Tom Ridge to resign from
homeland security post
The seventh officer to leave
Bush's Cabinet said he
may stay through Feb. 1
BY KATI1ERINE PFLEGER SI IRADER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tom
Ridge, the nation’s first homeland se
curity secretary, announced Tuesday
that he is resigning after three years
of reworking American security and
presiding over color-coded terror
alerts. He’s the seventh Bush Cabinet
officer leaving so far.
Ridge oversaw the most significant
government reorganization in 50
years. He’ll be remembered for his
terror alerts and tutorials about how
to prepare for possible attacks, in
cluding the controversial “disaster
kits” that caused last year’s run on
duct tape and plastic sheeting.
Amid warnings that the country
may face increased terror risks
around the holidays and the Jan. 20
presidential inauguration, Ridge
said he will remain on the job
through Feb. 1, unless his replace
ment is installed sooner.
Ridge acknowledged he could not
prove the costly and complex secu
rity measures that have been put in
place have foiled any terrorist at
tacks inside the United States, but he
said the country is safer today than
before the suicide hijackings on
Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000
people in New York, Washington
and Pennsylvania.
“I am confident that the terrorists
are aware that from the curb to the
cockpit we’ve got additional security
measures that didn’t exist a couple
years ago,” Ridge told reporters at the
department’s Washington campus,
which he helped create.
“His efforts have resulted in safer
skies, increased border and port se
curity and enhanced measures to
safeguard our critical infrastructure
and the American public,” Bush
said in a prepared statement Tues
day evening.
Ridge sent his letter of resignation to
President Bush at midday Tliesday, af
ter attending a morning White House
threat briefing with CIA and FBI offi
cials. The former Pennsylvania
Ridge resigns
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge,
who presided over six “orange alerts,"
announced his resignation Tuesday.
Risk of terrorist attack
March 12 - Color-coded
threat level begins Orange
Yellow “elevated"
..Ill l I I .■
., i , P. ..|pPPPPp , , , ?
2002 2003 2004
October - Ridge was sworn in as the nation's
first White House homeland security adviser
2004 orange alert was for select financial institutions in
York, northern New Jersey and Washington, D.C. only
SOURCE: Department of Homeland Security
AP
governor thanked Bush for giving
him the opportunity to fight back
against terrorists. He recalled that the
passengers on Flight 93 who forced
their hijacked plane down in a Penn
sylvania field had also fought back.
“There will always be more to
do, but today, America is signifi
cantly stronger and safer than ever
before,” Ridge wrote Bush.
Ridge is the seventh of Bush’s 15
member Cabinet to announce they
won’t be part of the second term.
More are expected, and administra
tion officials say Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thomp
son appears to be next.
Among those mentioned as pos
sible candidates to replace Ridge
are Bernard Kerik, the former New
York City police commissioner who
helped rebuild Iraq’s police force;
former Federal Emergency Manage
ment Agency Director Joe All
baugh; Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt;
and White House homeland securi
ty adviser Fran Townsend.
Others are also believed to be in
terested in the job, including Asa
Hutchinson, undersecretary for bor
der and transportation security in the
Homeland Security Department.
Ridge leaves behind a depart
ment that’s still learning to work to
gether. Culled from 22 often dis
parate federal agencies, the
180,000-employee organization still
faces criticism over aspects of its
massive government merger,
including the coordination of fi
nances to computer systems.
Ridge, consistently a defender of
the department, stood by its efforts
to warn the public of possible ter
ror threats, saying it preferred to
disclose more information than
some officials believed was wise.
“That’s something we take pride
in,” Ridge said. “America is pre
pared to deal with the reality of the
post-9/11 world. It’s in our best
long-term interest to share more in
formation about the threat to Amer
ica rather than less.”
Ridge, who is married with two
children, said that for the future he
intends to “raise some family and
personal matters to a higher priori
ty,” including attending his son’s
rugby games.
In October 2001, Ridge became
the nation’s first White House
homeland security adviser, leading
a massive undertaking to rethink
all aspects of security within the
U.S. borders in the wake of the
Sept. 11 attacks.
Congress subsequently passed
legislation establishing the Home
land Security Department,
with Ridge taking over as the
department’s first secretary in
January 2003.
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High-schoolers
consider studying
in foreign locales
Many popular destinations abroad report growing
percentages ofll.S. students applying to colleges
BY JUSTIN POPE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — For some, it’s about
the adventure of an extended stay at
a foreign university. For others, it’s
about saving money or just getting
farther away from home.
Whatever the reason, as they send
out their college applications, at
tending school outside the United
States is an option more high school
students appear to be considering.
Foreign universities are urging them
on, smoothing the logistics and rid
ing the U.S. college fair circuit to talk
up their opportunities and often
lower price tags.
No overall statistics are available,
but the number of U.S. students pur
suing degrees in some popular des
tination countries is growing:
In Canada, the number of Ameri
can undergraduates and graduate
students has more than doubled
since 1997, to about 6,000.
In Great Britain, the number
of full-time American undergrads
is up 53 percent since 2001 to about
2,300.
About 1,600 Americans are pursu
ing undergraduate degrees in Aus
tralia; the growth rate isn’t available,
but the overall number of Americans
pursuing some form of study there
rose 10 percent last year.
“We feel it’s a) high quality, b)
good value and c) it’s going to give
the students a very different educa
tional experience,” said Karen
McBride, vice president for interna
tional affairs at the Association of
Universities and Colleges of Canada.
While roughly 175,000 students at
American universities go abroad for
a limited stay — nine times out of 10
for a semester or less — applicants
see enrolling full time as a chance
for a richer experience.
“I don’t think I’m going to miss
out,” said Susan Schell, a high
school senior from Birmingham,
Ala., who is applying to several uni
versities in England. She hopes to
work in Europe and thinks attending
college there will help. To her, an
American college wouldn’t be all
that different from high school.
“It seems to me, talking to people
that live in Europe, that there’s a dif
ferent aura,” she said. “The pace of
living there is so beautiful.”
Sinead Keegan from Boston
who is now in her final year at
McGill University in Montreal, said
she has gained a degree of inde
pendence — socially and academi
cally — she wouldn’t have gotten in
the United States.
“It doesn’t suit everybody, but 1
think I’m better prepared to head
out into the real world than people
who have had their hands held all
along,” she said.
McGill has tripled its enrollment
of American undergraduates to
more than 1,800 in less than a
decade. Recruiters visit 150 U.S.
high schools and college fairs each
year, according to Howard Tontini,
the school’s recruiting director.
Many foreign schools are making
the application process easier — of
ten they consider the same materi
als, such as SAT scores and high
school transcripts, that American
colleges require. Many guidance
counselors say they encourage stu
dents to explore the option.
“We probably would get behind
that, depending on the person,
depending on the major,” said Tom
Hughart, guidance director at
Wellesley High School in Massachu
setts, who says he has noticed
stepped-up recruiting by Scottish
universities. “Someone who wants
to teach English literature, going
over to Trinity (College) in Dublin
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