Student Union
- By Carl Liles
Fulbright Shelters in Bishkek as COVID-19 Empties Streets
An uncomfortable silence has settled on the normally busy boulevards and avenues of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Its high rises, trendy shops and other newcomers — ushered in by the sudden shift to market economics in the early 1990s — sit among slabs of gray concrete and rare czarist architecture that came before.
But, COVID-19 and the emergency state measures enacted by authorities to prevent any further spread of the disease have left these areas and other open spaces, like parks and cafés, absent of city residents. The vibe of springtime Bishkek is uncharacteristically different this year.
Local media and rumor keep apace of one another as the general public receives new information and learns of regulations that will shape everyone’s lives for the next several months. Parallel real-time developments in other countries leave those of us speculating as to how things will play out.
But for now, my time as a Fulbright scholar has come to an abrupt close. And I wait in isolation until COVID-19 is controlled.
Fulbright grant to teach
I came to Kyrgyzstan in August 2017 after finishing my bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia, excited to begin a new life as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years. Toward the end of my service, I was offered a Fulbright grant to teach English classes at a private university in the capital of Bishkek. I started in October 2019.
On March 13, our WhatsApp group of Central Asian Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) began to exchange a flurry of messages. The State Department was shuttering the Fulbright Program for the rest of the year.
What were the embassies saying? Who was staying? Who was leaving? Personal messages to friends and other loved ones went back and forth as we discussed our options and tried to come to grips with the potential futures we faced.
For most of us it was a difficult choice. We had committed to 10 months in our host countries and were adjusting to our new assignments. Routines were developed; social circles were formed. There were connections and revelations lying ahead for us as Fulbright ETAs.
For many, this abruptness was an unexpected intruder. News that we could leave without repercussion from the Fulbright program, followed by the order to evacuate, came with a flood of heavy emotions for all.
In the ensuing hours and days after we were told to leave Kyrgyzstan, it became obvious that a smooth return to the United States could be challenging. Rumors swirled about flight availability, cancellations and quarantines. Stories of being trapped in airports for more than a week came from WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
“In these unprecedented circumstances, we also recognize that due to conditions in specific countries, including the closing of borders and air space, the lack of available flights, or other safety considerations, not all U.S. Fulbright participants will be able to depart for the United States at this time,” the Fulbright program announced.
The risks of contracting COVID-19 in transit, and the sheer uncertainty of becoming a temporary resident in an airport terminal for an indefinite period, painted a somewhat bleak picture for returning stateside.
Thankfully, the State Department informed us that without safe and certain options for returning to the States, we could remain in our respective counties as private citizens — that is, if we were prepared to stay put for an undetermined time.
Waiting it out
Personally, I was immensely relieved that we were given the option to remain abroad. I believe I am in a better position to self-isolate and avoid COVID-19 — as well as not infect my loved ones with it — here in Kyrgyzstan than in the States.
Moreover, in my heart I felt that I wasn’t ready to go home. For me and other Fulbrights, returning to the States with no plans and few opportunities was unthinkable only three weeks ago. We had hoped to experience so much more while abroad, yet for reasons beyond our control, that opportunity vanished over the course of a few days.
Because of the internet, self-isolation in the coming months will be (hopefully) bearable. Communicating with friends and family across the globe, and consuming a near endless amount of media at the click of a mouse, make life a little less boring when social interaction is limited.
There are plenty of grocery stores and pharmacies near my apartment, which has a pleasant street view from all three of its rooms. Over time, these advantages may not prove to be as sustainable as I had hoped. But for the moment, I am thankful to have them.
The Fulbright ETA program is a truly exceptional way to teach and learn outside the U.S. We were each afforded the opportunity to live and integrate into cultures and countries that we otherwise would not have explored.
The Fulbright Program develops a more globally conscious population in the U.S. and abroad. We expanded our minds through cultural exchange, as well as those of our peers and counterparts in our host countries. For this, I and my fellow Fulbright 2019-2020 cohort will always be grateful.
See all News Updates of the Day
Survey: Social integration, career prep are important to international students
A recent survey of international students in the United States found that before starting school, they were concerned about personal safety, making friends and feeling homesick.
Inside Higher Ed reports that international students want specialized orientations, peer connections, career preparation and job placement to help make their college experiences successful. (July 2024)
US advisory council ends Nigeria visit, signs student exchange deal
Members of a U.S. presidential advisory council have approved a student exchange deal between an American college and a Nigerian university as part of the council's effort to strengthen collaboration on education, health, entrepreneurship and development between Africa and Africans living abroad.
The council also visited a health facility supported by the United States Agency for International Development in the capital.
Nigerian authorities and visitors chatted with members of the U.S President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement as they toured a healthcare facility in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, on the last day of the council's three-day visit to Abuja and Lagos.
The facility is one of many supported by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to improve the management of childhood illnesses, family planning, immunization and delivery.
The tour was part of the council's effort to promote African diaspora-led investments in technology entrepreneurship, education and healthcare delivery.
"They're doing a phenomenal job there, it really gave us a sense of what the healthcare system is in Nigeria," said Deniece Laurent-Mantey, executive director of the advisory council. "This is our first trip as a council to the continent and we chose Nigeria for a reason — the diaspora in Nigeria is very active, very influential, and they're really a source of strength when it comes to our U.S.-Africa policy. And so for us coming to Nigeria was very intentional."
The council was created by President Joe Biden in September to improve collaboration between Africa and its diaspora in terms of economic and social development.
