LSU student, faculty & any other University effected by Hurricane

[SweetGirL]

TO: All Faculty, Students and Staff

SUBJECT: Assistance to Hurricane Katrina Victims

We are announcing today (see statement below) that Texas A&M, including
the Galveston campus, will accept up to 1,000 students for as long as
one year from universities and colleges unable to offer classes this
fall due to Hurricane Katrina. This is a significantly higher number
of students than any other university has offered to take in (as far as
we are aware), but entirely in keeping with our culture, our traditions
and our Spirit. We also have offered to provide - to the extent we
can -- a temporary home for faculty to continue their research while
their own campuses are unavailable. We are, again as far as we know,
the only university to extend the offer of assistance to all colleges
and universities affected by the tragedy. The statement includes a
number of other actions we have taken and are taking. I am confident
that other initiatives, likely thought up by students, faculty and/or
staff, will be forthcoming.

I know that the Aggie family will respond with warmth, sympathy and
support to those displaced by this disaster. A significant number of
students from the affected states would clearly have an impact on class
sizes and more, but I am confident that faculty and students will make
the best of the situation in order to help our neighbors.

Also, I request that all faculty and staff be especially sensitive to
the feelings and emotional state of students who are directly affected
by this tragedy-certainly including those who have lost family members
or else do not know the fate of some of them, in addition to having
significant property losses in some cases.

Significant help to friends and neighbors in trouble is what Aggies do
best.

Robert M. Gates




Statement by Robert M. Gates, President of Texas A&M University

The hearts of the entire Texas A&M University community go out to all
victims of Hurricane Katrina. Service to others is a core value of
this University, and we feel a special obligation to do all we can to
help college students and faculty in the affected area continue
uninterrupted with their education and their work. I have formed a
special university task force, which will continuously update our
ability to assist in this very difficult period. Our current activities
are summarized below.

ACADEMICS

· Texas A&M will welcome up to 1,000 students for as long as one
year from all four-year colleges and universities unable to offer
classes this fall because of the hurricane, including schools such as
Tulane, Dillard, Southern, Xavier, Loyola and the University of New
Orleans. These students will be charged the minimum tuition allowed by
state law.

· Students from impacted universities who are interested in
attending Texas A&M this fall should contact Ms. Mary Jane Baldwin in
the Office of Admissions and Records at (979) 845-1064 or by e-mail at
[email protected] .

· Texas A&M will make available for students from impacted
schools approximately 140 campus housing assignments and provide
assistance in arranging off-campus housing as needed.

· Texas A&M will make available classroom and laboratory space
after hours to institutions that want temporarily to re-locate their
programs here. We also are prepared, with available facilities, to
host faculty from these universities wishing to continue their research
for the next few months.

FINANCIAL AID

· Texas A&M has set aside $200,000 to provide students resources
for immediate needs while arrangements are being made for longer-term
financial assistance.

· We also will provide assistance to Texas A&M students whose
homes are in the ravaged areas and whose families have been forced to
migrate to the local area and are now in need of housing and other
daily necessities.

· Student Body President Jim Carlson is urging Texas A&M faculty,
staff and students and other members of the local community to donate
canned goods and clothing during the Memorial Student Center (MSC) Open
House MSC on Sunday, September 4 from 1-6 p.m. Additional student-led
activities will be announced subsequently.

OUTREACH

· We will open Cain Hall as a resource center to Hurricane
Katrina evacuees for a variety of needed services, including Internet
access as a means for contacting family members and friends who remain
in the disaster area or who may have evacuated elsewhere.

· The Association of Former Students will provide a toll-free
call center for providing information about university resources. The
toll-free number is (888) 440-7345.

· University police are assisting in providing security for
evacuees at designated shelters in the community.

· The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is
sheltering animals displaced by the hurricane and subsequent flooding.

· We can all take pride in the work of one of our sister agencies
based here on campus. Texas Task Force One, operated by the Texas
Engineering Extension Service, has 126 personnel providing search and
rescue service in Louisiana.

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

man...

It is extremely hard to describe how touching things like this are. Being in NOLA before having to leave again because of the thugs, just knowing that people on the outside (not to discredit my LA_MERC brethren, I appreciate them to no end) are willing to help. There were times when I was standing in downtown New Orleans in mid-calf deep water, thinking "My God, we need help." To see it coming so often and so unexpected makes me glda to be alive in the country I am in right now.

Thanks for posting this, it helps my spirits like you would not believe. Thanks.

[SweetGirL]

My pleasure to pass the message along. =) Having lived in Mobile all my life, I have seen & experienced a hell of alot of hurricanes. Even saw our house on the Mobile Bay destroyed by Frederick, the house at Gulf Shores rebuilt more times then I can count, etc. I've never, in my wildest thoughts, imagined such devastation from a hurricane such as Katrina.

We have 250 people from NO at the Lincoln Rec Center here in College Station and, because there were so many more that came here, the neighboring city of Bryan has opened a facility/shelter. I called the Rec Center this afternoon, as well as the local American Red Cross, and found that they anticipate that these men, women, children, & elderly will be here for, at their best guess, two months.....yes, they are thinking two months.

I called to see how I could help tomorrow while the kids are at school. They asked if I could come help wash clothes (I'll bring my rubber gloves though). Other then food, I want to bring as many clothes, socks, shoes, etc that my kids have outgrown or absolutely don't need themselves; I will clean out my linen closet and take all the spare bedspreads, sheets, blankets, towels, and washclothes. I don't know if I have much else to bring. Wish I were able to do more. I think I can even spare a few bottles of shampoo, soap, new toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other toiletries; just trying to think what I have here that they would need. Guess I'll find out more tomorrow. I thought the Gov't would be able to provide all this, but I'm getting the impression that is not the case. :/

[LA_MERC_Sabre]

I think the gov are doing all they can, it's just going to take time....there is so much going on and it is all happening so fast.

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

I lived through Hugo, and although it was a major hurricane in it's own right, it was a drop in the bucket compared to how this has panned out.

The gov. is responding as fast as it can, although I can't see myself being very patient if I was in the same situation as many in NOLA having no food or water for 3 or 4 days. I do remember being 9 yrs old and cooking everything in the freezer on a charcoal grill before it went bad during Hugo. But we fared O.K., nothing like the NOLA peeps are feeling right now.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

I was told that a lot of Maryland students end up going to Tulane and that they are now scrambling to get in at U of M (the mascot is a turtle...sheesh). I don't know if any concessions are being made for them, but there should be.