Foreign Study Program faculty directors and participating students are not feeling threatened on their FSPs due to the events of Sept. 11, according to Dartmouth College officials in contact with the programs.
"They aren't worried," said Assistant Dean of Humanities Lenore Grenoble, referring to students she has heard about through faculty members. "If anything, the people think it's strange that we are concerned."
Some students contacted by The Dartmouth said they are being a little more cautious.
Dartmouth has a strong foreign study and exchange program -- approximately 50 percent of students participate in at least one program during their four years at college.
The 235 students currently participating in Dartmouth programs abroad have been warned to "keep a low profile," according to Assistant Dean of Faculty for Off-Campus Programs Peter Armstrong.
Students have been told to stay away from "obviously American" places like fast food restaurants, to keep faculty informed when they travel and to avoid any sort of demonstration and faculty directors have kept in daily contact with administrators at Dartmouth.
"They're taking it seriously," said Armstrong.
On the Religion FSP at the University of Edinburgh, for example, some students are not travelling alone.
"For the first time in my life, I am being cautious about who I turn my back to," said Arielle Farber '03.
Some students are less worried.
"Parents are more concerned than students," said Armstrong. "The parents were initially concerned around Sept. 11," said Grenoble. "Especially about travel."
However, Grenoble pointed out that this was before it became clear what was going on or what the extent of the attack was.
Many students on the Religion FSP reported meeting different reactions from British students than Americans.
"The Americans are in general just pretty mad, and they feel aggression towards Afghanistan," said John Campbell '03. "The British students ... tend to not feel that aggression, and although they think [Sept. 11] was a bad thing, they think that we're doing the wrong thing by bombing."
So far, only one student has withdrawn from a Foreign Study Program because of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The low concern about anti-American action is perhaps a symptom of how many of the programs center around Europe.
"It's so calm in Europe compared to here," said Grenoble. "Here, everyone is worried about anthrax."
Only three of the fall programs are outside of Europe -- in South Africa, Trinidad and Brazil.
"We really need to understand other parts of the world better than ever before," said Grenoble. "There are large parts of the world that we aren't studying enough."
She added, "the only way to really understand a place is to be there."
This reflects what Grenoble sees as the challenge of developing FSPs -- balancing safety with the need for understanding.
For example, there is clearly a need to understand the Arab world, but this may not be an appropriate time to plan an FSP to an Islamic country.
Ithan Peltan contributed to this report.