With fighting between Israel and the militia group Hezbollah continuing to wreak havoc in Lebanon and northern Israel, University officials said two Brown students studying in Tel Aviv plan to stay in the region.
Meanwhile, Assistant Professor of Political Science Melani Cammett '91 and her family returned safely to their Boston home July 17 after fleeing Beirut, where Cammett was conducting research for a book about social service provision in Lebanon.
"Originally, it took me by surprise," Cammett said of the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. She said she first learned about the renewed attacks from Hezbollah affiliates she happened to be interviewing July 12 when Hezbollah forces crossed into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers.
When the bombings first started, Cammett and her husband planned for him to return to the United States with their five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. She was to remain in Lebanon until Aug. 1, the date for which their departure was originally scheduled. But as the situation in Beirut grew more dire, ways to leave the country were cut off, and the country shut down to the point that she could no longer effectively conduct her research. Cammett then decided to evacuate, she said.
With information about U.S. government-led evacuation efforts hard to come by and sometimes contradictory, Cammett - who is fluent in Arabic - and her family arranged to leave without government assistance, she said.
They hired a taxi to take them to Damascus, Syria, planning a lengthy, safe route that had not been bombed and was not at risk, Cammett said. But the evacuation quickly became tense when Cammett realized her taxi driver was using a shorter route to save gas - even though Israeli military forces dropped leaflets just hours before announcing their intention to bomb that highway.
Cammett and her family eventually arrived safely in Damascus, where they boarded a commercial flight to Paris and onward to Boston.
Samantha Brandauer, assistant director of the Office of International Programs, told The Herald July 18 she was not aware of any Brown students in Lebanon. Administrators contacted approved programs in Israel and learned that two students studying this summer at Tel Aviv University are safe and plan to remain in Tel Aviv, she said.
Because students abroad for the summer do not have to register with the OIP and can apply for academic credit retroactively, Brandauer said, "We don't always know where Brown students are in the summer." It is therefore possible, she added, that other students are in Israel or Lebanon without the University's knowledge.
As recently as last semester, University policy did not permit academic credit for programs located in countries on the U.S. Department of State travel warning list, including Israel. Some students, however, would take a leave of absence from the University and enroll at programs not approved by Brown, hoping to receive academic credit retroactively.
The Brown Corporation revised the policy in March to allow travel to countries on the warning list, effective for the Fall 2006 semester, if students and their parents sign a supplemental waiver in addition to the existing waiver required from all students studying abroad.
