Following Sept. 11’s terrorist attacks, eight international students have left Saint Louis University and returned to their home countries of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. One additional student was reportedly scheduled to leave Monday.

According to Media Relations Specialist Jeff Fowler, the students left at the request of their parents. “With almost every one of these students, parents had called concerned about the safety of their children in this country-not at the University,” Fowler said.

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, several groups-including the departments of Public Safety, Student Development and the International Center-met with international students and student organization leaders to soothe any fears and offer support.

“In the time since Sept. 11, there was a kind of reaching out to the University . including international students, many who live off-campus,” Fowler said.

Approximately 510 international students and 250 researchers and medical scholars attend SLU.

Mary Henderson, assistant director of the International Center, said that it’s hard to predict whether or not the terrorist attacks will have any impact on the international student population at SLU.

“We would have to wait until after the situation cools down, though SLU has enough high-quality programs that we can expect the numbers to go up,” Henderson said. “We certainly hope that students remain here.”

Darrell Bradley, International Student Federation president, said he believes the University has reacted well to the situation, especially in terms of communicating with international students. He speculated that the impact of the terrorist attacks on the international student population remains yet to be determined.

“I think, on a whole, it depends on how the campus reacts to the situation,” Bradley said. “If it responds well, international students will always be welcomed.”

Saint Louis University is not the only local university to see such departures. At the University of Missouri, at least 45 international students have left, with some cited reports of harassment, whether by telephone calls or face-to-face encounters. Of those 45 international students, 29 were of Middle Eastern descent.