After 18 days of protests commanded the attention of the international community and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s Feb. 11 resignation brought an end to three decades of autocratic rule in Egypt, the outcome of the of the Egyptian government’s transition will determine the future of study-abroad programs there, students and administrators say.
Since Tufts does not have an abroad program in Egypt, Tufts students studying there are typically enrolled in non-Tufts programs such as the one run by Middlebury College through the C.V. Starr School in the Middle East in Alexandria.
Middlebury cancelled this semester’s program in the early hours of Jan. 30, evacuating its students from Alexandria by plane through Europe to the United States.
Tik Root, a Middlebury junior, witnessed the first days of the protests in Alexandria before the school decided to cancel the program.
“We knew we were going to be evacuated, and I had a feeling we weren’t coming back,” Root told the Daily. He said he instead plans to study this semester at Damascus University in Syria.
While four Tufts students studied in Egypt during the fall, no one went there for the spring semester this year, according to Associate Dean of Programs Abroad Sheila Bayne.
“It just so happened that there weren’t any [students] this spring,” Bayne said. “It was lucky.”
The decision to cancel a program rests in the hands of the directors in question, Bayne added. “Student safety is very important, and we try to give students the information that they need to make good decisions,” she said. “But it’s up to the programs that are running there to decide whether they’ll run in a given semester.”
Middlebury Program Director Nehad Heliel, who has remained in Egypt after the end of the protests, said student safety was the top factor in the decision to cancel the program. Heliel’s comments were provided to the Daily by Middlebury junior Otis Pitney, who has remained in contact with the program director.
“As the director of the Middlebury program, number-one in terms of my duty, my job description, is I have to look out for [students’] security,” Heliel said. She said the decision to cancel the semester was taken after discussions between Middlebury administrators both in Egypt and in the United States.
Several Tufts sophomores considering study-abroad programs in Egypt next year said despite the political uncertainty, Egypt remains an attractive destination because of the benefits of language immersion.
Sophomore Mark Rafferty submitted his application to the Middlebury program for fall 2011, but is still undecided where he will end up.
He said the likelihood that he will study in Egypt next year depends on the political situation.
“I was very optimistic about it until I read a few days ago that they’re postponing elections for six months,” Rafferty said. “If it’s going to be uncertain until that point, [the program] probably won’t want to risk it.”
Heliel said she was confident about the future of the Alexandria program, predicting that interest in the program would only increase.
“It’s not going to make students run away from Egypt — it’s going to actually make Egypt a more interesting location in terms of study abroad,” Heliel said.
Sophomore Caitlyn Doucette is in the process of applying to the Middlebury program and said she was confident in the university’s decision.
“I would feel comfortable if they felt comfortable still having the program,” Doucette said.
Paul Wulfsberg, a former Tufts professor who also served as an associate director of Middlebury’s Alexandria program until August, told the Daily that safety concerns from parents are sometimes incongruous with the situation on the ground.
“In terms of State Department travel advisories and all the press, perceived instability is important for students’ parents,” Wulfsberg said.
He cited Syria as an example. “A lot of students are hesitant to think about Syria because their parents are worried about them going there when it actually has been a pretty stable place.”
Doucette is unsure whether her parents would be comfortable with a decision to study in Egypt, but said she would make the final call.
“I’m kind of at the point in my life where they trust me to decide whether a place is safe enough. Ultimately, it’s my decision — I just don’t like unnecessarily scaring them,” Doucette said.
Wulfsberg said even in the event of the creation of an anti-Western government in Egypt, the continuation of study-abroad programs next year is not impossible.
“If it’s a government that’s opposed to American policies, it will probably be more difficult, but not impossible to have American study-abroad programs there,” Wulfsberg said. “I doubt that the government there would place significant obstacles to study abroad. Egypt is dependent on having a regular in-flow of foreigners and tourists so that would not be in their best interest.”
Heliel said that she believes things will be back to normal by September.
“I think people are going to act very civilized, and things are going to calm down,” she said. “I do think that by September things will be better.”
Ellen Kan contributed reporting to this article.
