Cara Thompson could have never predicted something like the North Carolina travel ban, but a rare opportunity was put to an end because of it.

Thompson, an associate professor of graphic design at Oswego State, is also the director of Research and Individualized Student Experience (RISE), which, according to Thompson, is a campus-wide support for students to travel to present their research and creative work.

Thompson had been planning a trip with students and other faculty to travel to North Carolina for the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) from April 7 to 9. The conference would have included students in the art, history, chemistry and physics fields.

To Thompson and the students’ dismay, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently issued a New York state-funded travel ban to North Carolina after North Carolina passed discriminatory legislation against transgender individuals.

“The state of North Carolina has enacted legislation to bar transgender persons from using bathrooms and changing facilities corresponding to such persons’ gender identities, has excluded sexual orientation and gender identity from that state’s anti-discrimination protections and has prohibited units of local government from extending such protections to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens,” stated Gov. Cuomo’s executive order.

The order goes on to state just how this affects state-funded travel from New York to North Carolina.

“All agencies, departments, boards, authorities and commissions to review all requests for state funded or state sponsored travel to the state of North Carolina so long as there is law in effect there that creates the grounds for discrimination against LGBT citizens,” the order stated. “To bar any such publicly funded or publicly sponsored travel to such location, unless such travel is necessary for the enforcement of New York State law, to meet prior contractual obligations, or for the protection of public health, welfare, and safety.”

Vicki Furlong, the assistant vice president for finance and budget, and Becky Waters, the director of accounting, are in charge of processing travel from their department and issued the campus-wide announcement in regards to the travel ban.

According to Furlong, there were no exceptions for the travel ban, even for academic purposes.

“Unfortunately, when we reached out to get clarification on that, they said it applied to every agency at every level,” Furlong said. “Obviously despite the fact that we’re an administration we’re very supportive of our students and this is very disappointing, as much as I’m sure it is to the students and the departments.”

According to Waters, there have been no complaints regarding the travel ban and the trip to NCUR was the only instance that had to be canceled in regards to the executive order.

“I’ve had a few questions asking about connecting flights, but nobody else had any trips planned,” Waters said.

According to Thompson, the option to pay out of pocket would have been too costly and now Thompson is working to refund the students who had paid the $200 registration fee for the North Carolina conference. Nine students were planned to go on the trip and now three are signed up to go to Thompson’s back-up plan: the SUNY Undergrad Research Conference on April 15, which is significantly less expensive.

“[The students] were obviously disappointed and I don’t blame them,” Thompson said. “For one thing, getting out of Oswego at this time of year when it’s still cold, I think we were all looking forward to that. It was going to be an exciting trip for them.”

While Thompson acknowledged that the SUNY conference might not be as grand as the national North Carolina conference, she hopes the students going are still excited to present their work.”

Senior biochemistry student Sasha Padilla was set to present her thesis, “Detection of Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate in Drinks and Saliva.” It was among a few selected in her field out of 4,000 submissions.

“While I can understand the rational behind Gov. Cuomo’s decision, I cannot see how limiting the ability for SUNY students to better their academic career could be in any way beneficial,” Padilla said. “I personally feel like exceptions to the ban should be made for public school systems in support of our students.”

Senior history major Jennifer Santorelli hopes that she did not let her department down, sincw she would have been the first history major from Oswego State to present at NCUR, but she said she understands Gov. Cuomo’s decision.

“It’s unfortunate that students traveling for educational purposes are indicated in the ban, but that’s the price paid to promote tolerance,” Santorelli said. “History is being made.”