When the protests in Cairo, Egypt began gaining momentum on Jan. 28, there were 21 Yale students, faculty and staff working and studying in the increasingly turbulent nation.
Over the next four days, Don Filer, director of the Office of International Affairs (OIA), and Marje Lemmon, manager of the Risk Management Office — working with other campus departments and MEDEX, the University’s emergency travel assistance provider — spearheaded an effort to get the Yale community members safely out of the country. See “Out of Egypt: Anatomy of an evacuation."
While the evacuation from Egypt was an unexpected and unusual occurrence, part of what OIA does at Yale is to respond to international emergencies so that faculty, students and staff who are abroad for any reason are safe at all costs. The OIA staff coordinate the response while partnering with many other Yale offices, like Risk Management, to ensure that what must be accomplished is achieved in a timely and organized manner.
Picture at left: Following a recent staff meeting, Yale’s Office of International Affairs gathered together on the first floor of Betts House. Bottom row (left to right): Elizabeth Wilkinson, Joao Aleixo, Jackie McGrath, Don Filer, Sheila Pastor, Fawn Wang; top row (left to right): Neli Lazarova, Tina Weiner, Sharon Butler, George Joseph and Jim Cohen.
Yale's engagement beyond the U.S. dates from the earliest years of the 19th century. Faculty across campus are involved in over 900 international research projects and collaborations in all parts of the world. In last year’s graduating class, nearly 74% of Yale College students studied abroad and both the Schools of Management and Architecture annually send all their students overseas as part of their program requirements. Yale staff also work overseas, like Rex Wong, who is with Yale’s Global Health Initiative in Egypt; others work in China with the Yale Law Centers and the joint program at Peking University. With the help of Cary Scapillato, assistant vice president and controller, and the Office of the General Counsel among other partners, OIA has set up a legal entity in China that Yale can use to hire people, open bank accounts and pay invoices.
“Setting up support structures is one way we provide guidance for Yale faculty, staff and students,” says Filer. “They know what they are trying to achieve so we are here to help with the structures needed, whether they need to hire people, pay people, buy things, move items from here to there or solve issues around data or security.”
Providing a full range of support takes a meeting of the minds and this is why the International Operations and Compliance Committee (IOCC) was founded three years ago. In addition to Filer, Lemmon and Scapillato, members include Cynthia Carr, Office of the General Counsel; Donald Deyo, Grants and Contracts Administration; Tom Masse, Provost’s Office; Hugh Penney, Compensation and Benefits; Sal Rubano, Enterprise Risk Management, and Sue Whitty, Tax Department.
The IOCC convenes every other week to focus on creating systematic solutions to problems. One of the more simple and effective solutions to date has been the creation of an online set of Frequently-Asked Questions for Yale people working abroad (http://world.yale.edu/working-abroad-faq), which is part of the Yale and the World website (www.world.yale.edu), a directory that covers all aspects of international life at Yale and can easily be searched by either subject area or region.
OIA staff also assist with helping faculty and staff to start up new projects, make connections in their regions and publicize activities. The OIA staff and the regions they specialize in are Joao Aleixo (Latin America), Jim Cohen (Middle East, Europe, Africa), George Joseph (Asia except China) and Fawn Wang (China).
No matter where in the world Yale faculty, staff and students journey to, they can access the online travel resource page (http://world.yale.edu/travel). The site is designed to be valuable to all Yale travelers, who are strongly encouraged to register their trip abroad with OIA, so if something does go wrong — be it illness, accident, natural disaster or unrest — OIA can find them to make sure they are safe.
Lemmon points out that booking travel arrangements through Orbitz for Business with Yale Travel Services can often save money, and also allows OIA to find Yale community members abroad using the travel itinerary. She also underscores how important it is for Yale travelers to consult with MEDEX, which provides international and domestic emergency medical, security and travel assistance services anywhere in the world. Yale students and employees are automatically enrolled into the service for free, and are advised to always carry the MEDEX card when traveling.
Mena Cammett, who was in Cairo studying Arabic and working for a year as part of the Silver Scholar Program at the School of Management, is one individual who has experienced the value of OIA and MEDEX firsthand. She began to consider leaving Cairo when the police force withdrew from the streets because she felt “that a city of 20 million people with no police was inherently unsafe.
“At the same time, my family was extremely concerned, especially because the Internet was completely blocked for several days, and the government had temporarily blocked all cell phone networks as well,” Cammett recalls. “While the U.S. Embassy was having trouble evacuating the thousands of Americans who were living and traveling in Cairo, I was able to evacuate with the help of Yale and MEDEX. I travelled first to Amsterdam, then on to New York via Zurich. The entire evacuation process went smoothly, as Yale and MEDEX were extremely well-organized.” Read more from students who had to leave Egypt.
OIA recommends that Yale travelers take advantage of following website features:
• Travel checklist and resources: http://world.yale.edu/abroad/index.html
• International Program Database — search international research projects being conducted by Yale faculty: http://world.yale.edu/data/
• Working abroad — tips and resources: http://world.yale.edu/business/
• International collections in Yale’s library and museums: http://world.yale.edu/libraries-and-museums
• Link to YaleGlobal online magazine: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/
Copyright © 2012 Yale University. All rights reserved. Privacy policy.
Office of Communications, Human Resources and Administration - Contact us at Working@yale.edu.
