International Students and Faculty in Haiti – Is Your Institution Prepared for a Crisis?

While reading today’s “Quick Takes” section on insidehighered.com I came across the following item entitled “U.S. Colleges Track Students, Faculty in Haiti” which mentions that the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Lynn University, Blue Ridge Community College, Taylor University and Maryville University all have students and/or faculty in Haiti. You can read this “Quick Take” here which provides links to some institutional news releases on the situation for their students and faculty. The institutions listed above are, of course, all from the United States and it is highly likely that students and faculty from non-U.S. institutions were also in Haiti when the earthquake struck.

The earthquake in Haiti is a reminder of just how fragile life is and that health and safety issues can arise without warning. Make health and safety planning a part of your best practices when working with your students and faculty who are headed abroad for study, research and work purposes.

An excellent resources in this area is the Safety Abroad First Educational Travel Information (SAFETI) Clearinghouse. You can access the SAFETI Clearinghouse, which was created and developed by the Center for Global Education which is now at Loyola Marymount University, at http://globaled.us/safeti/. The SAFETI Clearinghouse is jsut one resources that international educators can use in their health and safety preparations and I will post more to IHEC Blog on valuable health and safety resources and best practices in the future.

CNN.com has put together an excellent resource on how you can help the Haitian people during this crisis and you can access it at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/.

Photo credit: UNDP Global