In an email to program participants, the Office of International Programs announced the cancellation the Georgetown 2013 Summer Program in Alexandria, Egypt due to mounting security concerns.

“Your safety is our primary concern, and after monitoring the security situation in Egypt this Spring, OIP has determined that we cannot offer a program in Egypt this summer with sufficient security for all students,” the email read.

“While security concerns have generally been limited to a few locations in Egypt, and foreigners have not been targeted, the unrest is expected to escalate in the near future due to fuel and food shortages.”

On Mar. 29, the State Department issued a travel alert to U.S. citizens visiting and living in the country warning of the “continuing possibility of political and social unrest, incidents of which have led to recent violence.” While U.S. citizens have not been targeted, westerners and U.S. citizens have been caught the middle of violent demonstrations. The alert makes specific mention of a rise in specific “gender-biased violence,” in which women have been the targets of sexual assault in and around protest zones.

According to Associate Director of Overseas Studies Lisa Gordinier, OIP says it is “willing to work with all students who had applied to the Alexandria program to help them find an appropriate summer program.”

The following fall and spring programs in Alexandria have not been canceled, however, and Gordinier says OIP does not plan to cancel them at this time. “We will continue to monitor the security situation in Egypt over the next couple of months before making a decision on that program,” she said.

Photo taken following a Jan. 1, 2011 bomb blast outside of a Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria.

Credit: oxfamnovib via Flickr

Yesterday, members of the Georgetown community received an email from Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President Chris Augositni announcing Georgetown’s adoption of a new international travel policy. Now all students, faculty, and staff that are travelling abroad through the University are required to register their travel plans. This information will become available to the University in the event of a crisis or emergency so that officials are are able to assist students and faculty. According to the email, services will include “emergency medical support, translation services, embassy information, repatriation and security, natural disaster and medical evacuation.”

In addition to registering travel with the university, travelers must also use the International SOS travel registration tool and enroll in adequate health insurance. Depending on the place of travel, it may also be necessary to “submit a proposal for review by a Travel Committee, sign an acknowledgment and assumption of risk form, and/or complete a safety and security orientation.”

In an e-mail to Vox, Katherine Bellows,  Executive Director of the Office for International Programs, stated that the new policy has two goals: “ First, it provides travel resources to members of the Georgetown community. Second, it addresses in a comprehensive and consistent manner the best ways to prepare for potential risks of international travel.”

Recent international events such as the Arab Spring revolts as well as the anti-austerity marches in Spain and the riots in Greece may put students at risk while studying abroad. Last fall, Georgetown student Derrik Sweeney (COL ’13), who was studying abroad in Egypt, was arrested by Egyptian officials during a protest in Tahrir Square.

Students are encouraged to go to Georgetown’s International Traveler’s website if they have any questions about the new policies or to contact Bellows.

Full email after the jump!

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When Jason Clark is elected into the NBA Hall of Fame, let it be known that this was the moment everything changed.

Sounds like Sarah Amos hasn’t experienced that moment when you realize you don’t actually have to study during study abroad after you thought you actually had to study during study abroad.

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Update, 9:56 a.m., November 26: Sweeney has left Egypt, and will arrive in Saint Louis late tonight. The other two detained students have also left Egypt.

Original post, 5:17 p.m.: Derrik Sweeney (COL ’13) (far right), who was detained early Tuesday morning by Egyptian authorities for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at government personnel during protests in Cairo, has been released and will be arriving in the United States tomorrow night. He will arrive in St. Louis, Missouri, appear on The Today Show Sunday morning, and then return home to Jefferson City for his family’s (delayed) Thanksgiving dinner.

His sister Nicole Sweeney tweeted this afternoon, “Derrik is officially out of police custody and I’m so happy I could cry.”

Vox‘s original story on his detainment is available here.

This post will be updated as we get more information.

Hoyas, let’s take this opportunity to indoctrinate Jason Segel, a potential celebrity Hoya fan who’s older than 17.

To answer Bill Nelson‘s question: no.  He’ll have to settle for the Newt Gingrich Lego figurine.

Kevin Mercer sums up why over half of Hoyas study abroad.

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This week, Georgetown will partner with the China Scholarship Council to host the 2011 China Higher Education Exhibition. The event will take place on Thursday from 12:00-7:30 p.m. in the Fisher Colloquium of the Hariri building.

Featuring representatives from 24 prominent Chinese universities, the CSC hopes to encourage more students to study abroad in China by providing information on programs for bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, Ph.D.s, and senior scholars, as well as scholarships and language programs.

The China Scholarship Council is a non-profit organization affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education with the mission of “strengthen[ing] the friendship and understanding between Chinese people and the people of all other countries” by developing educational, scientific, technological, and cultural exchanges.

This is one of two China-related events going on this week on campus. The other one, a panel discussion tonight in McShane entitled “Striking the Balance: Georgetown’s Engagement with China,” focuses on the morality behind Georgetown’s relationship with the country.

