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D.C. Area Universities Urge Students To Leave Egypt

By: Ashley Dejean
July 6, 2013
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Earlier this week, the State Department escalated its travel warnings for Egypt, and issued a mandatory evacuation for all nonessential diplomats due to a military coup. Local universities are also calling for students to leave the country.

"They have to rely on local folks to do things like bring food to them, and that's not comfortable, that's not appropriate," says Donna Scarboro who works in the office of International Programs at George Washington University. "Those kinds of things create a situation where it makes a lot more sense to leave and go back another time when things have settled down."

Six of 7 students from George Washington have agreed to relocate. Of Georgetown's six graduate students, only two are leaving. And all six University of Maryland students who were studying Arabic in Egypt are now in Morocco.

Georgetown University officials say the university is cancelling fall programs in Egypt and working with students to make alternative plans. American University students who were planning to go to the country in the fall have opted to go to Jordan instead, according to the university.

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