September 20, 2005
UW taking in students displaced by Hurricane Katrina
The University of Washington has opened its doors to scores of students displaced by the immense devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Special daylong orientation sessions for these students will be held on Thursday, Sept. 22 and Friday, Sept. 23, in Mary Gates Hall on the UW’s Seattle campus.
The students — undergraduates and graduate students — alike, numbering about 100 so far, will be admitted to the UW on a nonmatriculated exchange basis, and will be billed for tuition by their home institutions. Most will attend class on the Seattle campus, but the UW’s campuses in Bothell and Tacoma also are taking in those displaced by Katrina.
The visiting students come from the University of New Orleans, Tulane, Xavier and Dillard universities in New Orleans, and from two campuses of the University of Southern Mississippi, in the cities of Hattiesburg and Long Beach, the campuses of which were affected by Katrina’s swath of destruction.
The UW has opened the Katrina Student Resource Center, a one-stop service center for the displaced students, in the Gateway Center (Room 191) of Mary Gates Hall. There, a professional staff will be ready to help the students with registration, academic advising, housing and financial aid to help them be successful during their time at the UW. Information about counseling, the campus, off-campus activities and the city of Seattle also will be available as well, and regularly enrolled students will be ready to serve as mentors.
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UW Katrina Response Web site: http://uwnews.org/uwnews/sites/katrina/
UW Katrina Student Resource Center: 206-221-6861; Web site: http://www.uwnews.org/uwnews/sites/katrina/index.asp?sm=189
UW Emergency Management Office Web site, for questions relating to displaced faculty, staff and post-doctoral students: http://www.washington.edu/admin/business/oem/.
Contact: Gus Kravas, UW vice provost for student relations, at 206-543-5708, or e-mail gkravas@u.washington.edu.
