Several students from the University of Texas at Austin are being evacuated from Egypt in the upheaval surrounding the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi.
All the students are safe and have been accounted for, UT associate dean Richard Flores said Wednesday evening. The university decided earlier this week to evacuate six undergraduates in an intensive summer language program in Alexandria to Meknes, Morocco, where they will continue their studies. The main reason for the evacuation was that students were forced to stay in their dorms, which was preventing them from completing the Arabic Flagship Program, Flores said.
News outlets recently reported clashes in Alexandria between those who support and oppose Morsi.
In addition, 30 graduate students in UT’s Center for Arabic Study Abroad Program at American University in Cairo are being flown to a safe place, Flores said. None of the students are from UT, he said.
Six days after the evacuation, the program will decide whether it is safe for the students to return to Egypt.
A travel warning issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of State orders the evacuation of “non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members from Egypt.”
