<p>Students did not have to pay two tuitions. I won’t swear there was never a time when maybe a State school didn’t charge tuition, but that would have been the rare exception. Here is what President Cowen wrote a few months after Katrina,</p>
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Less than a week after Katrina struck, nine leading higher education associations convened in a conference call to discuss how they could help affected colleges and universities. It quickly became apparent that the most pressing issue was the needs of displaced students. Within 24 hours, these association issued a statement outlining how institutions around the nation might accommodate these students for the fall semester.</p>
<p>I firmly believe that this statement, and all the schools that voluntarily adhered to it, will be viewed over time as the critical factor in the recovery of Gulf Coast colleges and universities. It will also go down in history as a remarkable offer of assistance and support at a time of unprecedented need.</p>
<p>Specifically, the nine higher education associations encouraged colleges and universities around the country to (1) admit students from hurricane-impacted areas only on a visiting or provisional basis, so that they would remain enrolled at their home institutions, and (2) waive tuition if the student already had paid tuition to the home institution—and if the student had not paid the home institution, the host school was to charge the home school’s rate of tuition and remit that amount.</p>
<p>This statement was extraordinary, both symbolically and substantively, for everyone involved. For affected students, it provided an opportunity to continue their college educations this fall. For host institutions, it was a concrete way for them to offer needed assistance. For Gulf Coast institutions, it offered the chance to retain their students while providing much-needed resources to sustain faculty and staff during this difficult time.</p>
<p>The majority of universities and colleges around the country are following the associations’ guidelines, a historic act of altruism that deserves our recognition.
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<p>I think that says it all.</p>