The Northwestern Study Abroad Office announced Wednesday morning it will not process pending applications for Egypt-based programs in light of a U.S. State Department Travel Warning reissued Sunday and ongoing anti-government protests.
The office’s decision affects eight students whose Spring Quarter applications ranked either the American University in New Cairo or the Middlebury Program in Alexandria as preferred institutions, said Bill Anthony, study abroad director.
In an e-mail to impacted applicants, study abroad adviser Michelle Gere reiterated the University “will not operate, pay for, supervise, direct or otherwise support” an affiliated program in a country where a U.S. Department of State Travel Warning is in effect. She said Egypt, where a widespread revolt against President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year regime has grown increasingly violent, is no exception to this policy, which was last revised in June 2003.
Anthony agreed that although aggressive demonstrators are not specifically concentrated near the two Egyptian campuses, the policy “still stands.”
“You have to take it seriously,” Anthony said. “These situations are nimble. They’re fluid. You don’t know where they are going to be the next day.”
University Provost Daniel Linzer wrote in an e-mail Tuesday that study abroad safety must be handled with “the most responsible judgment.”
In a meeting with The Daily last week, Linzer floated the possibility of making the University’s travel warning policy more “subtle.” Currently, students are not allowed to study in any part of a country that is on the travel warning list, but administrators are considering allowing students to study in parts of a country removed from a conflict, even if the nation is on the list, Linzer said last week.
In Egypt, AUC’s New Cairo campus is 20 miles removed from Cairo’s currently chaotic downtown, but overseas students might not necessarily be living near the immediate campus, Linzer wrote in the e-mail.
“We also need to consider the potential for any protests to escalate and spread, and if certain groups (such as Americans) might be targeted as a part of the protest,” he added.
SESP junior April Stewart, the only NU undergraduate at UAC for Winter Quarter, said the Study Abroad Office should reconsider its approach to Travel Warnings. She described the neighborhood in which she resided as adequately safe and not lacking “the essentials” – food and water.
“I wasn’t in danger or anything,” Stewart said.
Regardless, NU study abroad advisers called her last Monday and encouraged her to exit the country. Stewart attributed her eventual choice to leave to her roommate’s earlier departure and other American classmates’ fleeing as political unrest intensified.
“I was advised to leave, but it was ultimately my decision,” she said. “It seemed like the best choice logistically and safety-wise.”
After informing study abroad advisers of her plans, she received a 4 a.m. e-mail from International SOS confirming an early-morning charter flight to Paris. International SOS, a global health care and security provider covered under NU’s study abroad health insurance package, paid for her two-night hotel stay in Paris. Stewart returned that Thursday to her hometown of St. Paul, Minn.
SESP senior Erin Bishop found herself in a similar predicament a year and a half ago, when a Travel Warning was issued for Madagascar in the wake of a tumultuous coup d’etat. She was preparing to enroll in a School for International Training site in Antananarivo when the Study Abroad Office notified her of the application suspension.
Although she said the Travel Warning policy “didn’t make sense” at the time of her trip cancellation, Bishop believes it is still an imperative guideline.
“I understand why they have it, but I don’t necessarily like it,” she said.
Meanwhile, the University “strongly discourages” Stewart from returning to Egypt when AUC reopens next week, according to an e-mail addressed Monday to Stewart from Alicia Stanley, associate director of the Study Abroad Office. Per the Travel Warning policy, Stewart forfeits all academic and financial support from Northwestern if she opts to re-enroll for the spring semester.
Still, Stewart said the disruption of her study abroad experience will not deter later travel plans.
“I would love to go back in the future,” she said. “I would love to go back now, but that’s not an option.”
Any study abroad student can access International SOS resources, which include travel alerts and medical assistance information, using NU’s member code, 11BCAS000003.
