The political unrest and protests in Egypt sent Hopkins study abroad students home. Yet while classes may resume in Cairo, it is uncertain whether Hopkins students will return.
Lori Citti, the director of the Office of Study Abroad, said that Hopkins began monitoring the situation in Egypt starting on Jan. 25th and then made the decision to bring students back from the American University of Cairo (AUC) where they were studying on Feb. 1st.
“We began monitoring and we began receiving info from the American University of Cairo,” Citti said.
“It began with the AUC saying that they were expecting demonstrations. AUC kept us updated and we began getting announcements,” she added.
Dan White, a junior who was abroad in Egypt and one of the three Hopkins undergraduates who were in Cairo, commended Hopkins for its efficiency in bringing the students back.
“Hopkins has a partnership with American SOS and they collaborated to get me home. The organization was pretty difficult to deal with but Hopkins was commendable. They were constantly in touch, they were awesome,” White said.
Citti said that Hopkins has a crisis management system in place designed to handle evacuations.
“We do expect there to be disruptions to programs: natural disasters, political unrest, medical emergencies for individual students,” she said. Citti noted that in the past Hopkins prepared for student evacuations in response to an earthquake in Chile and in Haiti.
White explained that he decided last fall in his sophomore year that he wanted to go to Egypt as he was studying Arabic and wanted experience in the Middle East.
“I decided to go to Egypt because they’re moderate at least as far as their views on America; they’re not like Iran,” he said. “And ironically, I went to Egypt because it would be the safest place.”
White arrived in Cairo on Jan. 20th and returned to the United States on Feb. 2nd. The United States State Department issued a travel advisor warning saying that it recommended against U.S. citizens going to Egypt. While the State Department never moved past a recommendation, Hopkins made the decision to evacuate all of its study abroad students.
“We did a mandatory evacuation,” Citti said. She noted that the AUC study abroad students were not the only Hopkins students in Egypt.
White said that there was a total of 24 Hopkins affiliates in Egypt comprising of students, both undergraduate and graduate, as well as professors.
“There were archaeological students who were in transit; we have faculty, we have public health people. There were a number of people in Cairo,” she said. “We had a number of situations.”
“The study abroad students are only one piece of a larger Hopkins puzzle,” she added. While the students at AUC and others researching with Professor Betsy Brian were evacuated, staff and others may not have left.
“In some cases it was their decision,” Citti said.
Morgan Roth, the director of communications for AUC explained that when the State Department issued its travel advisory it not only ran a voluntary departure providing transportation to students who wanted to leave, but also moved students to safe havens in Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and Frankfurt.
“We had a lot of students who made their way back to the U.S. and then we had 200 or so who decided to leave Cairo who were sitting it out in their safe haven cities,” Roth said.
According to Roth, the AUC will be resuming classes on Feb. 13.
“As it happens yesterday, the president and the senior administrators in Cairo decided that things have calmed down enough that we will be able to resume classes,” she said.
Roth said that the university is currently in the process of collecting information regarding who will be returning. “Life is sort of resuming in Cairo,” she said.
Roth recalled that the last time AUC came close to closing was during the first Gulf War. “Egypt, and Cairo in particular, was rumored to be a target for Saddam Hussein’s missiles,” she said.
Roth added that if a situation were to arise again in Egypt the University would not hesitate to shut down. “The safety of the students and staff and faculty come first. If at any point there was a compelling point to suspend classes, we would do it in a heartbeat,” Roth said.
White said that in Egypt he rarely felt unsafe. “We only felt in danger at nights with the looters coming around,” he said. “We had a ton of security; we were never really about the security.
We want to make sure that the transportation to and from the university is safe and that the campus itself remains highly secure. If there’s something that compromises or threatens to compromise either people or property, we’re ready to act.” Roth noted that neither of the housing facilities were damaged or threatened in any way during the protests.
While AUC may be opening its doors in a week, it is uncertain whether or not Hopkins students will return to Egypt this semester.
“We’ll be calling a lot of sources, the Department of State; we’ll be calling other institutions,” Citti said. “We’ll be talking to the students and their parents.”
Citti explained that besides student safety, Hopkins also takes academic credit into account when deciding whether or not students will be returning. “We have to look at academic wholeness; we can’t send them to a location if it looks like they can’t complete their semester, which will mean that they graduate late or don’t get their credit,” she said.
White said that even though he wants to return to Egypt and Hopkins may allow him to return, his family will not let him. “Honestly, the biggest barrier to me going back to Egypt is my parents. There’s a slim to none chance whether AUC or Hopkins lets me because of my parents, their sanity and my health,” White said.
Even if White does not return to Egypt, he has already had a life-changing experience. White not only spoke to Egyptian students participating in the riots, but also marched briefly with them.
“I went on a trip with my buddies to get water, we [came] out of the supermarket and there’s just a rally right in front of us,” White said.
“We decided to join history for a second; we joined for a block because when we got to our street we turned the corner. We weren’t trying to get tear-gassed or shot with rubber bullets,” he said. “We saw it. The passion, their fervor was just undeniable.”
White said that he feels strong sympathy for the protesters. “It was started by our peers in Egypt. When I say ours, I say educated youth,” he said.
Cady Nicol, a current senior who was abroad in Egypt last spring, said that she could feel the unrest even last year. “When I was there, everybody talked about it. All the students I talked to talked about how Mubarak had been in power for so long and [was] kind of a dictator,” Nicol said. “Even then I definitely saw small protests while I was there,” she said.
“I think it would be amazing to stay and be part of it and go and be in Tahrir Square with the protestors witnessing all of it,” Nicol said. That being said, she added that it would not only be potentially dangerous for the students, but also unfitting.
“It definitely should be a movement of Egyptians. It’s a little weird to have American students there and [be] part of it. Although, if I could see it in person, it would be amazing and interesting and a story to tell forever.” Nicol said.
