School, Interrupted: An Alum is Forced to Leave His Work in Egypt Behind

For the past year, Norman Smith, Ed.D.'84, has been working toward building Alamein University, an American international university in Egypt. That work was cut short, however, as Smith fled to the United States to escape the unrest that erupted in the country as protesters called for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarek. HGSE recently spoke to Smith - profiled in the Winter 2011 issue of Ed. magazine - about how he came to Egypt, and why conditions made it impossible for him to stay.

What brought you to Egypt? I was contacted by the Alamein University board of trustees, having been recommended to them by American international university presidents as someone suitable to be called upon to create such an institution in Egypt. Rarely is anyone presented with an opportunity to create, from a blank sheet of paper, something as ambitious as what was intended for Alamein University. Chartered by President Mubarak, the university was intended to be 12 colleges enrolling 10,000 students earning bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Alamein University was to be built on the Egyptian Mediterranean west of Alexandria as part of a larger master plan to develop the shoreline into a flourishing international community.

When did you realize that you needed to leave the country? While the overall climate in Egypt had been increasingly tense since the November 2010 national elections when virtually all Parliamentary seats were won by Mubarak party members (impossibly unseating, among others, nearly 100 Muslim Brotherhood incumbents), it wasn't until the Tunisian revolution in January that it became likely that Mubarak and his government were at risk of a comparable downfall.

Most believed that the powerful police state rule that had suppressed any form of opposition for decades would continue to do so. The Wednesday January 26th national holiday set aside to honor those very police proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Instead of the mere hundreds of protesters that had been expected to gather on that day, the recent Tunisian revolution appeared to have inspired hundreds of thousands resulting in all forms of communications (Internet, telephones, etc.) being turned off by the government from that point forward.

The following day, the crowds doubled as other long-oppressed Egyptians stepped from out of the shadows to join in. On the third day, Friday, that crowd had doubled once again. Without communications, all we had were word-of-mouth rumors that Westerners were in harm's way and should try to get out of the country any way in which they could; not an easy undertaking with no forms of communication combined with a military cordon at the airport admitting only those with tickets to present. On the fourth day, Saturday, after spending 30 hours trying to get to the airport and on an airplane, I managed to be on the last plane to depart before the airport was closed due to curfew.

Have you spoken with anyone since you left Egypt? I have had very little contact as telephones and Internet continue to be sporadic and many people are not responding to my messages to them. I don't know where they are.

How do you feel the current state in Egypt will affect education in the country? I have no way of knowing because the current state in Egypt is so uncertain with respect to what is next. By the time my response is published online, the situation may be clearer. All will be determined according to what elements take over upon Mubarak's departure. Most believe the next rulers will be less pro-western.

Education is important in Egypt, but only the affluent can afford quality education. Government-run education, including higher education, is not considered to be high quality which is why the independent universities in Egypt, like the American University Cairo, are full to capacity, as Alamein University would have been. But, the affluent comprise only the top 10 percent and they fear the potential loss of their wealth in a post-Mubarak era. So, it is impossible to predict what will happen next in education, and, for that matter, in every other regard.

How will this affect your own work in Egypt? I think the university, at best, will be put on hold, but I don't know. Because it is a Mubarak-chartered initiative, and because it was intended to be English-speaking and American-accredited, the entire undertaking may prove to be the wrong concept at the wrong time in the wrong place once Mubarak has stepped down. Also, the money set aside for the project may no longer be available as the Egyptian stock market has plummeted. This was a public-private partnership dependent on Mubarak's financial allies underwriting the launch. Those monies may no longer exist after the dust has settled. We will have to wait and see what happens in the next few days, weeks and months. For sure, I doubt it will be business as usual anytime soon, including for the university.