The four students who were studying abroad at the American University in Cairo in Egypt were all safely evacuated from the country by Feb. 2.

The students were told to evacuate from Egypt on Jan. 30 by officials from the Syracuse University Abroad program and began leaving Jan. 31. The AUC transported students from Cairo to the airport using its bus system, and the U.S. Embassy organized flights to one of four safe havens: Athens, Frankfurt, Istanbul or Nicosia in Cyprus.

Jon Booth, executive director of SU Abroad, said he encouraged the four students to go to Istanbul because SU Abroad offers a program there. They also had the option to go to London or another country in the Middle East or to return to SU.

‘None of them wanted to come home because they wanted an SU Abroad experience,’ Booth said.

All four students accepted that they had to leave the country, he said. If a student had decided to take a leave of absence, he or she would have been able to stay in Egypt but would have lost his or her financial aid, Booth said.

At first, one of the three students did not want to go to Istanbul because he had already been in Egypt for the fall semester, Booth said.

‘He had made friends with other Americans who were from other American universities, and it was unclear whether those universities would stay or not,’ he said.

Students had made their decisions regarding their plans for the rest of the semester by Feb. 4. Three students chose to enroll in the Istanbul program. The fourth student went to Beirut, Lebanon, Booth said.

Booth said he encouraged the students to stay together when traveling to Istanbul, but they were separated at the airport. Two students were able to get on a flight to Istanbul, and the other two went to Athens after missing a flight at a different airport. An SU Abroad travel agent then set up a flight from Athens to Istanbul.

There was a limit of one bag per passenger because there was an evacuation, so the students had to leave a bag behind. If a bag was too heavy, they had to take belongings out, Booth said.

Three of the four students arrived in Istanbul on Feb. 1 and were housed in residence halls. The last arrived Feb. 2 but stayed at a youth hostel with friends he met in Cairo. The students kept in touch with Booth and their academic advisers through conference calls via Skype to discuss their options, Booth said.

One of the main concerns facing the students in Istanbul is the lack of Arabic courses. Booth and the students’ academic advisers are looking for a way to implement an Arabic course in Istanbul to help students complete requirements. If they can’t put together a course for the students who need it, a Rosetta Stone-type CD is being considered, Booth said.

The students all arrived in their respective locations just in time for orientation and for classes to begin.

Booth said: ‘I think it was a fantastic university team effort to support these students and their families as they’ve gone through this disruption.’

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Published on February 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: [email protected] | @lgleveille