Due to parental safety concerns after Sept. 11, nearly all participants withdrew from this spring semester’s Alanya study abroad program in Turkey, causing the Office of International Programs to temporarily cancel the program for the year.
According to Debbie Brown, associate director of Overseas Studies, the University did not suspend the program on its own accord, but was forced to when the number of students enrolled fell to two or three.
In order to make travel arrangements, students had to finalize their decisions about spring study programs last September and October. The only reason students cited for withdrawing from the Alanya program was that their parents wanted to keep them closer to home after Sept. 11, Brown said.
Despite the events of Sept. 11, past participants in the Alanya program still feel that the program is safe for students. According to Blake McGee (SFS ‘03), Voice staff writer, who participated in the program last spring, Turks in general are very sympathetic towards Americans.
“One of the main reasons why I don’t feel threatened in Turkey is because Turks aren’t Arabs … There’s a very positive sentiment in Turkey towards Americans, even before Sept. 11th, which you wouldn’t find in any Arab country,” McGee said.
Despite decreased enrollment in the Alanya program this term, the Office of Overseas Studies has already received a “handful” of applications for next year’s program, according to Brown.
The Alanya program was cancelled two years ago due to earthquakes in Turkey.
The suspension of the Alanya program comes with the appointment of Don Jones, special assistant to the president for emergency preparedness, to look into the safety of Georgetown students studying overseas.
Jones, who is also responsible for on-campus emergency response teams, Don Jones, has also created a group to look into the safety of students studying abroad. According to Jones, the group is in the process of setting up people to serve as points of contact between students and their families in emergency situations.
University President John DeGioia hired Jones to coordinate all emergency response resources the university has to offer and to “push ourselves for a greater level of preparedness.”
In his first month of work here, Jones has created 13 different emergency response teams within the University community to come up with options for dealing with emergency threats, implementing emergency response systems and training students, faculty and staff in emergency procedure.
Throughout the rest of this semester, Jones will continue to gather information about Georgetown’s current emergency response capabilities and weaknesses. Jones, who will be at the University at least until June, will then make recommendations to the school’s leadership based on his findings.
