Post Katrina

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
41

<p>I guess the upper classmen's parents have it a little better. I had intended to check on a couple of things that needed posting to our accounts recievable when we went to NO to drop off our son. Since we never made it to NO before the university was closed, I will have a little extra time to chase that down and settle up. Also, my sons things are at home. His computer and CD collection. All trivial things, yes, but I know the freshman are missing a lot of just such things.</p>

<p>We will hold out to see what this semester brings. A gap semester would not be a bad thing. Especially if he was able to combine it with the experience of volunteering to help rebuild NO. Students take time out from school for personal reasons all of the time and all seems to work out fine. An entire generation took four years off to fight WWII. I am weary and heartsick from the events of this week, but we will look forward. As ctymom would say, my son IS a sophomore at Tulane.</p>

42

<p>pokey, I too feel bad for your son. I think he needs to do what is best for his future.</p>

43

<p>Ditto, Pokey. If ony we had a crystal ball. I for one would be staring into it. Not knowing is hard.</p>

44

<p>The real question is whether this university will accept my son on such short notice. I would hope that they will understand his situation and try to help out. He doesn't need housing, student health, etc.; he just wants to attend 2-3 classes. He only needs 18 hours to graduate so he thought he would just take the 2 electives and one other course. He is afraid to take the course he has left for his major as he doesn't know if Tulane would accept that course.</p>

<p>As luck would have it, his last paper work left Tulane for his medical school application on Thursday. He is applying early decision to our state medical school. If he gets in, he is home free on the applications. If he doesn't, I don't know what will happen with his paper work. He had copies of everything except his recommendations. I suppose he could always ask our state med school for copies of those if the ones at Tulane are not available. We will cross that bridge when we get to it, but it does worry him a lot.</p>

45

<p>For those who cannot reach the Tulane Emergency website, here are the fulls texts of the last two messages.</p>

<p>CD</p>

<p>August 30, 7:30 p.m.</p>

<pre><code>Dear Friends of Tulane:

I know you are all concerned about conditions in New Orleans and at Tulane University, and have many questions about what is going to happen in the next few days, weeks and months.

Our first priority during this time is the safety of our faculty, staff and students. Thankfully, everyone associated with the university is safe, including those of us who remain at Tulane.

Our second priority is to secure our facilities. As expected, our facilities have been damaged; however, based on our preliminary assessments, the majority of the damage can be remediated in a reasonable period of time. The uptown campus is covered with debris from fallen trees and shrubs, making it almost impossible to drive or even walk on campus. We have no power in any of the buildings other than a few where we control the power source.

Our third priority is to develop a recovery plan. This task is impaired right now by the devastation of the city and its infrastructure, and deteriorating further due to the flooding we are now facing. In addition, we don’t know when our employees will be able to return to the city, much less to the university. Therefore, until conditions stabilize, it is impossible to do any longer term recovery planning. However, part of the responsibility of the senior leadership team in Jackson, MS is to begin the planning and they have done so.

As I suspect you all know, there is no contingency plan that could ever be developed to respond to what the area and the university are experiencing. However, all of us at the university are totally committed to doing whatever it takes to get the university operational as soon as possible. I hope you will be patient and understanding of our situation as we work our way through the complexities.

It is difficult to describe what this situation feels like for those involved. It is surreal and unfathomable; yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our focus is on the light and not the darkness.

Scott Cowen
</code></pre>

<p>August 30, 6:15 p.m.</p>

<pre><code>Special Information for Students Evacuated to Jackson and Their Parents:

The approximately 400 students that Tulane University evacuated to Jackson State University are safe and secure after the remnants of Hurricane Katrina struck the city of Jackson.

Jackson State has committed to sheltering and feeding all of the evacuated Tulane students for as long as necessary. The students are in very safe quarters and are accompanied by senior officers of the university.

The situation in the city of Jackson is that there is a power outage and Internet service is erratic. The airport is closed but is expected to reopen within 24-48 hours and other modes of transportation will also resume in that timeframe. Once those services are operational we are recommending that all Tulane students at Jackson State make plans to return home until the university can resume normal operations.

Tulane has arranged bus service to Dallas and Atlanta so that students can make travel arrangements from other cities if they choose. The buses will depart Jackson, MS at 8 p.m. CST tonight. Students sent to Atlanta will be hosted by Georgia Tech; students sent to Dallas will be hosted by Southern Methodist University.
</code></pre>

46

<p>Pokey and others - it may be worthwhile to go to your local college/university and be up front with them about the circumstances. Your children may even ask if it would be possible to get free tuition. After all, the only cost to the local university will be a few hours of paper-pushers' time. The students may also want to ask if they could receive credit (for free), not just audit courses, and if they could be permitted to withdraw without a "W" if Tulane reopens in time to go back for this semester. The worst the local university could do would be to say, "No." But they might say, "Yes."</p>

