IES Abroad, a nonprofit study-abroad provider that serves more than 5,500 students a year, announced Thursday that it is suspending its spring programs in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. The announcement marks one of the first in what could be a series of similar decisions by colleges and others as they struggle to balance the academic interests of their students with safety concerns in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent damage to a nuclear reactor in northeast Japan. A news release from IES Abroad notes that a combination of factors—including a State Department travel warning and the cancellation or delay of the spring semester at some of their partner universities in Japan—led to the decision, which will affect 58 students from a range of colleges across the United States.