All 22 students slated to attend the C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in the Middle East in Alexandria for the spring semester were safely evacuated by plane to Prague on Monday, Jan. 31 after witnessing demonstrations, violence and looting due to protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The program consisted of five Middlebury students and 17 students from other colleges and universities. After arriving in Prague, some students were delayed by flight availability and weather conditions in the U.S., but all students arrived at their final destinations by Feb 3.
According to Hafsa Ahmad ’12, who arrived in Egypt mid-January, the students had no reason to anticipate the coming violence.
“Everybody believed that Egypt was the most stable place to be in the Middle East,” said Ahmad. “There was nothing to indicate that there would ever be revolution.”
Students first received a warning of possible protests on Jan. 25, a national holiday known as Police Day that celebrates the police forces in Egypt. Many Egyptians view the police as an extension of the Mubarak regime, and they planned to use this holiday to protest Mubarak’s rule.
According to International Programs Coordinator Bill Mayers, program staff advised students to “lay low” and sent students a document on safety protocols.
On Thursday, Jan. 27, upon seeing news reports of the situation in Egypt, Vice President of Language Schools, Schools Abroad and Graduate Programs Michael Geisler asked for daily updates from Program Director of C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in the Middle East Nehad Heliel.
The Thursday update from Heliel “was very calm,” said Geisler.
Heliel’s message explained that demonstrations in Alexandria did not match the violence of the protests in Cairo.
She reported “occasional, [small] riots, but nothing major. [She felt] the students were in no danger,” added Geisler.
Ahmad confirmed that most remained calm on Thursday.
“The majority of people believed that Egypt would not fall in chaos or there would not be violence or the protests would just die down after a day or two,” said Ahmad.
On Friday, Jan. 28, the situation intensified as protests in Alexandria were met with violence.
Friday afternoon EST, Geisler received a very different message from Heliel.
“[She] said now there are lots of riots, there’s looting going on, police stations are getting attacked and [Alexandria is] becoming a dangerous place,” said Geisler. “That’s when we decided that we needed to look into evacuations.”
In an interview with The Burlington Free Press, Tik Root ’12 described how he witnessed police attack protestors with tear gas and rubber bullets on Friday. Root watched from inside a café.
“Then about two or three in the afternoon, the protesters seemed to have won,” said Root. “They came by carrying police boots, shields, bayonets, helmets. They’d kicked the police out of the city.”
When internet and cell phone services was shut off throughout Egypt, students were instructed to group together in the women’s and men’s dorms at Alexandria University. Mayers explained that staff needed to be sure that they could reach the students via landlines in the dorms.
On Saturday, the start of the students’ workweek, the group arrived at the University only to be told that classes had been cancelled. Heliel told the students to return to the dorms and wait there.
Later on Saturday, the staff at Alexandria University closed the male dorms. Male students in the program then relocated to an apartment rented by students on the program.
In the women’s dorm, students watched as Egyptian students left throughout the day on Saturday.
“We were there because we had been told that this was the safest place to be,” said Ahmad. “But in the middle of the night, the security guards left, and so we really had no protection whatsoever.
As night fell, Ahmad and the other women in the program watched the violence in the streets below from their dorm room windows.
“On the street, right below me, only a few hundred feet away from my eyes were these men with clubs and knives chasing each other,” said Ahamd. “After that, all I could think about was these men have the potential to break into our dorms and do whatever they please, and nobody here would be able to stop them.”
According to Ahmad, most of the girls in the dorm were unable to fall asleep that night.
The male students in the apartment also witnessed episodes of violence. Students heard gunfire throughout the night and gathered household objects as potential weapons against intruders. Root armed himself with a PVC pipe and joined the civilian militia on the streets.
Ahmad reported that program staff contacted the women every few hours, but they had no way to physically reach the group.
“The staff did the best they could,” said Ahmad. “There was violence on the streets; there was no way for anybody to come and stay with us that night. It was horrifying, but the reality was that there was nothing they could do.”
At daylight on Sunday, university staff arrived at the women’s dorms to shut down the building. Later that morning, Assistant Director of C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in the Middle East Shurouq Swaitti and Resident Coordinator of C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in the Middle East Lizz Huntley ’08 arrived to help evacuate the students.
Mayers explained that insurance company On Call International covered students under evacuation insurance for political emergencies or natural disasters. The policy, however, established strict qualifications.
“In order for the evacuation insurance to kick in, the [U.S.] State Department has to say that all American citizens should leave the country,” said Mayers. “That’s a really high threshold — that didn’t actually happen in Egypt until [Feb. 2, eight days after the protests began]. By the time you get to that point, it’s too late.”
