Received by campus email today:
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 an -- 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
maryjane@tamu.edu .
·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.