Campus Alert Archive
UT Austin

Arabic Flagship Students Contacted via Landline, Evacuated from Egypt as Revolution Erupts

TXcivil unrestadvisorymedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On January 25, 2011, the Egyptian Revolution began in Cairo, where four University of Texas at Austin students were enrolled in the federally funded Arabic Flagship Program in Alexandria. UT Austin and American Councils for International Education scrambled to contact students via landline phones after Egyptian authorities shut down the internet and mobile networks. The students were ordered to return to the United States by February 1 and arrived in Austin that day.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
University of Texas at Austin
Public R1 · TX
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTPhone
Approximate reconstruction369 chars
This is an urgent message from UT Austin and American Councils for International Education. Due to civil unrest in Egypt, please remain at your current location, avoid public gatherings, and await further instructions. We will be in contact with you by landline to coordinate your safety. Do not attempt to travel unless instructed to do so by your program coordinator.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed from Daily Texan coverage; the internet and mobile phone blackout forced university officials to contact students via landline telephone -- an unusual channel constraint specific to this crisis.
Jordan Bellquist, an Arabic language and literature senior at UT Austin, studied in Alexandria (Egypt's second-largest city, not Cairo) through the year-long federally funded Arabic Flagship Program.
Four UT Austin students were enrolled in the Arabic Flagship Program in Alexandria; the federal government ultimately ordered all participants to return to the United States.
ALL CLEAREmail
Approximate reconstruction416 chars
We are pleased to report that all four UT Austin students enrolled in the Arabic Flagship Program in Egypt have returned safely to the United States. The students arrived in Austin this morning. The Center for Arabic Study Abroad program has been suspended per federal government directive. We will work with each student to address academic continuity. Please contact the International Office if you have questions.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Jordan Bellquist told the Daily Texan he arrived in Austin on Tuesday morning after the federal government ordered all students in the Arabic Flagship Program to return to the US.
The Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), an advanced Arabic program run through UT Austin, later relocated that year's grantees to Amman, Jordan to continue their studies.
The Arabic Flagship Program is federally funded through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth; the evacuation order therefore came from the federal government, not just the university.
Context

Background

The 2011 Egyptian revolution began January 25 in Tahrir Square and rapidly spread across the country. Egyptian authorities took the extraordinary step of shutting down internet and mobile phone services for several days, directly disrupting how US universities could communicate with their abroad students. The University of Texas at Austin and American Councils for International Education had four students in Alexandria through the Arabic Flagship Program, a year-long federally funded immersion program in Arabic. After email failed, program coordinators reached students by landline and moved them to one central location before organizing their departure. Jordan Bellquist, an Arabic language and literature senior from UT Austin, arrived in Austin on February 1 after the federal government ordered all program participants to leave Egypt. The Daily Texan reported the evacuation on February 2, 2011. The broader study-abroad impact was severe: ABC News documented how US college students from multiple programs were evacuated via State Department flights, and AUC enrollment of foreign students subsequently dropped 96 percent.
Outcome
All four UT Austin Arabic Flagship students safely evacuated and returned to Austin by February 1, 2011.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Four students evacuated from studies abroad - The Daily Texan
    thedailytexan.com
  2. News
    U.S. College Students Return from Egypt - ABC News
    abcnews.go.com
  3. Source
    2011 Egyptian revolution - Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org
Tags
study-abroadegyptcivil-unrestinternationalevacuationadvisoryarabic-languagerevolution2011
Added June 2026Updated June 2026Via ingestion