Universites and colleges helping students displaced by Hurricane Katrina

Published 3 Sep 2005

I have been saddened beyond words by the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans, besides being one of my favorite places in the US and one of the few places in this country where the culture truly shines through, is home to several institutions of higer ed, including Tulane University, Xavier University, Loyola University, Southern Univesity at New Orleans, University of New Orleans, and Dillard University. (Note that not all of these sites are online, due to hurricane damage.) The result is thousands of students that have been displaced from their schools.

Many colleges and universities around the country are offering help to students and their families who have been affected by the hurricane. Here is a list of what I have seen so far, and I will be updating it as I learn more.

• Update: The California State University System has announced that it will accept students (even those who lack proper academic documents) from affected areas at 7 of its campuses, including my campus at Humboldt State University. Out-of-state tuition will be waved, and financial aid opportunities are being investigated.
• Xavier University in Ohio is maintaining a news site with information on their namesake in New Orleans and admitting students displaced by the hurricane
• The University of Houston System is accepting displaced students and is “making many of these students eligible for in-state tuition rates. UH is waiving the application fee and hopes to waive other internal fees. Limited housing accommodations at UH are available.”
• The University System of Georgia has several schools that will accept displaced students, including Atlanta Metropolitan College, Dalton State College, Georgia State University, and The Medical College of Georgia
• Morehead State University has programs available for both displaced students and scholars
• Oklahoma City University is offering one semester’s free tuition to undergraduate, graduate, and law students currently enrolled in schools that have been affected by Hurricane Katrina
• The” University of Central Florida”:http://news.ucf.edu/UCFnews/index?page=article&id=002400411a428d50103c2675a02005dcd is offerring spaces for students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Students will be able to pay in-state tutition prices regardless of whether they live in Florida, and application fees will be waived.
• The University of Southern Indiana will extend to students displaced by Hurricane Katrina the opportunity to enroll tuition-free for one semester at USI. The enrollment opportunity will extend through close of business Wednesday, September 7. Classes have been underway at USI since Monday, August 29.
• The University of Alabama at Birmingham is accepting displaced students on a case by case basis
• Widener University School of Law will admit any Tulane or Loyola law student who applies to either its Delaware or Harrisburg Campus.
• Converse College is “ready to help and will welcome female students accepted at four-year institutions affected by the hurricane.”
• The Texas A&M System “is able to accommodate several thousand students currently enrolled in universities and colleges in the region affected by Hurricane Katrina.”
• Sweet Briar College, a women’s college in Central Virginia, will enroll eligible female undergraduate students displaced by the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina for the 2005 fall semester tuition-free.
• University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas is offering the free tuition for the fall semester for students who are natives of the hurricane region and are currently enrolled as college students

Update 9/6/05 From the Chronicle of Higher Education

• Some undergraduate colleges — among them Franklin Pierce College, in New Hampshire, and John Brown University, in Arkansas — are offering displaced students full tuition, room, and board. Great Basin College, a community college in Elko, Nev., says it can fly in 30 to 50 students on a chartered flight, enroll them in classes, put them up in the community, and set up a meal plan for them. Harvard University says it will admit 25 displaced students as visiting undergraduates free of charge, and will offer housing on a space-available basis.
• The University of Pennsylvania will let “academically-qualified Philadelphia-area undergraduates” take classes at no cost on a space-available basis
• Bates College says Maine undergraduates will be welcome in its classes.
• Green Mountain College, in Poultney, Vt., will accept up to 20 students “from the New England, New York, or Pennsylvania area,” according to a message on its Web site, in addition to two or three faculty members who would help teach the displaced students.
• Duke University is extending an offer of free tuition and housing to North and South Carolina students, siblings of current Duke students, and children of Duke faculty and staff members and alumni.

This list is (thankfully) getting too long for me to accurately miantain. You can find additional lists on the Web site of the Society for College and University Planning and the Web site of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Another 9/6/05 Update

A list-serv has been established to allow Katrina affected students to communicate with each other. Sign up here

Also, The Society of College and University Plannning has set up a mailing list to facilitate communications among university stakeholders, and Educause has set up a Hurricane Relief Community Exchange “which allows (A) institutions needing assistance to describe their needs and (B) institutions interested in helping to see those needs and, if possible, to follow up”.

The easiest way to donate or volunteer to help victims is through the Red Cross.

My heart goes out to everyone affected by this tragedy. If your school has a program set up that I have missed, please let me know and I will add it to the list.

Filed under Miscellaneous