University Presidents Call for Lifting Educational Exchange Restrictions: AASCU Members Seek U.S. Policy Change to Cuba-Related Travel: Members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) have called for lifting all restrictions on educational exchanges with foreign countries, including exchanges with Cuba that are currently limited by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Members ratified this policy position today at the Association's Annual Meeting as they endorsed the Association's 2009 Public Policy Agenda, the document that spells out the policy principles and positions that guide AASCU's advocacy on current and developing issues at the federal and state levels.
'One of the best ways to overcome the ill will and mistrust built between Cuba and the United States over the past 40 years is to fully develop educational exchange programs; that is impossible with the current travel restrictions. During even the coldest days of the cold war years, we did not have the onerous restrictions on travel to the former Soviet Union as those which currently exist on travel to Cuba,' said Constantine W. Curris, president of AASCU.
