"There were some concerns about outages perhaps happening or logistical problems becoming a little more complicated as time goes on so we felt for the safety of our students that it would be best that they returned to California," Ellen Griffin from SF State said.
The SF State students are in the Tokyo and Kyoto areas. None of them were studying in the hardest hit areas or near the unfolding disaster at those nuclear reactors. Those taking classes or majoring in international studies at SF State say studying abroad is an eye opening experience.
"You are adapting to everything, new information, new quality of life and you are basically just mesmerized by how people live outside the U.S," SF State student Rachid Yousfi said.
Others believe it would be beneficial for those students to stay in Japan.
"Being able to immerse yourself in that society and be a part of this rebuilding process for Japan, that is a once in a lifetime time thing. If I were there I would want to be a part of that," SF student Isaiah Reed said.
Students have been collecting money for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. There are 178 students from Japan attending SF State. The university has reached out to them.
Meanwhile, the UC System has yet to decide what to do with their students. There are 80 of them enrolled in programs there.
"So what is happening right now is we're in touch with all of the students and the education abroad program is in contact with every program that these kids are in and they are making decisions right now about whether or not they are going to continuing their program," UC System Vice President of Communications Lynn Tierney said.
