One would have to wonder why there are many programs for Cuba studies on American campuses. After freeing up travel enough for barnstorming Tommies to visit and play baseball, the Bush administration St. tightened travel rules so that students who wanted to visit the country had to have in-country curricula that lasted ten weeks. Apparently this is too long for the little darlings.

Cuba as a study-abroad program for budding lefties and their faculty are popular at places like Purdue or Xavier or Colorado, as well as Augsburg or St. Thomas. The ten-week minimum was part of a broader effort to re-erect restrictions on American contacts with Cuba.

If one really wants to study a place, you would want to visit for more than three weeks. I spent five in Egypt but would never dare say I know Egypt. I spent seven weeks in Indonesia and barely understand some of the place. If you are going to study a country, you should stay a while, learn what it's really like to live there. But that's NOT what organizers of study abroad trips to socialist paradises want!