PROVO — Brigham Young University will allow 44 students — enough to fill one bus — to take courses next semester at the school's Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem.

It will mark the first time students have been back at the center since it was closed six years ago amid escalating violence in the Holy Land. However, it will be on a much smaller scale than in previous years of operation.

"Forty-four constitutes a busload of students, and the university has made a decision to travel with one busload of students at this time," said BYU spokeswoman Carri P. Jenkins.

The center, which overlooks the Mount of Olives, can house about 170 students. While there, students study Hebrew and Arabic languages, the Old and New Testament, ancient and modern Near Eastern studies.

Students at the Jerusalem Center travel throughout Israel, making trips to locations they have learned about during classroom discussions.

A previous attempt to open the center for fall semester was postponed in July when a spate of violence between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in Lebanon erupted along the boarder of the two countries.

However, the violence has calmed after a U.N. cease-fire resolution, and on Oct. 1 the Israeli army withdrew its last troops from Lebanon, according to news reports from the region.

BYU administrators have a few months to evaluate the stability of the region, Jenkins said. Winter semester is from January to April.

"Future programs (at the center) will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis with due consideration to the political and security environments in the region," according to a statement posted Monday on the BYU Web site.

Philip Cannon, a BYU graduate who attended classes at the center in summer 1999, does not think BYU will end up opening the center to students come January.

"I highly doubt it. There's no way that they'll send (a number of) naive BYU students to Jerusalem when there's a possibility of a suicide bombing at any time," said Cannon, the son of Deseret Morning News columnist Ann Cannon.

Philip Cannon described his time at the center as one of the most spiritual experiences of his life. The bus trips were integral to the program, he said.

"We went through Jordan, Egypt, just into the surrounding country," Cannon said. "We went down to Jericho. We stayed on the Sea of Galilee."

BYU will accept applications postmarked between Oct. 23 and Nov. 3. Students must be enrolled at the Provo campus and have studied for at least two semesters full time at a college or university.

Students who were interested in attending the center for fall semester must reapply, Jenkins said.

"Students had applied," she said, "but we had not sent out acceptance (letters)."

Students live at the center, an eight-story, 125,000-square-foot building on Mount Scopus overlooking the Mount of Olives, the Kidron Valley and the Old City.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com