Studentsabroadcan help skeWedview of America

For students venturing to study abroad, security should be the principal concern. To help ensure students' safety, each institution accepting Cabrini students has developed enhanced security measures.

At the American University of Rome, for example, students are given an emergency university cell phone number that can be used after hours. To keep outsiders out, students can only enter the buildings with new identifi~tion cards, which were issued on March 17, the date of the final ultimatum from President Bush to Saddam Hussein. The campus is also under 24-hour video surveillance.

With America and allies fighting a war Viewedby much of the global community as unjust, it is important that students understand the difference between beinga student in Americaand being a student overseas. Most people around the world view Americans positively just as we Americans view students at Cabrini from other countries positively. Most people can separate their opinions of what a government is doing from what individual students studying abroad do. But we have to realize that many people in other countries don't agree with the war and so we should not be surprised to find anti-war protests and even anti-American-government protest there.

As students in America, we do not realize how the recent decisions of our government affect the world's view of Americans. Part of the reason for our skewed vision rests on the shoulders of the American media. We do not see what the rest of the world sees. the media in every country, America included, presents the newsfrom that country's point of view. We in America don't always realize that the news we see is not necessarily the news that people in other parts of the world see and vice versa. This confusion leads us to believe that the rest of the world is seeing similar coverage. But the world ls seeing the other side, the side that sometimes portrays America and its people as ignorant bullies.

When students study abroad, they are leaving behind the freedom of America. On American soil,