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London Bombings cause Cancellation of British Studies
Cassie Daley | Staff Reporter

It was supposed to be a trip of a lifetime.
Plans had been underway for over year. 34 MSU students and two professors were packed and ready to go. One was already on location.
They had saved, borrowed, rearranged work schedules and planned graduation schedules around this month-long British studies program.
On July 7 however, terrorist attacks hit a little too close to home; Al Qaeda bombed four London locations. On that day, London held its breath as traffic and public transportation was brought to its knees, and the 2005 British studies program was brought down with it. 
Dr. Larry Williams was the primary decision maker regarding the cancellation of the trip.
Williams had arrived at Gatwick Airport outside of London the same day the bombings took place.
He arrived in Victoria Station, a major train station in London, after it had been hit, which is when he first witnessed the direct aftermath of terrorism.
“It was like a Spielberg movie. People pouring out of the tubes, police just descending upon us, yelling, busses disappearing into the street,” Williams said.
Williams said that all public transportation was halted and that people were relying on taxi cabs. He walked the streets of London for over three hours, unable to hail a cab. At one point he went into a London pub, where the normally rowdy crowd was silent, all eyes stationed on the television watching the news. It was terrorism, and it would directly affect MSU.
“It was an impossible situation. I knew I had to make the decision before they got on the plane. And that’s what I did. First and foremost I had to consider the safety of my students and staff – it’s not like making a trip by yourself, you’re doing what’s best for a large group” said Williams. “It was the most difficult professional decision I have ever had to make.”
After having traveled in London for over 20 years, Williams said from a logistics standpoint that they wouldn’t be able to pull off the trip. Williams said that much of the students’ class credit at Queen Mary College, where the students would have studied, relies on guest speakers and field trips.
“The two main tubes that serviced our location were shut down,” said Williams, explaining that they would not be running until the trip was almost over. “Students would be stuck in their dorms, and we wouldn’t be able to get all of the scheduled speakers to campus.”
Williams’ decision was equally as difficult to receive as it was to make. The students experienced a gamut of emotions; everyone was disappointed, but most understood. Some students, however, feel as if they were not treated fairly.
“I was never really mad, I just thought that they were too controlling.” said Ya-Rei Chan, a senior mass communications major who had planned her own trip, and was already abroad when the decision to cancel was made.
Chan was in and airport in Prague where she was waiting to board her plane to London when she heard of both the bombings and the cancellation through an e-mail that Williams had sent out. 
“I thought ‘oh my God I’ll be homeless in London’ but I still have to go because I have no choice, I was waiting to board,” said Chan.
Chan stayed in the chaotic London airport for two days, before she was able to get a room in an airport hotel for the rest of the week. Chan said she didn’t want to make the trip to Queen Mary College with all her luggage only to have them tell her it was all cancelled and she had to turn back around.
“I called the college, but they didn’t know anything about it. I guess I talked to the wrong person, but I didn’t really know what to do,” said Chan, who feels that more of an effort should have been made to contact her.
 “I think they overreacted. I understand it’s a safety problem, but I feel bad, they should have asked everyone’s opinion. It’s our choice,” said Chan. “London recovered everything so fast, the subway was still working.”
Chan, along with other students, felt that the trip should have been delayed, and not just cancelled all together.
Williams explained that delaying the trip would cause the classes not to be viable. “By law students have to have a certain amount of contact hours, we wouldn’t have been able to make up that first week,” said Williams. “I wish I could have just done it a week later; it was impossible.”
Senior criminal justice and sociology major Natalie Johnson was among the students who understood Williams’s decision.
“I was looking forward to experiencing their culture and their way of life over there. Living a different life for a month,” said Johnson.
She too had made accommodations with her job, and was depending on these credits from the British Studies trip to graduate on time.
“My immediate reaction was anger,” said Johnson. “But after I calmed down I was just upset.”
Although some students who were supposed to take the trip this summer are planning on making it next summer, this was Johnson’s only opportunity before she graduates.
“It was the last thing I expected,” said Johnson. “I’m still disappointed, but I think it was the right decision to make. I didn’t think so at the time, but I do now, especially considering the other stuff that happened there later in the summer,” said Johnson.
MSU economics professor Dr. John Martinez, who was among the professors planning on going to London, felt that many students better understood the decision after the second attacks in London on July 21.
“A lot of people quieted down, it showed that the situation over there was still volatile,” said Martinez.
Some students suggested that canceling this trip was giving in to terrorism.
“You still have to go on with life. When 9-11 happened in America, most of us still went on with life,” said Chan. “I was angry when I found there were still a lot of students doing study abroad and they still went.”
Williams admits that the terrorists succeeded in what they were trying to do, “The whole point of terrorism is to disrupt people’s lives. And it did. And it’s horrible.”
After this summer’s disaster, the international studies department had to put almost as much work into canceling and refunding the program as they did to plan it.
“We got lucky, the university officials were sympathetic,” said Williams. “We took a hit, but it could have been a lot worse.”
Now the British Studies program is back to its beginning stages, planning for next summer. Williams and his colleagues are excited to put this behind them and move forward. 
“I take it very personal that a year’s worth of work just disappears,” said Williams, “but I want to focus on ’06 now. We’re going to offer more classes than we ever have. I’m very excited about looking towards the future.”
Martinez is keeping his fingers crossed that he and some of the students who missed their opportunity this summer will make up for it next summer.
“I have a gut feeling the program is going to come back stronger next year. You can’t scare away the youth,” said Martinez. “If there is a silver lining in this it’s that it helped to advertise the program.”