Photo from Chinese-flag.org

Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications, has confirmed in an email to Vox that all fifteen students from Georgetown University that are currently studying abroad at the American University of Cairo will be departing the country as soon as possible.

“All of the students have been contacted and are safely accounted for at this time,” she wrote.

The University’s emergency response team, in cooperation with the U.S. State Department and International SOS, are working to ensure a safe and speedy evacuation for the students.

Full text of Bataille’s statement:

After careful consideration, and following guidance from the U.S. State Department, American University of Cairo officials and International SOS, Georgetown is making plans to evacuate all students currently studying abroad in Cairo, Egypt. This semester fifteen undergraduates are studying at the American University of Cairo (AUC). All of the students have been contacted and are safely accounted for at this time. Georgetown personnel are working with officials from the U.S. State Department and International SOS in order to arrange for the students to depart Egypt as safely and quickly as possible.

For the past several days, staff from the Office of International Programs have been in regular touch with AUC personnel, our students, and our students’ families and we will continue to provide updated information to students and parents as it becomes available.  We continue to monitor the situation closely and we are communicating with State Department and AUC officials as the situation evolves. Getting our students out of Egypt safely and as quickly as possible is our primary goal at this time.  Once students have safely departed, we will focus our full attention on alternative academic arrangements for the the remainder of the spring semester.

As the world watches the protests unfold in Egypt today, 15 Georgetown University students are in the country for a semester abroad.

“The students are all accounted for,” Kathy Bellows, executive director of the Office of International Programs, said in an interview with Vox. “They are not in the midst of the protests.”

The students are mainly remaining in their residences currently and have been advised by the University, after consultation with the State Department, not to go out in to areas where the protests are occurring.

OIP is keeping a close eye on the protests, according to Bellows, and is “ready to respond if [the University] needs to respond.”

International SOS—a company that provides international travel assistance and has a contract with the University—has been contacted by OIP in case the situation requires that the students be evacuated.

Despite the regime in Egypt shutting down access to the Internet for the majority of country, Georgetown has been able to keep in contact with the students studying at the American University of Cairo. AUC has an office in New York that has been able to connect with the campus through a landline telephone, and Georgetown has been able to keep in touch with students through this office.

Currently there are no plans to alter the summer program scheduled to take place in Alexandria, Egypt.

January 29th update: AUC has canceled classes for the coming week in light of the violence, but reports that their students are safe in their dorms.

Due to “roofing issues,” the Villa le Balze will not house students during the Fall 2010 semester.

“Our Villa is special and Georgetown is lucky to have such a property,” Karen Wardzala, Assistant Director of the Villa la Balze Programs, said. “But the building on the property is almost 100 years old. And as with any old property there are unexpected circumstances and situations.”

Instead of living in the Villa, students will split time between two hotels in Fiesole: Hotel Villa Aurora and Hotel Villa Fiesole. According to an email sent out to students studying abroad in Fiesole this fall, the locations were chosen for “their willingness and ability to help us re-create certain aspects typical of the Villa Le Balze semester.”

Except for those students who choose to live with Italian host families, the group will live at Hotel Villa Aurora until October, when they will move into Hotel Villa Fiesole. Wardzala added that all planned activities, such as trips into Florence and daily lunches with professors, will continue as planned.

“We wanted to keep it as close to Villa le Balze as possible,” Wardzala said.

The Villa, which was donated to Georgetown by the Rockefeller family in 1979, typically houses students and faculty year-round.

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The Institute of International Education just released the results of its annual survey on study abroad participation, and the findings show that for the 2007-08 school year Georgetown had the 8th highest percentage of undergraduate students studying abroad.

Out of a graduating class of 1,730 students, 989— or 57.2 percent—had gone abroad last year.  That’s an increase over the 2006-07 percentage of students studying abroad, 52.3 percent.  The 2006-07 seems to have been a bit of an anomaly, though: in 2005-07, the rate was 55 percent, in 2004-05 it was 58.7 percent, and in 2003-04 it was 58.9 percent.

Other D.C. schools also had high rates of study abroad participation.  American University had the 7th highest percentage nationwide, with 59.5 percent of its students studying abroad.  George Washington University came in 18th with 45.9 percent studying abroad.

Overall, 262,416 American students studied abroad during the 2007-08 school year, an increase of 8.5 percent from the previous year.

The survey also looks at the most popular study abroad destinations.  The top five destination countries were the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France and China.  While the majority of students (56.3 percent) went to Europe, there were slight gains in the percentage of students going to Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The regional trends nation-wide are largely in line with what Vox found when it looked at the top study abroad destinations for Georgetown students, except for the Middle East.  While only 1.3 percent of all students who went abroad in 2007-08 chose to go to the Middle East, at Georgetown, 5.5 percent of students who went abroad during the 2008-09 school year studied in the Middle East.