As tensions mount in Ukraine, two professors at Lock Haven University plan to travel there next week for a scheduled trip. Doctor Rick Schulze is a professor of health science at Lock Haven University. Next Friday, he and another professor will travel to Kiev, Ukraine to teach some courses at a university in the nation's capital. He said the area they will be in is safe, but he is keeping a close eye on developments in Ukraine in case things get much worse.
The chaos in Ukraine has been in the headlines for several weeks. With the threat of war looming over the eastern European country. If it weren't for the crisis, Doctor Rick Schulze and his colleague's upcoming trip to Ukraine to teach at a university in the capital city of Kiev would be nothing more than an exciting opportunity. Now it is a cause for concern.
"We will not be venturing at all into Crimea or Eastern Ukraine. It's just unsafe for Americans and travelers in general," Schulze said.
Dr. Schulze is a professor of health science at Lock Haven University. He and another professor are scheduled to leave for Ukraine next Friday to lecture at a university for one week. Schulze said the trip has been in the works for about one year, and despite tension in Ukraine he is looking forward to it.
"This is the time when I think people in Ukraine need the support of people in the united states," Schulze said.
It's not Schulze's first time teaching in Ukraine. Back in 2005 he spent a semester teaching at a university in Ukraine, which is located right along the Russian border.
"I applied for a fellowship and they assigned me to Ukraine. It was a totally new experience for me, i had never been to the country," Schulze said.
When Schulze was in Ukraine in 2005 he was in Lugansk, but says he was advised not to visit there during this trip.
"There are some mobs in that region that are pro-Russian and anti-American," Schulze said.
Schulze says Kiev is about an 18 hour train ride from where the riots are in Ukraine, but at this point he is not concerned for his safety.
"It sounds like it's de-escalating a little bit within the last 24 hours and I hope that as John Kerry works in Paris that we'll see this de-escalate in the next few days," Schulze said.
Doctor Rick Schulze says if things get worse in Ukraine over the next few days he will cancel his trip because there is no use putting his life in danger.