Exchange Students and Bicycle safety in the Wisconsin Dells

Recently I was going through all of the Google Alerts I receive and came across a very interesting, scary and sad story from the Wisconsin Dells that I thought I would share here on IHEC Blog. 

The headline from September 11^th on WisconsinWatch.org reads “Russian student’s death highlights lack of public transit in the Dells”.  I occasionally see such headlines in my Google Alerts and don’t investigate further but I know the Wisconsin Dells (my family and I vacationed there for a few days in summer 2009) so I decided to open the link and read the article.

 

The story is sad.  On July 9th an 18 year old exchange student from Russia named Maria Kolesova was struck and killed by a garbage truck while legally riding her bicycle on a sidewalk.

 

What I further learned from reading the article and find shocking is that “of the 21 bicycle-vehicle crashes reported in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton since 2008, police reports indicate 19 involved international student riders.”  This statistic is staggering to me!  According to the article, approximately 2,000 international students come to the Wisconsin Dells to work during the busy summer season.  I noticed this during our family vacation and wanted to post to IHEC Blog about this but time got the best of me and I never got around to it.

 

I won’t summarize the article further but I think it’s a good and informative read about a serious problem.  I did some additional research on this and didn’t come up with more information on bicycle safety and international students in the Wisconsin Dells but did come across an article entitled “Some foreign workers find frustration in Wisconsin Dells” also from the September 11^th WisconsinWatch.org which is also an interesting read.

Photo credit:  http://davidcomp.wordpress.com/

Video of the Week - Know Before You Go: Preparing for Safe Study Abroad

Know Before You Go is the title of a new study abroad safety video prepared by Sara’s Wish Foundation. I have watched the video several times and think it is excellent. Find the time to watch this 7:14 minute video and then share with others you know who will be studying and travelling abroad.



THE SARA’S WISH FOUNDATION


In 1996, Sara Schewe, a student at Georgetown University, was killed, along with 3 other students from her program, while taking a bus in India to see the Taj Mahal. Since that time, Charles and Anne Schewe have dedicated themselves to bringing awareness on how to minimize safety issues while traveling abroad.

Since 1996, there have been a number of advances in the materials and information available from the U.S. government, colleges, universities and study abroad programs, other organizations, as well as support available through insurance and emergency assistance providers. There have also been domestic and international meetings and workshops supporting improved health and safety policies and procedures to support U.S. college and university students.

Sara's Wish Foundation has collaborated with some of these organizations to develop the video "Know Before You Go", and to put together the information you will find on their website. The information and links are intended to help inform students, parents, and friends who may go abroad or support others who do, that knowing more about good study abroad program practices and health and safety challenges in countries around the world can help students have a healthy and safe time abroad.

Foreign travel and study abroad remains an invaluable learning experience, broadening a student's world view and enhancing the college experience. While there have been advancements in the field since this incident to ensure student safety, precautions must still be taken, students and families need to research about benefits and risks associated with a particular location and/or program, and understand that the quality of support does vary from institution to institution and from program to program. It is Sara's Wish Foundation's hope that together we can avoid tragedies and difficulties as students begin that wondrous adventure to broaden their lives.

You can learn more about Sara’s Wish Foundation and all the good work they are doing at http://www.saraswish.org/

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

Call for Pilot Participants: The Forum Education Abroad Incident Database

A new and interesting development in the area of health and safety in education abroad has been created by a Task Force the Forum on Education Abroad. The Forum’s Data Committee announced that Forum member institutions (and I’m guessing organizations as well) are encouraged to submit applications to participate in a project (Education Abroad Incident Database) that will pilot an education abroad database designed to track various types of incidents that happen on educational programs abroad. The results of the pilot project will be discussed at the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice Institute “Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security” in conjunction with the next annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 24, 2010.

Special recognition should be given to the members of the Forum’s Education Abroad Incident Database Task Force:
Bill Frederick, School for Field Studies, Chair
Brian Brubaker, Dickinson College
Regine Lambrech, Columbia University
Natalie Mello, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Chris Powers, IIE
Gary Rhodes, SAFETI
Adam Rubin, CIEE
Arlene Snyder, Arcadia University
John Tansey, Dartmouth College

You can learn more Forum Education Abroad Incident Database pilot project here.

Call for Proposals for Forum on Education Abroad Standards of Good Practice Institute

The Forum on Education Abroad has announced on their website a call for session proposals for their inaugural Standards of Good Practice Institute, "Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security," to be held March 24, 2010 in conjunction with their annual conference. The deadline for submitting proposals is July 31, 2009.

