Citing a “dismal budget climate,” TCAT raised some fare prices and eliminated several bus routes in its plan for the spring of 2012, which went into effect on Sunday.

In what many viewed as the most visible outbreak of discontent after months of negotiations over wages and insurance benefits, one third of TCAT bus drivers called in sick Thursday morning, disrupting service on at least eleven rural routes.

This is the first in a two part series examining how international political strife is affecting students’ study abroad plans.

Since January of this year, faculty strikes in Paris have altered 18 Cornell students’ study abroad experiences, taking place through the Emory-Duke-Cornell (EDUCO) program at the University of Paris.

EDUCO hosts a Paris Abroad program for students attending either of the three universities in its name. Cornell students studying abroad in Paris through EDUCO signed up this semester for one of its four partner universities in the French capital: University of Paris 1: Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris 4: La Sorbonne, Paris 7: Denis-Diderot and Institute d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences-Po).