ALNWICK, Northumberland, U.K. – Students and faculty with St. Cloud State University’s study abroad program based at Alnwick Castle in the English county of Northumberland are joining the United Kingdom in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Alnwick Castle, which has been a part of the St. Cloud State campus since the 1970s, is where students and faculty study and live, whether it’s for two-weeks or for an entire semester.
“The news of Queen Elizabeth’s death was shocking,” said St. Cloud State University professor Emil Towner. “We were in preparation for a field trip that the students would have been taking. News started to filter in about the medical staff wanting to keep her on watch, and usually the royal media office is pretty silent about things. The fact we were getting any kind of news was an indication that things weren’t going well.”
Towner, the Academic Director at SCSU’s Alnwick Castle, and those with the St. Cloud State study abroad program now have a unique vantage point when it comes to The Queen’s death and the historical significance it holds.
“For us as Americans who are over here, it will take a long time to grasp what it means and to really appreciate that we were here for this moment,” he said. “I think it’s a time for us to listen, learn, watch, and see because it will take a long time. I think our students have grasped that this is one of those days that 40 years from now, they’ll remember exactly where they were. They were in a castle in Northeast England.”
The significance and longevity of Queen Elizabeth II reign is something many Americans may not grasp entirely, according to Towner.
“I think for many Americans it’s hard to grasp what a monarch is and means to a nation,” he said. “When you think about in America, Ronald Reagan was a long time ago and he came on almost 30 years into her reign. She had already been in her role for nearly 30 years when Ronald Reagan came on the scene and has been on many years after that.”
As for what’s next for Towner and the rest of the staff and students from St. Cloud State in the days ahead, those plans remain up in the air.
“We’re trying to figure out the plans of the government,” he said”. We are very close to a train station, so if there is a train being used to move the former Queen from Scotland down to London, we might look at taking students to that or different opportunities that we might have. We’re really in flux right now.”
