Elliott School to add graduate program in Middle East Studies

The Elliott School of International Affairs plans to launch a graduate program in Middle East Studies next fall.

“We feel that since 9-11, we need more of a focus on the Middle East,” said David Grier, the associate dean for academic programs for the Elliott School of International Affairs.

The Elliott School will be hiring four additional professors to teach Middle East Studies next year, one of whom will also teach security policy courses. The professors will teach at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, allowing the school to expand its undergraduate course offerings.

Grier said there is a “surplus demand” for Middle East Studies classes.

He said it is difficult to change the school’s programs fast enough to meet the needs of students. Grier compared student interest in Middle Eastern studies to interest in Russian studies during the Cold War.

“The Cold War ended and interest in that vanished,” he said.

“You can’t go as fast as people would like because these are people’s careers,” he said.

The number of Russian studies classes could also not decrease as quickly as student interest did, he said.

– Elise Kigner

GW joins D.C. emergency notification network

Students and faculty now have access to Alert D.C., a free system providing emergency situation alerts via e-mail, text messages or pages.

Alert D.C., which the District’s Emergency Management Agency made available last month, is accessible to D.C. residents and workers after they register for the service.

“(The system is) a major step forward for emergency communications at GW, and everyone is encouraged to sign up as soon as possible,” said John Petrie, assistant vice president of the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management.

According to the DCEMA’s Web site, the system is capable of e-mailing, text messaging and paging notifications about weather conditions, transportation alerts, utility interruptions and government office closings pertinent to the user’s selected neighborhood in either English or Spanish.

Since the system is neighborhood-specific, the District is allowing authorities in those areas, including OPSEM, to send out their own messages in cases of emergency.

-Andrew Klein