About Safety

Your Wake Forest Semester Abroad Handbook contains very complete and useful information on Health and Safety and on Conduct Abroad. Before travelling to Salamanca, be sure to review these pages, and especially the tips for general travel safety.

Salamanca itself is a mid-sized university city with a low crime rate. Because you will travel mostly on foot, these are the top six things NOT to do to stay safe:

1. Don’t carry your wallet in the back pocket of your pants or a purse on a long narrow strap.
2. Don’t carry more cash or credit cards than you need for the day.
3. Don’t carry your original passport around. Carry a copy.
4. Don’t give in to beggars or gypsies who try to give you a flower (or whatever they’re offering). They’ll ask you to pay for it. While you reach for your money, one of them will distract you while another steals your wallet. Say “¡No!” or “¡Déjame!”
5. Don’t walk home alone in poorly-lit areas or go running alone through parks after dark, especially in the area down by the River Tormes. 
6. Don’t drink alcohol excessively.

This final point bears repeating. Every year, in cities of every size, study abroad students are hurt or killed because alcohol has impaired their judgement.

Alcohol infraction can be a cause for dismissal from the Program. In order to ensure that you understand this, you will be required to read and sign an Alcohol Memorandum and Dismissal Policy before coming to Salamanca.

Some cultural background

Many Europeans grow up drinking in moderation from a fairly young age.  While there is abuse, by the time they reach your age, most Europeans are accustomed to alcohol, know their limits, and view drunkenness as an embarrassment. Binge drinking is not common.

Americans grow up in a society where it is illegal to drink even throughout most students’ early years at university and in the military. When American students arrive in Europe where alcohol age limits are lower or non-existent, they sometimes overindulge. 

As a WFU Salamanca student, you are encouraged to enjoy the freedom and opportunities provided by the program. This freedom includes the ability to drink alcohol legally.

The expectation

. . . however, is that you drink responsibly. Be careful what you drink. Be aware that there may be higher alcohol content in drinks and that you may become intoxicated more quickly. Do not leave your beverage unattended. Prevent the addition of any unknown substances. 

Know your limits. Stick to them.

The reason

Drinking excessively puts you at risk for theft, physical attack, or sexual assault.

Also, as American students interacting with Spaniards, you are acting as representatives of the United States and of Wake Forest University.  Irresponsible drinking on your part is an embarrassment to you, to your friends, and to professors who placed their trust in you by selecting you to study abroad. 

The policy

1.  In the existence of a substantiated report of alcohol-related misbehavior, the Resident Professor will issue you an official Warning and will contact the Program Director, the Office of Global Programs and Studies, and your parents.
2. If you cause a drunken disturbance a second time, you may be dismissed from the program.

Alcohol-related behavior constituting grounds for a warning includes but is not limited to:  destruction of property intentionally or due to a drunken stupor, vomiting, urination in inappropriate places, loud or abusive behavior, arriving drunk to group events, causing a disturbance to host families or in the dorm, or fights.

In addition, absolutely no alcohol will be permitted in dorms, in hotel rooms on group trips, on the bus, or in your host homes unless offered by your family.  Possession of alcohol in these places also represents an infraction.

Please sign below to indicate that you have read this policy and understand it.

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Name                                                      Date