Students and faculty at the American University in Cairo gathered Tuesday morning at one of the university's residential buildings, in an upscale neighborhood on the Nile island of Zamalek, to debate exit strategies and hear from Lisa Anderson, the university's new president, about campus safety, when classes might resume, and other issues they've been wrestling with in the days since protests engulfed this city.
The university enrolls more American study-abroad students than any other institution in Egypt, and many have been trying to figure out whether they want to stay or go. For some, the call of thousands of Egyptians to end the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak has been an awe-inspiring experience. But others remain worried about safety and their academic careers.
Offices at the college's historic downtown building were ransacked, Ms. Anderson told the hundred or so professors and students, but there has been "no real significant damage."
The university's main campus in the suburbs of Cairo, where several-hundred students live in dormitories, is unscathed.
In the chaos that followed the protest and the total withdrawal of the Egyptian national police from the city, citizens organized neighborhood watches and the Army was deployed across Cairo. Extra security has been sent to the university's faculty and student residences, said Ms. Anderson.
"We used to say that we are overstaffed in terms of security, but now we're not so sure," she said.
The university is organizing transportation to the airport for those international and study-abroad students who want to leave the country. "We will continue to pick up people until there are no more flights," Ms. Anderson said.
Shuttles to the airport have been limited because of an afternoon a curfew.
The American Embassy is organizing emergency flights to Europe. Citizens must pledge to pay for the flights later and make their own travel arrangements to their destinations in the United States. Because the U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning for Egypt, some universities and some scholarship programs have told their students they must leave.
To Stay or to Go?
But many here said they don't want to go.
"I don't know what kind of news they're relaying in the United States," said Raquel Miller, a study-abroad student from Mercy College. She said she had attended a protest on Sunday. "We took pictures with them. It was fine. It felt like a regular street gathering. You wouldn't even know it was a protest, except for the slogans and posters."
Tanvir Kalam, a senior at the State University of New York at Geneseo, said he found out through a friend on Monday that his program in Egypt had been canceled and credit had been withdrawn.
Mr. Kalam and two friends, Colin Callander and Benjamin Baker, had just moved into their own off-campus apartment this semester, in the downtown neighborhood of Abdeen.
Mr. Kalam and Mr. Callander are studying Arabic at the university. Mr. Baker is studying here from Southern Illinois University.
"It's been kind of a nightmare to get facts. No one from the school bothered to call us," said Mr. Baker.
But the three friends also spoke excitedly of having witnessed history unfold. From the roof of their building, they watched protesters clash with police. When they were caught in clashes, a restaurant owner dragged them into his establishment for safety.
"We have a collection of bullets and tear-gas canisters, and a riot policeman's patch," said Mr. Kalam. As a joke, the three wrote "Abdeen Americans" on their T-shirts with markers.
Mr. Kalam and his friends have been in regular telephone contact with their families. They moved to the university residence in Zamalek Tuesday morning.
They expect to leave—the situation "would have to turn around pretty fast" for them not to, said Mr. Callander—but they are waiting for conditions at the airport to improve. Thousands of people are stranded there and waiting for flights.
They also hope to be able to book commercial flights directly back to the United States, rather than take the emergency flights. Those flights "are expensive and only half-way," said Mr. Baker. "I don't want to get stuck somewhere else."
Meanwhile, "we're not worried about physical harm to the extent that our parents are," said Mr. Callander. "We just have to make the calculation. At what point does the semester get delayed so long it's not worth paying for it?"
All of the students and professors The Chronicle spoke to said they were not overly worried for their personal safety. But banks have been closed for several days now, and most ATM's are empty or broken. A university cashier is circulating among college residences distributing emergency cash advances.
During the meeting with Ms. Anderson, a student who would like to transfer to another program asked when American University in Cairo might be able to reimburse her tuition. The bank system and the Internet need to be working again, said Ms. Anderson.
"We have no idea when that's going to happen. We can't make any promises," she said.
The university has suspended classes this week, which would have been the first of the spring semester. Its policy is to give a full refund to students who withdraw or transfer before classes start.
"Clearly, we have an interest in classes starting," said the president. "Otherwise, we have to give everyone's tuition back."