A detailed description from the Forum’s website follows:

The primary purpose of the Standards Institutes is to offer participants the opportunity to broaden and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the Forum Standards of Good Practice and hone their skills in implementing them. The first Institute, Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security, will be dedicated to the education abroad risk management issues with which organizations and institutions struggle. The practical, hands-on focus for this day will include multiple concurrent and plenary sessions that will assist participants to improve their institutional and organizational strategies for risk mitigation, incident prevention and response. The goals of the Institute are to:

- Deepen knowledge and understanding of Standard 7, Health, Safety and Security;
- Enhance the knowledge and skills necessary to meet this Standard by analyzing what the Standard requires and sharing examples of best practices;
- Discuss and make suggestions for improvement of the Health, Safety and Security Standard;

- Explore approaches to and implementation of risk management best practices for education abroad;
- Discuss the outcomes of and suggest improvements to the Forum’s incident reporting pilot database;
- Enhance the overall safety and security of participants’ education abroad programs for the benefit of the students who participate in them.

The Institute will be designed to address the needs of experienced practitioners in the area of risk management in education abroad. Institute participants will be expected to have more than a basic knowledge of the topics involved and therefore proposals should not be geared to entry-level concerns. While a number of sessions will be led by invited experts both from within and from outside the education abroad field, some sessions will be chosen through a competitive selection process. Questions of interest to the Institute include:

- What are the best practices in emergency planning, training, and the development and testing of crisis management plans?
- How do organizations establish and implement successful risk management communications protocols?
- What are the legal and liability concerns that are most serious for education abroad and how should they be understood?
- What is acceptable risk in an education abroad context?
- What critical incidents should the field be reporting and how should it best compile the information?
- How do organizations and institutions best prepare for and deal with the death of a student?
- What are the cross-cultural dimensions of health care that are essential to understand?
- What can education abroad learn from the experience and knowledge of travel medicine?
- What reasonable accommodations should programs make under the Americans with Disabilities Act?
- What factors need to be considered, and what decision-making processes need to be put in place, for deciding when to close (and re-open) a program due to safety concerns?
- How can organizations best assess and determine adequate insurance coverage for all areas of education abroad programming?
- What are strategies for providing access to effective medical care?
- How does the psychological development of late adolescents and their cognitive abilities impact students’ ability to understand risk?

Session Format and Proposals
The majority of sessions are expected to follow the Forum’s distinctive roundtable format; however, the Institute Planning Committee will consider session proposals that utilize other formats, including panel presentations. Successful proposals will describe in detail how the proposed session will broaden and deepen participants’ knowledge and understanding of the Forum Standard on "Health, Safety, and Security” and hone their skills in implementing it. Those submitting a successful proposal may be invited to submit a white paper for a post-Institute publication.

You can learn more about the Standards of Good Practice Institute and access the Standards Institute Proposal Form here.

Is it Safe to Study Abroad in the United States?

I apologize in advance for the length of this post! The other day I was searching through the International Travel Information web pages of the State Department’s Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management (ACS) which is responsible for the administration of the Consular Information Program. The Consular Information Program issues country specific information, travel alerts and travel warnings which are provided to inform U.S. citizens of conditions that may affect our safety and security while we are abroad.

The International Travel Information website also provides links to additional travel information from the governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. I thought it would be interesting to see what these four countries say about travelling (including studying) to the United States. My primary point in this exercise is to demonstrate that citizens from other countries (some of our strongest allies) receive some strong warnings related to their travel plans to the United States so it makes me ask the question, “is it safe to study abroad in the United States?”

I imagine there would be parents of U.S. students who, after reading “terrorist attacks have taken place in public areas, there is a risk that you could be caught up if there were other attacks in the future. You should therefore be particularly vigilant in high-profile public places”, would be calling the study abroad office to learn what safety measures were being implemented to ensure the safety of their children. This quote was taken from the United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office Travel Advice Notice for the United States.

Following are links to the web pages of the Australia, Canada, New Zealand and United Kingdom travel information pages for the United States. I have selected some key snippets of text from the various sites related to health and safety issues:

Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

“We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in the United States because of the risk of terrorism.”

“The United States Department of Homeland Security's Advisory System Threat Level is at Orange for all domestic and international flights, indicating a "high" risk of terrorist attack. It is at Yellow or "elevated" for all other sectors, indicating a "significant" risk of terrorist attack.”

“Crime rates are higher in the larger cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Tourists are often targeted for petty crimes such as pick-pocketing and theft, particularly on public transport.”

“The United States is subject to a wide range of natural hazards including hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around the Pacific Basin including Hawaii; tornadoes in the midwest and southeast; mudslides in California; flooding and forest fires in the west, especially from March to November.”

