I write to describe the efforts we have been making to accommodate students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and to thank the many people in the College who have worked on this.
The University and its schools have responded quickly, raising funds for relief efforts and making room for many students displaced by the storm. Thanks to Dean William Kirby's generous financial support, FAS was able to open its doors to dozens of additional visiting students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and the College, and will not limit the number accepted into the Division of Continuing Education.
We have 36 additional students joining us in the College this fall from the Gulf area - 10 freshmen, 11 sophomores, 4 juniors, and 11 seniors from Tulane, Xavier, and Loyola Universities. While their permanent home addresses are varied - from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Laconia, New Hampshire, to New Orleans itself - many of them were either already on campus for freshman activities or living in the affected area for the summer as Katrina approached. All have been touched directly by the hurricane and its aftermath and I ask that you join me in welcoming them to Harvard.
I would like to thank Bill Fitzsimmons, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, for expediting the Admissions process - his staff, and Marlene Rotner in particular, worked quickly to re-open the fall Visiting Student program and accepted applications from as early as September 2 until as late as September 16.
The Deputy Dean of the College, Pat O'Brien, the College Housing Officer, David Woodberry, and the Director of the College Planning Office, Inge-Lise Ameer, were especially involved in moving the newly-admitted students through the Harvard system. Anna-Lisa Plant served as the general point person for the College and communicated with the various offices working on processing the students. It's not an exaggeration to say that David, Inge, and Anna-Lisa worked around the clock on this. I want to acknowledge the Registrar's Office, led by Barry Kane, the Health Services, led by David Rosenthal, and Dining Services, led by Ted Mayer, for the many accommodations they have made for our incoming students, and to thank Student Receivables, the Financial Aid Office, and the ID Office with helping them get settled. Thanks also to Julia Fox, Director of the Transfer and Visiting Student Programs, who will continue to advise the 27 visiting students who were already planning to attend Harvard this fall. Inge-Lise Ameer and the staff of the Planning Office have assumed advising responsibility for the additional 36 students here because of the storm. We are arranging weekly dinners for the students as way of introducing them to interesting people on campus; I hope that each of you will get the chance to welcome them at some point as well.
We received a large number of generous host offers for off-campus rooms from Harvard's faculty, staff, and alumni and the Office of Residential Life gave each incoming student the choice to live on-campus (in the Yard, Claverly, or Apley Court) or off-campus with a host. 34 of the students are now living on campus. Thanks to the Freshman Dean's Office, all freshmen will eat in Annenberg and be integrated with the rest of the class of '09. The upperclassmen on campus will be affiliated with either Adams or Lowell House. Two upperclass students will live off campus with friends nearby and will be affiliated with Dudley House. I appreciate that the House Masters of Adams, Dudley, and Lowell have made their House communities available and welcoming on such short notice and I understand that students in those Houses were among the first to personally meet and welcome the visitors.
The Office of Residential Life secured each student a comfortable and welcoming room in one of the available suites. FAS Physical Resources, Yard Operations, the Apley and Claverly Building Managers, Dorm Crew, and Allied Security were all extremely helpful during what was already a busy time for them as the general undergraduate population moved in. Air conditioners were installed in each visiting student's suite, new mattresses purchased, and most of the beds even made up with rented linens in time for the Claverly and Apley arrivals. I know that many people across campus have put much thought and energy into welcoming these students and it is a mark of the strength of our community that so many responded so quickly. Since most of our displaced visiting undergraduates are living on campus, the graduate students affected by Katrina who will attend GSAS this term were able to utilize some of the kind offers for off-campus rooms.
We have also reached out to Harvard undergraduates from affected areas. Jay Ellison, Secretary of the Administrative Board, has coordinated the work of the Allston Burr Senior Tutors, who all contacted students from their Houses living in states hit by the hurricane. The Senior Tutor in Dunster House, Paulette Curtis, is herself from New Orleans and will serve as a general resource to support our students who are now safely back on campus.
Harvard College students have also organized responses to the disaster and Associate Dean of the College Judith Kidd is working with them on the relief efforts that the students are leading: a variety of Harvard's performing arts groups will work with Sanders Theatre and the Office for the Arts to donate talent and energy to a Benefit Concert at Sanders on October 15; the Black Students Association (BSA), in conjunction with the two dozen student groups participating in the Students Taking on Poverty (STOP) Campaign, is coordinating efforts to raise funds through the Houses and Crimson Cash; students have organized a peer advising resource for the visiting students; Phillips Brooks House Association is expanding its Alternative Spring Break program to help with the recovery in the Gulf; the Institute of Politics and BSA have already begun to work on raising issue awareness on campus. In addition to these efforts in Cambridge, S. Allen Counter, Director of the Harvard Foundation, recently went to New Orleans with a group of Harvard students to distribute medicine to those in need. The President's Office has also made funds available to match relief funds raised by our student organizations.
Thank you all for contributing to this effort.
