Boston University International Programs officials announced on Jan. 11 that the popular Niger program would be canceled for both the Spring and Fall 2011 semesters due to “heightened risk of Niamey,” the nation’s capital. The bulletin came as a surprise to the program’s accepted students and was notably ill-timed considering their subsequent inability to apply to any other abroad program for the spring.
In Niamey on Jan. 7, four days before BU’s edict, two Frenchmen were taken at gunpoint from Le Toulousain, a restaurant popular with BU students. According to a post on IP website, Al Qaeda members killed the two Frenchmen. “The safety and well-being of our students and staff must always be our primary concern,” the post concluded
While student safety is, and should be, a primary concern of the BU faculty, canceling the program for Spring and Fall semesters may have been excessive. IP public relations branch should be intent on explaining and understanding the risks involved in traveling to such unstable parts of the world.
Program administrators and participants, whom upon simply researching Niger’s social atmosphere should understand any dangers involved, should anticipate dangerous incidents.
Their level of surprise is, well, surprising. BU has offered a number of study abroad programs that undoubtedly pose some kind of threat to students’ safety, Egypt being a glaring example. Regardless, countries that lack industrialization have their educational benefits. Exploring and learning about a country such as Niger or Egypt provides a completely new perspective.
This sort of experience is often what attracts high school students to BU, which is renowned for its international opportunities. By removing Niger from its roster, BU is eliminating one of its most educationally rewarding prospects from the university as a whole. Within a span of four days, the International Programs department made a split-second decision that Niger couldn’t possibly be safe in the span of an entire four-month period, an extraordinarily superfluous move.
Unfortunately, judgment was lacking in the university’s decision to cancel the Niger program. With that said, it’s still a decision students have to respect in regards to their superiors and their safety concerns.
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