“Mosquito-borne disease, particularly West Nile virus, is prevalent during summer and continues into autumn months. We recommend you take precautions to avoid mosquito bites, including using repellent at all times, particularly in rural areas.”

You can read the entire Australian summary on the United States here.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

“Criminal occurrences are frequent in many US cities, but are generally concentrated in areas that travellers are unlikely to visit.”

“Street crime can spill over into commercial, hotel, and entertainment areas. Riots occasionally occur; these are usually confined to the poorer districts of major cities, but the violence can spread to central commercial and hotel areas. Full cooperation is recommended when stopped by police.”

“FLORIDA - Attacks on tourists have decreased, but violent crime remains a serious concern. Criminals have demonstrated that they will use violence with little or no provocation. Many attacks have occurred in the Miami area, and others have taken place on rural roads and at interstate highway rest areas. Some rest areas have dusk to dawn security on site (which is indicated on the highway sign). Proceed cautiously when exiting from a freeway (including Interstate 95) into large urban centres, especially after dusk. Theft has increased, particularly from trunks of parked cars in the North Miami Beach area, South Beach and at airports. Be alert, as criminals use a variety of techniques to steal personal belongings.”

You can read the entire Canadian summary on the United States here.

New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

“There is some risk to your health in the United States due to a significant number of Influenza A (H1N1) or ‘swine flu’ cases and we advise caution. There is also a risk to your security due to the threat from terrorism.”

You can read the entire New Zealand summary on the United States here.

Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the United Kingdom

“Human cases of A (H1N1) swine influenza, including confirmed deaths in Texas, Washington State, Arizona, Missouri, Utah, New York State, Connecticut, Michigan, Virginia and Illinois due to swine flu infection, have been reported in certain areas of the United States.”

“Violent crime related to the drugs trade is a major issue in the Mexican states along the border with California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Though some foreign nationals have been among the victims in the border region, there is no evidence to suggest that they have been targeted because of their nationality. Visitors to border areas should exercise caution and follow the advice of local authorities.”

“There is a general threat from terrorism in the United States. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has designated the terror alert status of "orange", or high, for all international and domestic flights in the USA.”

“Given that terrorist attacks have taken place in public areas, there is a risk that you could be caught up if there were other attacks in the future. You should therefore be particularly vigilant in high-profile public places.”

“Around 6.5 million British nationals visit the United States each year (source: US Department of Homeland Security). Most visits are trouble-free. 8,304 British nationals required consular assistance in the USA in period 01 April 2006 - 31 March 2007. The majority of cases occur in New York City; the tourist areas in Florida (principally Orlando and Miami); and Los Angeles and San Francisco. You should be alert to the dangers of car and street crime in cities. The main types of incident for which British nationals required consular assistance in the USA in 2006-07 were for replacing lost or stolen passports (2,792 cases); dealing with deaths (95 cases); and hospitalisations (75 cases); and dealing with arrests, for a variety of offences (1,415).”

“West Nile virus is common to the USA and there are occasional outbreaks of eastern equine encephalitis (triple e virus) reported.”

“In the 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic the UNAIDS/WHO Working Group estimated that around 1,100,000 adults aged 15 or over in the USA were living with HIV”

You can read the entire UK summary on the United States here.

So, is it safe to study abroad in the United States? What do you think?

Two Excellent Swine Influenza Resources for International Educators

Swine Influenza A (H1N1) is most certainly on the minds of international educators and higher education officials across the globe and in particular here in the United States. I believe (hope) that most people in the field who are working on the Swine Influenza issue are aware of the following resources but I want to post information and links to IHEC Blog for readers who may be unaware of these valuable online resources.

Safety Abroad First - Educational Travel Information (SAFETI) Clearinghouse
The SAFETI Clearinghouse is, in my opinion, the leader in health and safety for the field of study abroad/international education and is a resource that everyone should consult when planning or assessing current health and safety practices or in a major health event such as the Swine Influenza. The SAFETI Clearinghouse is part of the larger Center for Global Education which was established by Gary Rhodes and is located at Loyola Marymount University. You can access the SAFETI Clearinghouse website here where you can find a link to “Special Topics: Swine Flu”. After the Swine Influenza situation has concluded I encourage you to return to the SAFETI Clearinghouse and access all of the valuable materials created by Gary.

NAFSA website: Swine Influenza: Resources For International Educators
NAFSA: Association of International Educators has established a special page on their website dedicated to the Swine Influenza. You can access NAFSA’s special website on the Swine Influenza here (pay attention to the links on the right side of the page as well).