Concerns about increasing violence in Gaza are leading universities to cease study abroad programs in Israel, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Locally, Duke University appears to have made the same decision. And at least one Israeli program that UNC Chapel Hill is affiliated with, at Ben-Gurion University, has postponed a program for one week and has posted a security alert to its website.

A lot of American universities encourage their students to study abroad. That is, a semester or two at another university in Europe or elsewhere.

But American students are, in increasing numbers, choosing to do their entire college study in another country, according to a report today in the New York Times.

One snapshot: At the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, 1,230 of 7,200 students enrolled this year are Americans. A decade ago, fewer than 200 Americans attended. 

The nine local college students who spent seven weeks in Ghana earlier this summer had little choice but to chat each other up into the wee hours.

It was almost too warm to sleep.

Said Ally Bell, a rising Duke senior:

    "It was really, really hot. All the time. It was hot at night, and hot during the day. We didn't have air conditioning. We had fans that were on a 60-minute rotation, so every 60 minutes someone had to get up and turn it back on."