47

<p>I haven't talked to most of you in several months. I'm one of those parents who ended up crying the day my daughter chose a university other than Tulane for college. She started freshman year last week and is happy. However, we both fell in love with Tulane and are heartbroken not just about damage to the beautiful campus, but for all of the wonderful students and faculty members we met. </p>

<p>From the bottom of my heart, I wish all of you and your children well. I'm thankful that no one has been heart and I have confidence that Tulane will continue to provide outstanding education to a marvelous student body.</p>

48

<p>The rumor going on another college admissions board is that Tulane officials are leaning toward extending classes into the summer rather than cutting classes short.</p>

49

<p>Could you provide a link to this board?</p>

50

<p><a href="http://tulanegreenwave.collegesports.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://tulanegreenwave.collegesports.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

51

<p><a href="http://www.studentuniverse.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentuniverse.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

52

<p>Tulane students have established an organization through the Community Action Council of Tulane University Students (CACTUS) to help rebuild New Orleans.</p>

<p>I was a member of CACTUS back in the 70s.</p>

<hr>

<p>Friends,</p>

<p>My name is Adam Hawf and I am a senior at Tulane University. Together with several of my classmates from Tulane University, I am soliciting donations to help rebuild New Orleans.</p>

<p>To aid with the hurricane recovery effort, my classmates and I have established the New Orleans Hurricane Relief Fund (<a href="http://www.nolahurricanefund.org)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.nolahurricanefund.org)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Currently, we are operating it out of our respective homes throughout the country, but you can visit our webpage at <a href="http://www.nolahurricanefund.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nolahurricanefund.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>No donation is too small and we are in the process of filing as a non-profit corporation so that all donations will be tax-deductible. Please visit our website and email us if you have any questions.</p>

<p>You may reach us at <a href="mailto:info@nolahurricanefund.org">info@nolahurricanefund.org</a> or reach me personally at <a href="mailto:AdamHawf@gmail.com">AdamHawf@gmail.com</a><a href="the%20Tulane%20Webmail%20is%20still%20down">/email</a>.</p>

<p>If you would like to donate your time, or help with the website or fund raising, we would love your help.</p>

<p>Best of luck to everyone.</p>

<p>Sincerely yours,
Adam Hawf
Tulane '06</p>

53

<p>Adam do you have a snail mail address? I am waiting to make contributions till my husband returns from his week-long soujourn to NOLA and can bring the matching gift forms home from work. I would prefer to be able to double the $$. Mom of '09.</p>

54

<p>Thanks Adam.</p>

<p>Along similar lines, as I just posted over on the parents forum, while in Jackson, my son collected a full page, front and back, of names, e-mails and phone numbers of students who, like him, wanted to return to Tulane as soon as they could be housed and fed to work all day every day at helping put Tulane back together. The senior staff who were at Jackson have that list now.</p>

<p>I will also refer him to your website, as he is skilled at those things, too.</p>

55

<p>I am glad to see the posts about Tulane. They are essential for worried parents and students. Buy my niece was about to begin classes across town at Dillard University. Unsurprisingly, Dillard's website is down. Dillard attracts many students from out-of-state. They have no news at this time. I also feel for folks in the Xavier University community, another school with a with many non-Louisiana residents. I understand that they are right near downtown, which means their campus is likely decimated. If you have any updates, please share information that these schools may have distributed.</p>

56

<p>And please, let's all extend thanks to Jackson State University, Georgia Tech, Southern Methodist University and others who are lending a hand to their higher education bretheren in New Orleans.</p>

57

<p>geena, ctymomteacher:</p>

<p>I'm not Adam. Someone sent Adam's letter to me. You can probably reach him at his gmail address.</p>

<p>My husband and I are both Tulane alums from the 70s. We actually met at a Tulane football game in the Superdome. At the time we attended, I was a member of CACTUS.</p>

<p>I truly hope things work out for your kids. Tulane is a great school, and New Orleans is a wonderful city. Tulane will always hold a very special place in our hearts.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you.</p>

58

<p>Now they say maybe 1,000 dead, everyone must get out of new Orleans. I hope i am wrong but I don't see them opening this year. My son needs to look at other schools. the only problem is tulane has all the money.</p>

59

<p>Well looking for a college to send son to wasn't as easy as I thought. We are in Atlanta and both Emory and Georgia Tech said they would not take the Tulane students at least this semester. Emory doesn't want to take students away from Tulane (Have they been watching the same news reports I have?) GT said, we are full, you haven't applied, and no you can not attend. Oglethorpe and Georgia State both were more that happy to help out these students.</p>

<p>The biggest problem my son has is knowing which upper level course will transfer to Tulane. He is afraid without Tulane's approval some of the courses in his major might not be accepted. I think Tulane will work with the kids on this; if a college they attend doesn't have the exact course as long as the course is similar credit will be given. He had decided to hold off on the two classes he needs in his major. Luckly, he only needs 15 or 18 hours to graduate so I think he is just going to take 2 classes now and work the other days.</p>

60

<p>schoolkid, give them more than two days!</p>