Akila Udoji, manager of the Primary Healthcare Centre of Karu, said officials in Nigeria were pleased that the council members were able to visit.
"We're happy that they have seen what the money they have given to us to work with has been used to do, because they have been able to assist us in capacity-building, trainings, equipment supply and the makeover of the facility," Udoji said.
Earlier, the council signed a deal for a student exchange program between Spelman College in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta and Nigeria's University of Lagos.
Laurent-Mantey said education exchanges are one of the council's top priorities.
"In Lagos, we had the president of Spelman College — she's also a member of our council — she signed an agreement with the University of Lagos to further education exchange programs in STEM and creative industries between those two universities," Laurent-Mantey said. "And I think for us it's very important, because Spelman College is a historically Black university, and so here we are promoting the importance of collaboration between African Americans and Africans."
In March, the advisory council adopted its first set of recommendations for the U.S. president, including the student exchange initiative, advocating for more U.S. government support for Africa, climate-focused initiatives, and improving U.S. visa access for Africans.
The council met with Nigerian health and foreign affairs officials during the visit before leaving the country on Wednesday.
American Academy of the Arts College announces closure
The American Academy of Art College in Chicago announced it would be closing after 101 years of preparing students for careers in art and illustration.
WTTW news reported that like other art colleges, the academy saw enrollment drop after the pandemic, and officials made the decision to close the college last month. (July 2024)
5 killed, dozens injured in clashes over Bangladesh jobs quota system
At least 5 people were killed and dozens injured in two separate incidents in Bangladesh as violence continued Tuesday on university campuses in the nation's capital and elsewhere over a government jobs quota system, local media reports said quoting officials.
At least three of the dead were students and one was a pedestrian, the media reports said. Another man who died in Dhaka remained unidentified.
The deaths were reported Tuesday after overnight violence at a public university near Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. The violence involved members of a pro-government student body and other students, when police fired tear gas and charged the protesters with batons during the clashes, which spread at Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, according to students and authorities.
Protesters have been demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971, which allows them to take up 30% of governmental jobs.
They argue that quota appointments are discriminatory and should be merit-based. Some said the current system benefits groups supporting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Some Cabinet ministers criticized the protesters, saying they played on students' emotions.
The Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily newspaper reported that one person died in Dhaka and three others, including a pedestrian, were killed after they suffered injuries during violence in Chattogram, a southeastern district, on Tuesday.
Prothom Alo and other media reports also said that a 22-year-old protester died in the northern district of Rangpur.
Details of the casualties could not be confirmed immediately.
While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh's private sector, many find government jobs stable and lucrative. Each year, some 3,000 such jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates.
Hasina said Tuesday that war veterans — commonly known as "freedom fighters" — should receive the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971 regardless of their current political ideologies.
"Abandoning the dream of their own life, leaving behind their families, parents and everything, they joined the war with whatever they had," she said during an event at her office in Dhaka.
Protesters gathered in front of the university's official residence of the vice chancellor early Tuesday when violence broke out. Demonstrators accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student wing of Hasina's ruling Awami League party, of attacking their "peaceful protests." According to local media reports, police and the ruling party-backed student wing attacked the protesters.
But Abdullahil Kafi, a senior police official, told the country's leading English-language newspaper Daily Star that they fired tear gas and "blank rounds" as protesters attacked the police. He said up to 15 police officers were injured.
More than 50 people were treated at Enam Medical College Hospital near Jahangir Nagar University as the violence continued for hours, said Ali Bin Solaiman, a medical officer of the hospital. He said at least 30 of them suffered pellet wounds.
On Monday, violence also spread at Dhaka University, the country's leading public university, as clashes gripped the campus in the capital. More than 100 students were injured in the clashes, police said.
On Tuesday, protesters blocked railways and some highways across the country, and in Dhaka, they halted traffic in many areas as they vowed to continue demonstrating until the demands were met.
Local media said police forces were spread across the capital to safeguard the peace.
Swapon, a protester and student at Dhaka University who gave only his first name, said they want the "rational reformation of the quota scheme." He said that after studying for six years, if he can't find a job, "it will cause me and my family to suffer."
Protesters say they are apolitical, but leaders of the ruling parties accused the opposition of using the demonstrations for political gains.
A ruling party-backed student activist, who refused to give his name, told The Associated Press that the protesters with the help of "goons" of the opposition's Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party vandalized their rooms at the student dormitories near the Curzon Hall of Dhaka University.
The family-of-the-veterans quota system was halted following a court order after mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh's High Court nulled the decision to reinstate the system once more, angering scores of students and triggering protests.
Last week, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court's order for four weeks and the chief justice asked protesting students to return to their classes, saying the court would issue a decision in four weeks.
However, the protests have continued daily, halting traffic in Dhaka.
The quota system also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups, but students have protested against only the veterans system.
Hasina maintained power in an election in January that was again boycotted by the country's main opposition party and its allies due to Hasina's refusal to step down and hand over power to a caretaker government to oversee the election.
Her party favors keeping the quota for the families of the 1971 war heroes after her Awami League party, under the leadership of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the independence war with the help of India. Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975.
Police open hazing investigation after Dartmouth student found dead
Police have opened a hazing investigation after a Dartmouth College student was found dead in a river in early July.
Police received a tip that hazing was involved, and there was evidence that alcohol might have been involved in the death, USA Today reported. (July 2024)
