Students at Qatar Satellite Campuses Briefly Evacuated

The student housing in Education City, a research and education complex with satellite campuses for six U.S. institutions just outside of the Qatari capital of Doha, was evacuated just before 2 a.m. on Saturday amid warnings of incoming attacks. Qatar’s ministry of defense later confirmed that its armed forces had successfully intercepted a missile, Al Jazeera reported.

The U.S. universities with campuses in Education City, which is run by Qatar Foundation, are Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth and Weill Cornell Medicine. The institutions have been operating remotely for multiple weeks now during the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran.

According to Francisco Marmolejo, president of higher education at the Qatar Foundation, 282 students living in the dorms were relocated for one night to hotels and other housing facilities before returning the next day. Other parts of the complex were not evacuated, he said. He noted that only about a quarter of Education City’s students actually live in the dorms.

“We live in an extraordinary moment in Qatar, as you can imagine, but … there has been an amazing coordination among all the universities in, first of all, minimizing the risk of the students and, secondly, in assuring the continuity of education by online means and also doing the adaptations that are needed in terms of assessment and everything else,” Marmolejo said. “We learned a lot during the COVID times and those lessons learned there have been extremely useful in this specific situation at this time.”

Carnegie Mellon dean Michael Trick confirmed in an update Sunday that CMU students living in Education City dorms evacuated Saturday morning; they were informed later the same day that it was safe to return.

“All of the students did opt to go back, but it was certainly a long, stressful day for them. To all of the students who were affected, I know the entire community wishes you a peaceful and restful night tonight,” Trick wrote.

Northwestern’s student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, also reported that students in the dorms received a message from Qatar Foundation Student Housing & Residence Life at 1:54 a.m. on Saturday, prompting them to evacuate with enough of their belongings to last at least three days.

Indee Thotawattage, assistant director for the student experience at Northwestern-Qatar, said in an email that some students were already working to exit the country, according to The Daily Northwestern. The university, in partnership with VCU and Texas A&M, had organized bus travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earlier in the week. From there, students, employees and their families were responsible for scheduling their own flights.

CMU’s update also noted that there are now limited flights departing from Doha’s Hamad International Airport available to anyone who wants to “voluntarily depart Qatar.”

VCU, meanwhile, has been allowing students and employees to study or work from outside of the country since March 5, days after the U.S. launched its war with Iran.

“The decision to relocate is entirely yours. If you choose to travel, the school’s bi-annual airfare allowance for eligible employees will be deposited by March 15 and can support your funding of temporary relocation. All other expenses associated with travel and temporary relocation will be your responsibility,” wrote the institution’s leaders in a message to the Qatar campus community at the time. “At this time, there is no specified return date to Qatar. We will continue monitoring the situation as it evolves, recognizing that it is difficult to predict. You will be notified when a reasonable return date is identified.”

Marmolejo noted that other Education City institutions are also allowing students and faculty to study and work from outside of Qatar.

“All the universities have been providing the flexibility for people who decide to leave the country on a temporary basis, with the assumption, of course, that they will come back when the situation becomes more normal. I hope that is going to happen,” he said.

Some students and faculty were already out of the country on spring break when the conflict began and have been unable to return to Qatar, he added.

Most Education City campuses have not published updates since the evacuation on Saturday.