\n<\/p>\n
Campuses in the United Arab Emirates and other countries have switched to online learning.<\/p>\n
Fadel Senna\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The spiraling war with Iran has stranded American students and employees in the Middle East and shuttered branch campuses following Iran\u2019s attacks on multiple Gulf states in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign.<\/p>\n
Thousands of flights were canceled across the region as Iran hit airports in Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, along with residential buildings in Bahrain and hotels in Dubai, The Wall Street Journal <\/em>reported. Israeli emergency services said at least nine people were killed in an Iranian missile strike that hit a city west of Jerusalem. The U.S. State Department on Monday called on Americans to immediately depart 14 countries in the region, including Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n But some students and employees participating in programs in the region\u2014including in U.S.-allied nations, which are typically safe\u2014were still struggling to get back to the U.S. Monday, three days after the war started. They include an unknown number from Texas\u2019s Southern Methodist University and Tennessee\u2019s Carson-Newman University.<\/p>\n Southern Methodist told families in an online message Saturday that \u201cSMU has formally canceled its program in Dubai. Local authorities have issued shelter-in-place guidance, and regional airspace conditions remain fluid.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe have been in direct contact with our students and employees in the region, and at this time, they have confirmed they are safe.\u201d <\/p>\n In a Sunday update, the university said, \u201cStudents and faculty are following local guidance and remain sheltered in secure accommodations.\u201d On Monday, SMU spokesperson Megan Jacob told Inside Higher Ed<\/em> the students and faculty were part of a Cox School of Business program but didn\u2019t provide many further details or an interview. \u201cWe are working to facilitate their safe return as conditions allow,\u201d Jacob wrote in an email. <\/p>\n Carson-Newman University spokesman Kevin Triplett told Inside Higher Ed<\/em> in an email that the institution has \u201ca team of students and faculty who are in the Middle East,\u201d though he didn\u2019t say how many. He noted that they were in Israel as part of the Christian institution\u2019s archaeology program but didn\u2019t share their present location and said no one was available for interviews. <\/p>\n \u201cOur president has spoken with members of the group multiple times over the last couple of days as well as parents of the students back here in the U.S.,\u201d Triplett said. \u201cThey are in the process of relocating. They are safe and in good spirits and plans are being made to get them home.\u201d<\/p>\n Times Higher Education<\/em>, the parent company of Inside Higher Ed,<\/em> reported that Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain ordered universities in their countries to shift to online learning. <\/p>\n Education City, just outside of Doha, hosts Qatar campuses for eight universities, including Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth and Weill Cornell Medicine. Texas A&M at Qatar has been sharing on its website the frightening updates from the U.S. Embassy there.<\/p>\n \u201cMissile Incoming. Imminent missile strikes. Duck and cover until further notice. Continue to shelter in place,\u201d the embassy warned Saturday. On Sunday, it recommended that all Americans continue to shelter in place, telling them to \u201cremain vigilant, as the Iranian government and its proxies may seek to target Americans in retaliation.\u201d <\/p>\n Francisco Marmolejo, higher education president at the Qatar Foundation, which runs Education City, said in a statement that \u201cin-person activities and events have been canceled, and classes are being delivered virtually.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cQatar Foundation (QF) is taking the utmost precautions to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff,\u201d Marmolejo said. Education City is home to over 4,400 university students from more than 110 countries, he said, and \u201cacross QF and our partner institutions, our staff exceeds 5,000 dedicated professionals.\u201d <\/p>\n RIT\u2019s Dubai campus has seen \u201cno direct impact\u201d from Iran\u2019s attacks, President William Sanders said. <\/span><\/p>\n Rochester Institute of Technology<\/span><\/p>\n When the war began Saturday, Rochester Institute of Technology president William H. Sanders sent a message to the community saying there\u2019s been \u201cno direct impact\u201d on RIT\u2019s campus in Dubai. \u201cLeadership there is working closely with local officials and are following all guidance to keep our students, faculty, and staff safe,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n On Monday, RIT spokesperson Bob Finnerty told Inside Higher Ed<\/em> that the roughly 3,500-student campus will stick with online learning through Wednesday. He did note that \u201ccivil aviation has resumed limited, special flights to allow those stranded in Dubai to depart the country.\u201d <\/p>\n The University of New Haven has been trying to establish the world\u2019s first branch campus in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, which Iran has also struck. A university spokesperson said in an email that \u201cemployees working to develop an international branch campus in Saudi Arabia are safe and accounted for.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Campuses in the United Arab Emirates and other countries have switched to online learning. Fadel Senna\/AFP\/Getty Images The spiraling war with Iran has stranded American students and employees in the Middle East and shuttered branch campuses following Iran\u2019s attacks on multiple Gulf states in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign. Thousands of flights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[10499,898,897,1007,23474,678,811,5804],"class_list":{"0":"post-45659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-campuses","9":"tag-east","10":"tag-middle","11":"tag-return","12":"tag-shutter","13":"tag-students","14":"tag-u-s","15":"tag-unable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}