By By Brian Bohl

While University students prepared to return to classes, those who attended colleges along the Gulf Coast fled the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

In an effort to aid these displaced students, the University has accepted students under “visiting” status.

They will be provided with special academic advisement, counseling and financial aid assistance, Melissa Connolly, vice president for University Relations, said.

All application and registration fees have been waived, and two special orientation sessions have been held to assist in the acclimation to campus.

“Around 30 students expressed initial interest in attending Hofstra after their school was affected by the hurricane, and we are reaching out to the students who have decided to come here,” Siobhan Federici, assistant dean of New Student Support Services, said.

One of these students is Joanna Asher, a visiting sophomore from Tulane University who fled New Orleans with 15 of her classmates three days before Katrina hit.

“We all got out before the storm hit,” she said. “What people don’t realize is that a huge percentage of people in New Orleans are homeless. They don’t have cars or any way to leave, and by the time any of them were able to get out it was too late. There was no way to even contact these people to see if they needed to be evacuated because they are living on the street.”

The Long Beach, N.Y. native evacuated to Dallas where her and her friends watched the news hoping they would be able to return to Tulane for the fall semester.

“We didn’t think it was going to be as bad as they predicted and hoped it wouldn’t hit us, but after watching the news we knew it was going to,” she said.

When Tulane University announced they were not going to hold a fall semester, Asher was unsure of what to do next. She went with her friends to California before returning to Long Island. She looked into attending schools around the country that were offering to wave fees and tuition. However, she decided she would commute from home.

The University has waived application fees and offered her a $5,000 grant. This “hardship” grant has been offered to the 17 full time visiting students, said Connolly.

While tuition has been deferred until October, Asher did not know she would have to pay until she went to register for classes.

While she said the University has been inviting, it is a strange community and Asher looks forward to returning to Tulane.

“Last year was the best year of my life. That’s why I am crossing my fingers that we will be able to return in the spring,” she said. “It will be strange going back, though, because it is obviously not the same city we left.”

While many colleges have opened their doors to students affected by the natural disaster, the University has been working to quickly assimilate the new students so their transition will not affect them academically.

For freshmen bound to schools in Louisiana their first taste of college life has not been what they expected.

Daniel Hyman and Jill Kulb, both political science majors, planned to start their first year at Tulane, but on the first moving in day they had to be evacuated.

“It was very disappointing to have to leave New Orleans and the academic and personal life that I had carefully planned at Tulane,” Kulb said. “The plight of the thousands of individuals who lost everything obviously affects me on a much deeper level than most people in this area feel.”

Even thought he was disappointed in the change of plans, Hyman, a Baldwin, N.Y. native, is impressed by the services offered by the University.

“Hofstra was so welcoming and understanding,” he said. “There was an orientation for students affected by the hurricane, specifically those of us from Tulane and Loyola. The dean of admissions was also there to greet us.”

“I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to attend Hofstra as a visiting student so that I can be close to family and friends in this extremely difficult time in my life, while enthusiastically plunging into five classes,” added Kulb.

New students, both freshmen and transfer, will be able to attend and participate in all of the programs, such as Fall Adventures, the Peer Mentor program and the Passport program, Federici said.

Despite being new to the campus, incoming students will have a support network that will provide constant information and updates about their home schools as well as news about events at the University.

“We have set up the new students with freshmen and transfer student school e-mail accounts and event e-mails,” Federici said. “There will be individual meetings with administrators regarding campus referrals and resources. We will also target these students with specific mailings to cover information they might have missed as they came to campus with some short notice.”

President Stuart Rabinowitz is glad the University can be at least a temporary home for people who have lost so much from the disaster.

“The entire Hofstra community extends its sympathies to those affected by Hurricane Katrina,” he said. “We are pleased that we can offer an academic home to students displaced in the wake of this terrible storm.”

What You Can Do To Help

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina the University’s students and faculty are working to aid the victims of the disaster. The University has already raised a substantial amount of money and is taking up donations for food, clothing and other supply items. University Relations has created a Web site to serve as a central location for clubs and other groups to announce their efforts and the many ways the University community can help.

-Starting Kick-Off Weekend the Division of Campus Life and the Dean of Students office sponsored “Buy A Bead For Those in Need.” The Student Government Association will continue to sell beads at the first home football game this weekend

-A Hurricane Katrina Relief Fundraiser, sponsored by campus clubs, will take place on Sept. 15 from 7:00 p.m. until midnight at Hofstra USA. There will be music, poetry, dance acts, comedy skits and open-mic performances. The suggested admission price is $5.00 or one supply item.

-Student Counseling Services is offering support groups and individual psychotherapy to students affected by the hurricane. Student Counseling Services will be extending support into residence halls. Counselors will be available to discuss crisis management and response in wake of a tragedy or disaster.

-University employees are collecting shoes for victims of Hurricane Katrina and donating them to “Operation Underfoot.” Empire Bail Bond Agency in Hempstead is collecting gently used or new, sneakers, flats, sandals and children shoes. The shoes will then be sorted, boxed and sent to Louisiana. Volunteers will be needed next week to help sort and box the shoes. Anyone interested should contact Michelle Esquenazi, president of Empire Bail Bond, at (516) 292-2222.

Workers help remove debris from Tulane University´s campus. (Photo courtesy gettyimages.com)

(Photo courtesy gettyimages.com)