<p>To start on January 17, with Freshman Orientation January 14 and 15. Move-in on January 12 or 13.</p>
<p>A bonus "lagniappe" term of 7 weeks will follow spring semester, running from mid-May through June. Students who have paid fall and spring semester will be able to enroll in this term tuition-free. It is optional and can be used to "catch up" if you didn't earn credits this fall term, or opted for part-time status. It can be used to "get ahead" and take a lighter load in the future. Or it can be used to lighten your spring '06 load and use the time to attend to needs you may have as a result of Katrina or to help in rebuilding efforts.</p>
<p>jmmom, my understanding is that students who have paid for fall and spring but are in school for the fall elsewhere will not be able to use the extra short term unless they pay for it separately, and scholarships will not apply because they will already have been used. Am I misunderstanding? If so, how can they give it away like that?</p>
<p>I WAS misunderstanding! I just called Houston, and they ARE allowing free tuition for those who attend the extra short session if they've paid tuition for the two regular semesters. Of course, they still have to collect for housing, etc, but I am impressed! I hope this silences the whiners on the blogs.</p>
<p>BTW, the student I spoke to had met my son at the Jackson shelter!</p>
<p>Things are sounding good for the spring semester, but I still have a couple of problems. My son's off campus house will need to be torn down. I can not send him to Tulane if he doesn't have housing. Yes, Tulane said they are looking into on and off campus housing for faculty and students displaced, but when will I know if housing becomes available? Secondly, they moved graduation up a week to May 13. I am so glad I made my hotel reservations a year in advance for graduation!! The problem with early is my youngest doesn't finish exams until the 14th and needs to move out of her dorm. I know I worry too much; maybe she will be finished with her exams earlier in the week and I can get her moved out and back to New Orleans. Looks like a bit of traveling for me! The big problem for my parents is that the 13th is my brother's daughter's graduation from UGA. We had this all figured out last year, but now there is going to be a fight over which graduation they attend. I already know where they will be! :-)</p>
<p>Pokey, don't you just hate it when you get everything worked out and settled in your mind and then it all gets turned upside down? You have my sympathy. I am not one to like sudden changes - even if they're from something as huge as Katrina.</p>
<p>I'll ask my son again, but at the SMU town meeting, Cowen said that the university has something in the works to house students displaced from off campus housing. Perhaps some of the empty lots around can be filled with temporary FEMA housing and rebuilt in stages. Not as quaint as the house he was in, I'm sure, but doable for that last semester. Perhaps Cowen will invite some of the students to stay with him!:-)</p>
<p>The logistics of recovery from this hurricane continue to amaze me in their scope. I'm from tornado alley. Even an F5 has its limits. As devestating and huge as the F5's were that hit Moore, OK and Jarrell, TX, they didn't have the radiating effects that this hurricane has had.</p>