UT to accept displaced students
The University of Texas at Austin has announced they will admit students for the Fall Semester that are displaced by Hurricane Katrina. UT president Larry Faulkner sent the following letter announcing the decision. It’s in the extended entry.
It’s just an indicator of some of things we are just beginning to realize about how Hurricane Katrina will impact communities nationwide, including Austin. I’m proud to see UT step up and I’m sure Austin will step up as needed.
[courtesy Burnt Orange Report]
President Faulkner is about to issue a statement indicating how UT Austin will accommodate undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who are Texas residents or graduated from Texas high schools and are enrolled or enrolling in a college or university in the Katrina affected area that is likely to be closed for an extended period.
The basics are:
1. Students who had been previously admitted to any of our programs but elected to go elsewhere will be admitted on a regular basis.
2. Students who had no such prior admission will be admitted for the fall semester only.
3. We will accommodate exchange students from institutions with which we have exchange agreements. Exchange students who come to us for help and are not in that group will be assisted for placement in institutions that are partners with their home universities.
4. We are also indicating that we are offering to accommodate faculty with office space and access to libraries and other research facilities.
5. Finally, we will be reaching out individually to all of our current students from the affected area to see what special support they might need.
This is a very difficult moment for those impacted. We want to be responsive as possible.
Sheldon Ekland-Olson
Executive Vice President and Provost
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The University of Texas at Austin stands with the nation in expressing our sorrow in this time of terrible tragedy in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. We are committed to providing temporary help this fall to colleges and universities in the New Orleans area which are unable to operate while they are attempting to recover and rebuild. To assist university students and faculty who have been affected by the disaster of catastrophic proportions in our neighboring states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, The University of Texas at Austin is taking the following emergency steps, effective immediately.
The following policies apply to students who were enrolling or enrolled in colleges or universities in the area of greatest disaster impact and are likely to remain closed for an extended period.
St. Ed’s is offering a similar plan, although I think they may have already reached their limit for accepting displaced students.
Hats off to the Austin institutions and people who are helping the people of New Orleans cope with such a terrible situation. It’s commonplace to see such events from faraway places, feel compassion for the victims, and maybe even reach out indirectly. But in this instance we are feeling an immediate impact from an event 500 miles away, and have the opportunity to act locally in response. As Charlie suggests, we’re experiencing something pretty unusual in terms of how our society copes with large-scale disaster. It will be interesting to see how Katrina continues to affect Central Texas in the coming months, if not years.
Huston-Tillotson is welcoming students from affected HBCUs, in particular Dillard and Xavier in New Orleans and Tougaloo in Mississippi, as well as other institutions of higher learning
http://www.htu.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=225
Donations to the United Negro College Fund are especially helpful at this time.
http://www.uncf.org/webfeature/lomax_katrina.asp
According to recent information the campuses of Xavier and Dillard are under water, and Tougaloo sustained heavy wind damage.