When most college students think about going abroad to study, they think about new friends, sightseeing, and probably a little more partying than usual. Most students don’t expect to run into major problems while they’re traveling.
Like most, Dana Tompkins, ’04 went to Florence last semester expecting to have only positive experiences. She felt confident that Fairfield University had given her a large enough support base that she would be able to receive help whenever she needed it. However, according to Tompkins, when trouble did come her way, Fairfield University and her Florence contacts were nowhere to be found.
“One night when my roommate and I were abroad a man beat us up. We didn’t know how to speak Italian so we couldn’t go to the police,” said Tompkins. “All we had were the emergency numbers that we received when we arrived.”
Susan Fitzgerald, director of the Study Abroad Office, agreed that students are issued certain emergency numbers from the universities that they stay with and that these hotlines are manned by personnel 24 hours a day.
“We were supposed to be able to contact someone 24 hours a day,” said Thompkins, “but when we called the emergency numbers no one was there. We had to wait six hours until Fairfield University opened to get in touch with anyone.”
Fitzgerald remembers the situation differently. “Academic Vice Principal Grossman, Dean Wilson, and myself were all here handling the situation at midnight[Conneticut time]. No one had to wait until the opening of the university [Fairfield],” he insisted.
No matter the length of time that it took for Tompkins to get in touch with university officials she said that it “was a very tragic experience.” Students should remember that when traveling in another country, situations like these can occur.
Brian Gosselin, ’04 went abroad last semester to Prague expecting to have only positive experiences. But when he arrived, the Czech Republic was recovering from one of the worst floods in its history. When it came time to register for the next semester of classes that he would be taking at Fairfield University, he was unable to register due to the loss of internet access.
He called Fairfield and was able to sign up for classes over the phone with his advisor. But when he arrived back at the U.S., there was a problem.
“Somehow I wasn’t registered in any of my classes. I had to get signed into all of them all over again. It was a big mess,” said Gosselin.
It wasn’t the only mess that he came back to, either.
“When I came back to campus, I kept receiving mail in my mailbox that wasn’t mine and my mail sometimes wouldn’t be there,” said Gosselin. “I had been waiting for my abroad scholarship check to come in the mail, but I never got it. The company said they sent it out so I am not sure what happened.”
It turns out that the university gave Gosselin’s mailbox to a transfer student to share with Gosselin when he returned.
Marge Fulop, superintendent of the mailroom, told the Mirror that this is common practice. “When students go abroad they don’t lose their mailboxes but sometimes they do receive someone to share it with. We make sure that people that share are of the same year and sex.”
Gosseling said that they university never informed him of the person sharing his mailbox of the change.
Fulop said that she doesn’t have to inform students of the change. “Students are told that they may have to share mailboxes before hand,” she said. “So when we do double them up we don’t have to tell individual students.”
Students are given the option of sharing a box with a person of their choice if they are uncomfortable with the person to whom they are randomly assigned. According to Fulop, most people don’t bother to ask.
Even though bad experiences do happen, Fitzgerald believes that “Ninety-nine percent of peoples’ experiences abroad are positive.”
“As the numbers of people that go abroad grow, there will be an equal increase in problems that occur while students are abroad,” she stressed.
The Study Abroad Office realizes that unfortunate situations may occur. “Before students leave we do a lot of situation coaching. We make sure that everyone going abroad is well prepared.”
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