Two quick hits before we get to the meat of today’s post. Our Weekly Update for P’26s went out this morning. We did have an error in one of the deadlines, so we sent out a corrected version, which you can read here. The campus community also received a broadcast email about campus comments being invited during WFU police accreditation.
Now to the main thrust of today’s blog. Last Thursday, there was a large earthquake in Peru. While we have students in Peru this summer, they were far away from the epicenter and our excellent Global Programs and Studies (GPS) staff was able to reach out quickly and determine that they were safe and accounted for.
I thought it might be helpful for families to understand some of the safeguards we have in place for students studying abroad relative to major events, whether that is political unrest, natural disasters, etc.
When Wake students study abroad (whether on a Wake program or in an affiliate program with another school), GPS provides their program locations to a global security monitoring and assistance company, so we (and the global security company) knows which students are staying in London vs. Barcelona vs. Paris etc.
Their software system has a dashboard that shows a map of the world, and any country where Wake students are will be highlighted. If there are critical alerts for that country/region, then those will be displayed. So at a glance, our GPS staff can see where the global hotspots are where we have students. Any critical and information alerts coming from areas where we have students are also sent automatically via email to our GPS staff. Similar alerts are also pushed out automatically to Wake Forest travelers for respective countries/regions for the duration of their trips.
The company who runs the global software program employs 400ish liaisons worldwide; they provide intelligence on the country/region/city, and can also be on-ground support if needed. There are also intelligence analysts who constantly study the political climate, crime risks, infrastructure, etc. to provide up-to-date alerts. That intelligence is all entered into the back end of the system for internal monitoring.
Before students depart, they must attend a meeting with the GPS staff to be briefed on the abroad experience and to introduce the safety information (which includes an app associated with this software program).
A few days before departure, students get an up-to-date email about their destination country with a “trip brief” which includes information on things like political conditions, public health, security, travel logistics, cultural considerations, and more.
In the event of some sort of crisis or emergency, GPS staff can quickly reach out to students and employees asking them to check in and confirm their safety. In addition, the app that students have access to has a “Crisis” feature that can be used if they run into trouble. Students can hit the red crisis button in the app, and they will be connected with a 24/7 call center based in the U.S. This crisis line is dedicated exclusively to WFU. Call center staff follow pre-established WFU protocols and have on file information related to our international insurance policies, university emergency contacts, etc. If the crisis button is used, then the current location (i.e. geographic coordinates) is captured and displayed via a street-level detailed map, so we know where the student is.
If your students are abroad this summer, or will be going abroad this fall, they will be part of this abroad tracking process. When I saw a demo of this system a few years ago, I found it very, very reassuring.
One important note to mention: if your student will take side trips/weekend getaways, encourage them to make sure that someone else in their program knows their location and where they will be, and when they will return. Students are asked to submit their personal travel plans via an independent travel form (i.e. Google form). While the software system I just described keeps track of the students’ permanent location for the semester or the summer, it is not designed to track individual trips here and there. For that reason, urge your students to reach out to you and let you know they are OK if there is an incident in their country or somewhere they are traveling on a side trip. It will make you and them feel better if they connect with you.
— by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (’92, MA ’94)
