket for tickets they didn't think they'd have to buy so soon.

"We've signed contracts for apartments, bank accounts, phone bills," said Spitzley. "All these things that don't seem like much."

She's also struggling with leaving behind a place she now has grown to love. So has fellow MSU student sophomore Sammy Schuck, who is leaving behind her mother's side of the family in Germany: her mother was born and raised there.

"I couldn't believe it to be honest," Schuck said. "It ended so suddenly ... I just don't know what I'm gonna do when I get back ... why would I go to America and put myself at risk?"

Schuck and Spitzley both said they have no idea what would happen once they arrive in the United States at the airport.

Spitzley said she has only received two emails from her program as of March 13, telling her by when she need to return to the U.S. Neither email specified what would happen once she returned, she said.

She has not returned from Germany as of March 16.

Abigail Brasher, an MSU student who was studying in Valencia, Spain, hosted by University of Virginia, said an adviser from MSU came out to Valencia less than two weeks ago "and told us that shutting down the program wasn't even on the radar, that the issue wasn't pressing to us in Spain."

She and other students in Spain received news of the travel ban and were then mandated to find flights before March 13 at midnight, Brasher said in an email.

The following morning they booked the next possible flights through a travel agency.

Brasher said late on the evening of March 13 that she had four flight changes because of full airports and packed planes. She has since returned the U.S.

"I'm attempting to figure out the situation right now," said another MSU student, Isabella Green, who is studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa. She got an email on Friday that said she needed to come back to the U.S. by Tuesday.

South Africa was not restricted by recent travel bans.

The travel ban announced by president Donald Trump last week, only applies to those whose arrivals are 14 days after the ban takes place and are not U.S. citizens.

Spitzley said two students with her in Freiburg are from China and South Korea, studying at MSU on student visas.

Now, she says, they are being asked to return to two countries that have some of the highest rates of confirmed cases because they are not technically U.S. citizens.

"We aren't sure what to expect once we get through customs," said Brasher. "We aren't sure what health screenings we may be subjected to upon landing, but I would imagine we'll be, at the very least, getting our temperatures taken."

What about summer study abroad?

MSU political science student Josiah Leach was supposed to study abroad in Amsterdam this summer.

Now he’s scrambling to find an internship, summer job or housing.

"I was going to use this trip too Amsterdam to do my field experience to graduate from James Madison College," Leach said. "It screws up my graduation plans a lot."

A letter from the university recalling his program states "Education Abroad will refund all MSU program fees paid to date, including the $100 application fee and the $200 acceptance fee."

Bartzis said MSU has committed “to ensuring that students are able to receive full credit for their semester, although this may require a combination of work completed abroad and creative academic solutions from MSU as necessary."

"School-wise, we're told that we will be taking classes online to finish our credits up. They haven't outlined how this will work," Brasher said.

Contact Joe Dandron at jdandron@lsj.com or (517) 377-1065. Follow him on Twitter @JosephDandronMI.