A university task force has released a series of
recommendations aimed at enhancing the safety of Johns
Hopkins faculty, staff and graduate students who travel
abroad, in particular those who work or study in areas of
conflict.
In September 2004, Provost Steven Knapp charged the
War Zone Task Force with examining issues related to
international travel to high-risk areas by these
affiliates. The report defines high-risk areas as countries
or regions on the State Department's travel warning list
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's travel
health warning list. Sudan, Iraq, Israel, Congo-Kinshasa
and Somalia are among those included.
Pamela Cranston, associate provost for academic
affairs, chaired the 11-member task force, which concluded
its work this summer. To accomplish its goals, the task
force met with divisional representatives, conducted an
informal survey of peer institutions to determine their
policies governing international travel and consulted with
a variety of nongovernmental organizations that work
regularly in high-risk areas.
Cranston said that the group's primary focus was to
ascertain what the university could and should do to
enhance the safety of those on Johns Hopkins-related
business or graduate study in troubled areas of the globe,
whether it's a School of Medicine faculty member
administering emergency medical training in Gaza or a
School of Public Health graduate student conducting
research in Afghanistan.
The School of Public Health alone spent $6.8 million
last year on international travel for sponsored research,
and a significant portion of that travel was to conflict
areas such as Afghanistan and Iraq. School of Medicine
staff also frequently travel abroad for research purposes,
and each year more than 150 SAIS students participate in
international internships.
As a new overarching university policy, the task force
recommended that faculty, staff and graduate students
should be cautioned about, but not prohibited from,
traveling to high-risk areas of the world. The report said
that "in order to fulfill the mission of the university,
Johns Hopkins faculty and staff must continue to be able to
make their own professional judgments about business
travel, balancing the risks with the rewards that
international travel to high-risk areas may provide."
Cranston said that while the task force recommended
not to restrict travel, the group did realize that it might
be helpful to direct persons to more information about
specific risk of traveling to an area where there could be
fighting in the streets or the threat of a car bombing.
"We felt the university's responsibility is to provide
as much information as possible, and in a user-friendly
way, in order for our people to make good, informed
decisions," Cranston said. "There is no way for us to
completely ensure the safety of our Hopkins family, but we
can do a better job of getting them the information that
they need when they voluntarily put themselves at risk."
Specifically, graduate students will now be required
to complete an international travel checklist and submit it
to the dean or her/his designee. The checklist will include
reminders regarding health insurance, vaccinations, host
country approval and the need to provide contact
information to family and a faculty adviser.
Likewise, faculty and staff must provide notification
and emergency contact information to their dean or his/her
designee prior to travel to high-risk areas, as required by
the university's travel accident insurance policy. In
addition, each division will be asked to implement a
notification process that will record and monitor submitted
travel information, and to designate a senior-level
administrator to be its travel safety and security
coordinator.
When traveling in an area where regular communication
is difficult, Hopkins affiliates are now asked to maintain
contact with the division's travel safety and security
coordinator and, if necessary, the nearest U.S. embassy or
consulate. For those who are likely to stay for a prolonged
period in a high-risk area, registration at a U.S. embassy
or consulate is essential, the report says.
Other recommendations include that those traveling
abroad should "vigilantly monitor" consular and press
reports, and that "no one may be required or coerced" to
travel to high-risk areas. Staff and graduate students who
travel, it says, must assume responsibility for their own
safety and security.
The report also includes recommendations pertinent to
insurance, including one that requests the Johns Hopkins
Office of Benefits Administration to renegotiate its
disability insurance and voluntary personal accident
policies to provide coverage for losses sustained due to
terrorism and while traveling abroad on university business
to war-risk countries.
In terms of education, the report calls for the
university to enhance its international travel Web site
www.jhu.edu/purchasing/travel/intl_travel.html with
more links to government and nongovernment sites that
provide up-to-date travel-related warnings, advice, laws
and regulations. The site will also contain a "Tips for
Traveling Abroad" page.
In addition to Cranston, the members of the task force
were Edward Baker, associate dean for finance and
administration at SAIS; Paula Burger, vice provost and dean
for undergraduate education; Patricia Day, senior director
of employee and labor relations, Human Resources; P. Gregg
Greenough, assistant professor in the Department of
Emergency Medicine and deputy director of the Center for
Refugee and Disaster Response at the School of Public
Health; Robert Harris, a global operations specialist at
JHPIEGO; Douglas Hudson, director of special programs at
APL; David Peters, associate professor and deputy director
of academic programs in the Department of International
Health at the School of Public Health; Eric Rebbert, chief
administrative officer for the Center for Communication
Programs at the School of Public Health; and Frederick
Savage, acting vice president and general counsel.
Cranston said the implementation of the
recommendations has already begun, and the task force has
asked for full compliance by the start of the fall 2006
semester.
Undergraduate travel was not addressed because the
Council of Deans in May 2004 endorsed a policy that
prohibits student travel to countries where the State
Department has issued a warning; a provision that allows
students to petition for an exception was included.
A full version of the report can be found at
www.jhu.edu/news_info/reports/wztf.
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