Unrest cuts program short

By Colin Young, News Staff

UPDATE: [1:30 p.m.] – Northeastern alumna Leila Fadel, the Washington Post’s Cairo bureau chief, has been detained by the Egyptian Interior Ministry, according to The Post. Fadel graduated from Northeastern in 2004.

UPDATE: [2 p.m.] – According to the Washington Post, Northeastern alumna and Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel has been released from Egyptian Interior Ministry custody.

Three students enrolled in the university‘s study abroad program in Cairo, Egypt returned to Boston last night after spending more than a week in the politically unstable country.

Danielle Kluger, a middler criminal justice major who was one of three Northeastern students in Egypt, said the protests came as a surprise to her when they started Jan. 25.

“When the unrest began I was shocked at what was occurring and how the protesters and the government were dealing with the situation,” Kluger said in an e-mail to The News. “You could tell that there was an extreme amount of tension in downtown Cairo the day before the big protest was planned.”

As the protests began to escalate, officials in the Northeastern Office of International Study Programs (OISP) began to monitor the situation and discuss bringing the students home. The university has a contract with International SOS, a company that specializes in information and security for travelers worldwide and ultimately facilitated the evacuation of all three students.

“Our contract with International SOS covers all students who participate in our programs abroad,” said Dr. William T. Hyndman III, director of OISP. “In the case of unrest or natural disasters, [International] SOS will evacuate our students.”

Kluger said even before she was contacted by OISP, her host university, the American University of Cairo, took precautionary steps to ensure students’ safety.

“We were on lockdown on campus and were not permitted to go to downtown Cairo, and they had no buses running from New Cairo to downtown,” Kluger said. “They kept us updated on information and what we could do to get out. I felt extremely safe on campus.”

As soon as the US State Department issued a travel warning Jan. 28, OISP officials contacted International SOS and began the process of removing the students from Egypt.

“When issues like this happen, we start to monitor the situation and contact both students and parents,” Hyndman said. “If we think our students are in danger, we bring them home. In this case it was an easy decision.”

Because the events in Egypt happened so early in the semester, the three students who were evacuated will have the opportunity to spend the rest of their semester in either Argentina or Australia because those programs have yet to start.

“Although they plan on resuming classes in two weeks, the state that Cairo will be in will still not be good,” Kluger said. “Although I would be able to take classes, the whole study abroad experience would not be the one I was looking for because freedom most likely will be restricted.”

The university has a 23-student Dialogue of Civilizations scheduled to leave for Egypt mid-May. Some students slated to participate in the Dialogue said they hope the program still runs.

“I’m still anticipating going,” junior journalism major Lauryn Paiva said. “But when you see the news and it is getting more and more violent by the day it becomes hard to imagine going. I think everyone is still holding out hope for the trip.”

Sullivan, who also serves as director of the international affairs program, will host a forum on Egypt’s street protests today from 2:50 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in 20 West Village F.