The devastation of Hurricane Katrina largely shut down New Orleans, forcing several universities in or around the city to cancel or delay their fall semesters. Last week, RPI established the Gulf Coast Visiting Scholars program allowing students enrolled at either Tulane University or Xavier University of Louisiana to enroll here for the Fall 2005 semester.
Under the new program, the Institute has opened its doors to up to 100 students – undergraduate or graduate – enrolled at two of New Orleans’s universities. Those who enroll here for the semester will have the costs of tuition, room, board, and fees waived. In addition, students local to the area who are enrolled at any of the affected colleges in the Gulf Coast can enroll here this semester with tuition waived.
Laura Linhardt ’08, arrived to her Tulane dorm on August 17, as she was an RA. She explained that the dorms were set to open on Saturday, August 27, and freshmen orientation activities were scheduled to begin the following day.
Katrina changed those plans, however, and those who moved into campus on August 27 went to a meeting with President Scott Cowen at which an evacuation plan was announced. Linhardt explained that campus evacuations have taken place before, but that it had been a long while since New Orleans was directly hit.
Because of this, many left most of their belongings in their room as the University was initially hoping to begin classes on September 1 and to reopen the dorms on August 31. After the storm hit, this date was pushed back to September 7 and last Friday, Cowen announced on an emergency website setup by the school, “Tulane University cannot hold a fall semester on its campus.”
According to the site and Linhardt, the campus itself was not hit as hard as many parts of the city. At the same time, though, the city is almost completely shut down and will be for some time and this was why the semester was cancelled.
Linhardt, a physics major from Columbia, S.C., said she heard about RPI’s Gulf Coast Visiting Scholars program through a network of friends. A few other students from Tulane that she knows also enrolled here as visiting students. Linhardt added that the Institute has been very accommodating: “They’ve done everything they could for us.”
The Institute set up a telephone line for those students displaced by the storm to inquire about the program and had it staffed around the clock over the weekend. The Dean of Students Office and another team has been processing those calls, which initiates a process involving enrollment management, the academic school the student would be enrolling in, and the Office of the First Year Experience.
Anat Belasen ’09 was about to begin her freshmen experience at Tulane on August 27. The Voorheesville, N.Y., native, however, soon had to leave her dorm room that day as they were closing the dorms that evening to prepare for the storm. When she evacuated, she left most of her personal belongings behind as suggested since everyone thought they would soon be headed back.
I-Asia White ’08 began classes as a Xavier transfer student the week of August 22. The suggestion to evacuate their campus came over the following weekend as well.
She explained that she and a group of fellow students struggled, but finally were able to get a cab out of New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
From there, the group drove to Washington, D.C., and she flew home to Albany. She heard about RPI’s program on one of the local television stations and added that the Institute has made it a “very easy transition.”
In order to aid in this transition, FYE will be giving the students mini-orientations when they arrive on campus. As of 5 pm Tuesday, more than 180 inquiries had been fielded and 81 applications had been completed. Of these, 22 had arrived on campus as of 4 pm Tuesday, and another 11 were expected to arrive soon.
Not all those displaced by Katrina, however, enrolled as visiting students. Elizabeth Morrison ’10 never made it to Tulane as her flight in was cancelled. The Miami resident said that power was knocked out at her home from Katrina and it was only a Category 1 when it touched down there.
She continued to say that when she heard it was headed for New Orleans, “I thought they were kidding.” Unfortunately, they were not, and in the storm’s aftermath she began calling colleges that had accepted her.
Morrison said that some turned her away at that point. Her boyfriend, who attends RPI, checked and found out that she could enroll here. While she is enrolled as a matriculated student here, she said she is still not completely certain as to whether she will stay here or try to go back to Tulane. She added that so far her impression of RPI is, “It’s amazing. I love it.” As of Tuesday, two others had also enrolled as matriculated first-year students.
Aside from taking in these students, the Institute is also making three donations to charitable organizations. RPI will give $25,000 to the American Red Cross and $5,000 each to the Salvation Army and America’s Second Harvest. RPI has also offered to accommodate a faculty member or student life professional from Xavier or Tulane.
According to The Associated Press, up to 100,000 college students in or around New Orleans may have to change their plans for the fall 2005 semester. While Tulane University announced last Friday that it was canceling its fall semester, Xavier announced that it would begin its fall semester in January and fit in two semesters before the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester.
Loyola University New Orleans also closed its campus for the fall semester and fellow Jesuit Universities, along with other post-secondary institutions, are taking in their students. According to emergency websites for these three closed schools, either transfer credits will be accepted from any regionally accredited institution, or in the case of Xavier, credits will be transferred in as permitted in their university catalog.
RPI is one of many schools around the country who have agreed to take in students attending schools closed for the semester. Last Friday, the American Council on Education asked that these institutions admit students as visitors rather than transfer students.
The council also asked that the schools not charge students who have already paid tuition. If the student had not paid tuition, they were asking that the original amount be charged and sent to the school at which the student was enrolled at.
Many universities heeded these requests. Harvard University announced a program that is similar to RPI’s—waiving tuition for displaced students and enrolling them as visitors. The Society for College and University Planning has been collecting these offers to take in students to make it easier for those students displaced by the storm.
