Message to UA Community regarding situation in Egypt

TO: UA Campus Community
FROM: Meredith Hay, Executive Vice President and Provost
DATE: February 3, 2011
SUBJECT: Situation in Egypt

The University of Arizona community has been closely monitoring the demonstrations in Egypt for the past several days. The situation remains volatile and continues to change daily.

As of today, we have two students in Egypt. They are safe, accounted for and in the process of leaving the country. We are not aware of any UA employees in Egypt at this time.

UA personnel have been in frequent contact with each of the UA students in Egypt since the protests began. We have worked with our study abroad partners to offer the necessary resources to these individuals to ensure their safety and security, and will continue to do so as they leave the country.

The protests and political uncertainty have resulted in the issuance of a Travel Warning from the U.S. Department of State, which orders the departure of all non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members from Egypt. It also recommends that U.S. citizens avoid travel to Egypt at this time.

If planning to travel as a University employee to countries under a Travel Warning, you should obtain approval from the UA Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost before commencing travel.

If you have imminent travel plans to the Middle East, please contact Gail Burd – vice provost for academic affairs – at 520-626-4099 or gburd@email.arizona.edu – to initiate the approval process and discuss potential options for deferring travel.

It is important that you are aware of the UA Interim Policy Concerning Study, Travel and Research in Countries under U.S. State Department Travel Warnings
(http://policy.web.arizona.edu/~policy/Interim_Travel.pdf

). This policy outlines expectations regarding student and employee travel in areas where there are Travel Warnings.

The essential elements of this policy are that:

• Employee travel to countries under a Travel Warning that forbids, restricts, or otherwise urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to a certain country, is generally prohibited unless advance authorization is obtained from the Executive Vice President and Provost.
• You should evaluate your planned itinerary against the information in the Travel Warning and avoid or defer travel to identified dangerous areas.
• Students and employees must be allowed to opt out of travel if they wish, and must be provided with an alternative to participation in any scheduled trip to countries under a Travel Warning.
• You should print out the Travel Warning and provide a copy to each trip participant.
• Students are required to sign the Travel Warning Release Form, which is available from Risk Management & Safety (http://risk.arizona.edu/forms/TravelWarningReleaseForm.pdf).

For additional questions regarding the UA Interim Policy Concerning Study, Travel and Research in Countries under U.S. State Department Travel Warnings, contact Steve Holland or Herb Wagner (520-621-1790) at Risk Management & Safety.

If you are currently traveling on University business or plan to do so in the near future, please make sure to enroll in the Smart Travelers Enrollment Program (https://travelregistration.state.gov). Departments or family members can enroll on behalf of travelers who do not have Internet access. This allows the government to account for each citizen in the event of a mandatory evacuation.

Please monitor the U.S. Department of State website – http://www.travel.state.gov – for additional updates.

We will continue to keep you information as the situation unfolds and changes occur that impact UA employees and students.