The University of California, Berkeley, has lifted all SARS-related travel and enrollment limits, officials announced Friday.

The news followed Centers for Disease Control announcements that significantly eased worldwide travel restrictions following the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a mysterious respiratory illness that originated in Asia and quickly spread around the globe.

"All of our policies have been based on CDC guidelines, and since CDC has virtually eliminated all the travel advisories, so have we," said George Strait, UC Berkeley's assistant vice chancellor for public affairs.

In May, UC Berkeley was criticized by foreign students and faculty after it announced that students from SARS-affected areas would not be able to enroll in summer programs. Officials feared they did not have the facilities to isolate students who showed signs of the flu-like illness. UC Berkeley was believed to be the first institute of higher education to enact such limits.

Officials later identified a number of isolation rooms on campus and allowed about 80 students from SARS-affected countries to attend summer sessions. But about 600 students from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were unable to attend courses through the university's extension program.

"It's been about a $2 million blow to us," said Teresa Parker, director of communication and marketing for UC Berkeley Extension, who hopes enrollment from SARS-affected areas will pick up again now that limits have been lifted. "Who knows what the long-term consequence will be. It's difficult to tell once you've disappointed students, who are really customers. If they've looked at other schools, we may have lost their good will and business forever."

Gary Penders, director of summer sessions at Berkeley, said the impact on his program was not significant, although the number of students from Taiwan dropped from 116 last year to 33 this year.

Stanford University, which had been monitoring the SARS situation worldwide and created a special Web site to inform the campus, also set aside a number of cottages that could be used in case students showed signs of SARS.

Spokeswoman Elaine Ray said the cottages will remain vacant so they can be used by temporary campus visitors. The cottages could also be used to quarantine students who develop illnesses such as chicken pox.