Study-abroad enrollment at Temple University's campus in Tokyo is rebounding from dips seen in the year after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Japan, according to school officials.
Just over a year ago, Temple-Japan was facing the most frantic days in its history following the magnitude-9.0 quake, deadly tidal wave and nuclear reactor meltdown. The disaster on March 11, 2011, killed more than 19,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands into temporary housing.
While the campus is about 230 miles from the quake's epicenter, the events severely jolted students and staff, both physically and mentally. Campus dean Bruce Stronach described weeks of high-stress days filled with powerful aftershocks, logistical challenges and countless middle-of-the-night calls with officials at Temple's main campus in Philadelphia, which is 13 hours behind Tokyo.
"You really get to see what other people are made of,'' Stronach said. "The people who go through it with you, you bond with in a way that you wouldn't ordinarily.''
Temple opened its Japan campus in 1982, making it the oldest American college in that country. It now serves about 3,400 students, including study abroad, corporate education, local Japanese and "direct admits'' -- students from about 60 nations who apply specifically to that campus for various degree programs.
Though Temple's facilities were found to be structurally sound after the quake, classes were temporarily canceled. Stronach said some students, staff and faculty left Japan for their home countries. Study-abroad programs were canceled after the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Japan due to radiation concerns.
The university worked feverishly to help all students finish the semester wherever they chose, including other institutions or through online coursework.
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Erik Jacobs, 21, was among the study-abroad students who returned to Temple in Philadelphia. The junior political science major from Chambersburg, Pa., got to spend only about a month in Tokyo, but said the abbreviated experience ultimately "expanded and invigorated'' his interest in the culture. He is grateful to be unhurt and plans to return.
"I consider myself very fortunate (that) all I lost was a month to study in Japan,'' Jacobs said.
All told, Temple-Japan suspended academic programs for about three weeks. All courses were completed with only a one-week extension of the semester. The annual commencement ceremony, with 270 graduates, was held as originally scheduled.
But the disaster occurred during the recruiting season for study-abroad, timing that Stronach described as "a double-whammy." Last fall -- about six months after the crisis known in Japan as 3/11 -- the number of study-abroad students on campus dropped by about half, from 63 to 32.
Those numbers are beginning to rebound. The campus is hosting 44 study-abroad students, compared with 69 last spring when the crisis hit, Temple officials said. The numbers for summer study-abroad look to be higher than pre-quake levels.
The newest challenge is the strong yen, which Stronach said makes Temple-Japan expensive for direct-admit students coming from outside the country. Tuition currently is about $17,400 per year.
But Stronach said new recruitment strategies seem to be helping. Enrollment last fall was down 16 percent from fall 2009, a decline that could also be partly quake-related. This summer's figure is expected to be nearly the same as summer 2010, which preceded the disaster, he said.
Overall, the number of American students studying in Japan has more than doubled to nearly 6,200 in the decade ending 2009-10, according to the U.S.-based Institute of International Education. Those pre-quake statistics are the most recent available.
"Students don't spin the globe and randomly come to Japan,'' Kyle Cleveland, an associate professor of sociology at Temple in Tokyo, wrote in an email. "They would not be here if they did not have genuine interest and in many cases, a long-term commitment to learning about the culture.''
Desmon Hickson, a 20-year-old computer engineering major from Baltimore, wrote in an email last fall that he's glad he went to Temple-Japan, despite initial fears about lingering effects from 3/11.
"People know it happened and still acknowledge and understand and are supportive of the (victims), but life seems to be going on normally,'' Hickson wrote.
And as Temple-Japan marks its 30th anniversary this year, university officials in Philadelphia described the campus as a linchpin of the school's commitment to produce globally competent students and to help faculty engage in teaching and research on worldwide issues.
"Looking ahead, our hope is to provide -- in collaboration with the Japanese government -- a model of international educational partnership and innovative global learning for those students who wish to avail themselves of an American-style education in Tokyo,'' Provost Richard M. Englert said in a statement.
