Thanks to a group of well-connected employees, help is always just a phone call away for anyone with a campus connection traveling overseas.
“If something goes wrong we have people here on campus who can help,” said Bo White, the assistant director for international health and safety.
White, whose position was created last year through the Office of the Associate Provost for International Affairs, works closely with the university’s Study Abroad programs. He is among the group that never strays far from a cellphone and is the point man when an emergency arises and action is needed.
“My role is to backstop all of the students, all of the staff and all of the faculty members traveling abroad – all of the time,” he said. “We want everyone to know the university has their back even when they’re not around.”
To avoid mishaps that could lead to an emergency, the university has put together a large network of faculty and staff members as on-campus contacts and provides training for students and faculty members who work and study abroad, he said.
Faculty members can take advantage of organized campus travel discussions prior to a trip, and students participate in orientation sessions targeted to their destinations. Local customs, language differences, security risks and legal requirements all are covered in the general student training.
“I’ll intersect with the advisers so that we can offer effective orientation and ongoing updated training,” he said. “We do what we can to standardize things, but we try to pinpoint that information based on where the students will be traveling.”
The training includes drills for common recurring travel problems, such as what to do when travel documents are misplaced or stolen. Two of the major suggestions for students include registering with the U.S. Embassy in the host country they’re visiting and purchasing travel insurance.
“Obviously, we can’t control everything, but we do everything we can to prepare them and help them through their travels,” White said. “They are still students – but their classroom just happens to be in some far-away place like Western Africa.”
Services also are available for the 10,000 international students who call the Urbana campus their home.
During winter emergencies that delay flights, for example, campus contacts work with hotels and keep in regular communication with advisers at all hours.
White said the university’s Study Abroad program would not go nearly as smoothly if not for the extra efforts of faculty and staff members from a variety of departments and disciplines across campus. He said the campus is a unique source of expertise for interpretation assistance and specific travel information for students and advisers, and that many of the advisers already are well-traveled Study Abroad alumni.
“We wouldn’t be able to provide all we do for the students in the program if not for the fact this campus is so open to sharing information,” he said.
He said the University Library has been especially helpful in looking up and finding specific travel information and that the university also utilizes some third-party resources for travel planning.
“We’ve taken a lot of the university expertise and applied it to this experience,” he said. “People are always willing to help, and the cooperative spirit has been amazing.”
White said he also works with counterparts at other universities, considering the Big Ten schools are national leaders in travel abroad programs. He said the members of the loosely organized consortium help one another when the need arises and that they regularly discuss best practices and new approaches to make the travel abroad process run even better.
“The ability to connect with like-minded people is really incredible,” he said.
Last year the U. of I.’s Study Abroad office coordinated 2,500 students through 400 available programs in more than 60 countries. Students can work on improving communication skills in a foreign language, continue taking classes in their major or minor, earn elective credit, participate in an internship, volunteer and more. The average travel group runs from 12 to 25.
And as the 17th-ranked U.S. university in the country for travel/study programs, the number of participating students continues to rise.
White said that in the past decade travel abroad programs have tripled at U.S. universities, but that growth has not been matched with increases in federal grant funding.
Wherever the trip, he said the most important tool that advisers and university contacts have is to stay calm and collected in all situations. It not only helps resolve the situation more quickly, but it calms down travelers who may be stressed out and in a different time zone.
“Doing this, whether you’re on this end of the phone or stuck in an airport, you have to have a sense of humor,” he said. “Otherwise, working through some of these details can be maddening.”
White, who has traveled extensively himself as part of international non-governmental organizations, said he thinks of his own children when he fields a late-night call from a frazzled adviser, student or parent.
“Being a parent has been helpful, I think,” he said. “I’m fielding the call with a parent’s perspective and I get it: They’ve entrusted their students with us and
they have to have someplace to call when help is needed. That’s why we take it seriously when they call, no matter what the reason.”
