IU makes effort to create comfortable atmosphere

Shock. Horror. Anger. Fear. All feelings experienced by 37,000 students on campus, including about 400 Middle Eastern students, when planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon Sept 11. \nAcross the nation, the fear led many international students -- including a handful at IU -- to leave the United States and return home. Efforts are under way to make international students feel safe, University officials said.\nSeveral international students, including some who left campus, contacted Director of International Students Ken Rogers about their fears.\n"The first response of nearly all of the students was shock and horror," Rogers said. "But then there was some concern of a backlash from students on campus who are close-minded."\nNine students have left IU, and nearly all will be returning to campus in January. Most worked out agreements with their professors to take incomplete grades and finish upon their return.\n"Those that left weren't eager to leave," Rogers said, "but they were called home by their parents, and in that culture, it is customary to obey a parent's wishes."\nThe Department of International Programs urged its students to consider alternatives to leaving, such as taking advantage of increased security and escort services.\nKathryn Bryan, a senior majoring in religious studies, had security in mind when she organized an escort service for Muslim women on campus. \nAlthough not Muslim herself, Bryan said she wanted to make sure her Muslim friends were safe.\n"I was concerned because a lot of Muslim women were scared about going out, even going to class," Bryan said. \nShe said she got the idea while having coffee with a friend from Pakistan. His sister, who goes to school in Virginia, had been shoved to the ground in a racial attack a few days after the attacks. He also told Bryan it might be best she not be seen with him for fear she would be a target walking around with him. \n"I was appalled that he was afraid for me to be with him," Bryan said. "That's when I knew that this was a big problem."\nBryan sent out a mass e-mail requesting students to volunteer as escorts. The response came back with about 40 volunteers. For the two weeks following Sept. 11, there were five women who requested escorts. The number has since dropped.\nThe focus of the program has changed to teach Muslim women to use the campus escort service and emergency phones.\n"We're concerned with the safety of these students, and the campus escort service is really the best option for them," Bryan said. "It's more reliable."\nThere are varying reactions to the attacks among Muslim students, said Muslim Student Union Public Relations Officer Ahmer Ahmed.\n"Some are trying to be less visible while going about their daily business, trying not ruffle any feathers," Ahmed said, "but most are just trying to inform people about Islam: who we are and what our religion represents."\nThings have begun to calm down in Bloomington and Muslim students are less afraid because of the support in the IU community, Rogers said.\n"I think now it is time to begin moving on and rebuilding a sense of solidarity and civility," Rogers said. "The university's response to this has been commendable. The programs and lectures going on are doing a lot to move us toward this goal"