Status of Egypt School Still Uncertain

Before the school year began, Dean of International Studies Professor Jeffrey Cason decided to close the College’s school abroad in Egypt based at the University of Alexandria due to the political turmoil that continues to rock the country.

After the removal of President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt erupted into a state of chaos.  After June 30, protests became violent and to date more than 600 people have been killed.   Andrew Pochter, a 21-year-old American student from the Washington, D.C. area, was stabbed to death during a protest in Alexandria.  Pochter was teaching English to 7 and 8 year-old children while studying Arabic.

Tragedies like the one involving Pochter are exactly why the college decided to postpone the program in Egypt.

“Our main concern is the safety of the students,” said Cason, “Alexandria has seen its fare share of protests and clashes.”

The current situation is not unfamiliar either to Hileil or to Cason. The College evacuated all of the students out of Alexandria in February 2011, but reopened the Alexandria program once again for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Nihad Hileil, the director of the program in Egypt, agrees that the decision was a logical one.

“(Cancellation) for the Fall was a more natural decision,” said Hileil. “A regime had been toppled and people were in the streets.  Strife was inevitable.”

The closure was initially only meant for the Fall, but it became clear to both Hileil and Cason that the school should remain closed through the spring.  A resident of Alexandria herself, Hileil noted that “While things are relatively calm now, there has still been sporadic violence, and there is this overwhelming uncertainty.  It has only been two months since the situation became truly bad.”

For students of the College and other universities who applied to study in Alexandria, this means spending either the semester or the entire year in Amman, Jordan instead.  However, not all students have been driven away by the danger in Egypt.  Jeremy Kallan ’14 spent the summer in Cairo after having studied in Alexandria during the first semester of his junior year.

“When it comes to politics in Egypt, it is impossible to predict what is going to happen”, said Kallan. “But I know that I got a lot out of being there, despite the unrest.”

Even before the closure, the Alexandria program maintained strict rules for the American students.  Often, students were prohibited from leaving campus due to protests in the city.  Both Kallan and Hileil agreed that these restrictions can be stifling to the learning process, but are necessary concessions to student safety.

The program has a variety of other safeguards in place to keep students safe and to expedite an evacuation, if and when the program returns.  The College maintains a contract with Global Rescue, a firm that facilitates evacuation from any location in the world, along with a detailed contingency plan.

“In the end it will be a 24-hour job,” said Hileil of considerations to re-open the Egypt program in fall 2014. “We will have to be constantly aware of the constantly changing nature of the situation”.

Although Hileil and Cason are hopeful that the program will return for the 2014-2015 school year, they remain unsure as to whether or not that will be possible.