Administrators made the decision to use On Call’s evacuation services even though it would mean incurring extra costs. A plane was scheduled to take off from Alexandria’s Borg el Arab airport at 1 p.m. and transport the group to Athens.
On Call promised vehicles to transport the group to the airport, they never arrived. At this point, Huntley took matters into her own hands.
Mayers explained that Huntley spotted a tour bus parked near the women’s dorm.
“She met the bus driver and she sparked up a conversation with him,” said Mayers. “She convinced him, through her powers of persuasion and a wad of money, that he could pick up our students and take them to the airport.”
While the students rode the bus in an uneventful trip to the airport, administrators were monitoring the evacuation flight coming from Athens.
“It was getting later and later, and we were in contact with [On Call] and they were still working on it,” said Mayers. “They had to get landing permissions and there were a lot of planes that were starting to want to get [to Egypt].”
Despite the flight delay, Mayers was confident that the airport was the best place for students.
“The airport was really safe because it was protected by tanks and soldiers from the army. In the city it was a much more volatile situation, but the airport was outside of the city — there weren’t any demonstrations there. I was thinking ‘OK, they’re not going to be comfortable, but they’re going to be safe.’”
Although students were safe in the airport, they had no access to food. Swaitti’s father, who had been visiting her from Jordan, suggested asking a cab driver to bring the group some food. Staff then gave a driver money and promised a much larger sum upon his return. The driver brought back food for the students, staff and a group from Butler University.
As it became apparent that their Plan A, a flight to Athens arranged by On Call, might not work, administrators contacted another company, Boston-based Global Rescue, run by alum Dan Richards ’95.
“They really know what they’re doing,” said Geisler. “Within three hours of signing up with them, they had two security agents at the airport, which impressed me, I have to say.”
“The On Call plane did make it to Cairo where it picked up a first load of students before heading to Alexandria,” explained Mayers. “The military boarded the flight to look for any Egyptian nationals, and then inspected the flight manifest and flight plan. At that point the On Call plane was refused permission to land in Alexandria, and instead directed to depart Cairo and fly directly to Athens. At this point however, the back-up plane that we'd chartered was well on its way to Alexandria.”
“At the time when we committed to Plan B, which [was] Global Rescue, it still looked as if Plan A might work, but we just didn’t want to take any chances at that point,” said Geisler. “In the end, only one plane made it through, so I’m glad we had Plan B.”
After spending Sunday night and most of Monday in the airport, students finally took off on a flight to Prague, provided by Global Rescue, around 11:45 p.m. local time.
Local government lends a hand
Liz Ross, associate director of international programs and off-campus study, reported that the office of Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and the State Department were “very engaged” in the evacuation.
“One student had lost his passport earlier in the semester and they helped out in negotiating matters so that he could get on the plane and arranged for him to pick up a new passport in Prague,” wrote Ross in an e-mail. “In addition, there were two non-U.S. passengers who needed help in entering the Czech Republic without Schengen visas, and Leahy’s office, working with the State Department, helped out here as well.”
Mayers said that during the process, parents of the students were “very understandably both anxious and worried.” Although Mayers felt that parents were generally confident in the evacuation plan, problems arose when parents received conflicting reports from the State Department.
“I would call the staff and Egypt and find out, no, that’s not what is happening, and then write back to the parents,” said Mayers.
Mayers estimated that he contacted different staff members in Egypt 15-20 times a day, and reported back to parents approximately three times a day. All College students, faculty and staff received e-mail updates on the situation from Geisler and Dean of International Programs Jeff Cason on Jan. 29, 30 and 31.
Plans for the spring
The Office of International Programs and Off-Campus Study offered students the option of a full refund, admission to the summer program at Middlebury Language School in Arabic or enrollment in classes on campus for the spring. Geisler emphasized that he and Cason wanted to provide students with options that would prevent them from losing academic credits.
Students also have the option of enrolling in non-Middlebury programs for the spring.
Although Root and Ahmad both began classes on campus on Monday, they expressed a desire to return to the region.
Ahmad is looking at programs in Syria and Morocco. Root explained that while College staff are receptive to options presented by the students, students themselves have taken the initiative to find alternative options.
“[The staff] haven’t ruled anything out,” added Root. “They’ve been helpful when we bring ideas to them.”
“[The staff] are being really resourceful but at the same time they’ve got a lot of other stuff on their hands,” added Ahmad.
Geisler explained that administrators “are going to take a wait-and-see attitude for the moment until we know what’s going on [in Egypt], in Jordan and in other places where we could potentially send students.”
“We’ll certainly take a look at what programs they want to go to, and see if we can give them credit for them,” added Geisler. “If they meet the Middlebury standards, then we will certainly consider [those programs].”
Students evacuate from Egypt
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