Students In London Shaken, But Safe

All 71 Harvard College students who were living in London at the time of the subway and bus bombings last week are safe, University officials announced this week.

College students in London received e-mails from several Harvard offices throughout the day of July 7, when four rush-hour explosions rocked the city. By 9 p.m. Thursday, the College had heard back from 67 of the 71; the remaining students contacted Harvard Friday morning, according to Georgene B. Herschbach, an associate dean of the College.

Harvard undergraduates were in London at the time of the July 7 terrorist attacks for a variety of reasons, including internships, thesis research, and summer classes. Several students are studying at the London School of Economics this summer.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) attempted to contact an additional 97 of its students, who might have been in the London area at the time Other Harvard graduate schools tried to track down their students and alumni in the London area over the past week, but administrators could not provide the exact number of people successfully contacted by any school.

Steven R. Nelson, the executive director of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at the Business School, sent e-mails to about 30 MBA candidates who had internships in London. Although not every student has replied, Nelson said that Harvard’s MBA students in London had contacted each other, concluding that no one had been hurt by the blasts.

“As far as we’re aware, every MBA student is fine,” Nelson said.

At the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), officials sent e-mails to 121 people who could have been around London, including current and incoming students, graduates, and a former faculty member.

As of Monday, about 35 percent of those KSG affiliates had responded, all confirming that they were safe, according to KSG spokeswoman Melodie Jackson.

Kathleen McCartney, the acting dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE), sent an e-mail Monday morning, four days after the Thursday attacks, to about 40 GSE graduates believed to be living in London.

“We’re certainly not as international in terms of our alumni base as other [Harvard] schools,” said Michael Rodman, a GSE spokesman. Rodman said that although he had only anecdotal information about the safety of GSE’s London graduates, he had “no reason to believe that...[any] have been directly affected” by the bombings.

The news office for the Faculty of Medicine—which is affiliated with both the Medical School (HMS) and the School of Dental Medicine—said that it was “reaching out to students via e-mail and other channels.” HMS did not disclose how many of its students could have been around London.

The Divinity School, the Graduate School of Design, the Law School, and the School of Public Health did not respond to requests for comment earlier this week.

The four explosions in London last Thursday targeted Underground trains and a double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, killing at least 52 people and wounding more than 700.

British authorities now believe the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers—the first such incident in the country’s history—and have identified three of the four suspects as British citizens of Pakistani descent.

—Staff writer Brendan R. Linn can be reached at blinn@fas.harvard.edu.