Nearly 60 from Gulf Coast here for fall quarter

By Nicole Laprade

About 55 students from several Gulf Coast universities will be attending Santa Clara this fall because their schools were forced to close for the semester after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region earlier this month.

Santa Clara was one of 27 Jesuit schools that opened its doors to displaced students from the following New Orleans universities: Loyola, Tulane, Xavier and Dillard, according to the national Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

Jim Briggs, the executive assistant to University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., said Santa Clara received over 175 inquiries regarding admission. The university took in all college students -- not just students from Jesuit universities -- who were displaced by the disaster.

"Our ideal of educating leaders and citizens of compassion means all of us must be persons of compassion and also that the university must live by what it teaches," Locatelli said in a written statement.

Katrina wreaked over $200 billion in damage in the Gulf Coast, killing thousands, making the disaster one of the worst since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

While here, the students will have access to all facilities and resources available to regularly enrolled Santa Clara students.

"We're very sensitive that these students are coming from very different experiences," said Jeanne Rosenberger, vice provost for student life.

"Some are coming from the Gulf Coast and lived through the hurricane, others are from the Bay Area and aren't able to go to one of those schools - We want to do everything that we can to be supportive."

Tuition for visiting students has been waived for the quarter and their home universities are expected to reopen in January 2006.

Briggs said the Katrina Visiting Students Fund was established in order to "support some of the visiting students that will be attending, especially those who were directly affected by Katrina and need funds for books and incidental expenses."

Santa Clara has also established a Hurricane Disaster Relief fund where faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends can make donations through Campus Ministry.

"We have not yet determined the recipient of those funds because we want to be sure that we pick a place that doesn't take a lot of overhead off the gift," Briggs said.

Santa Clara will be working with the Jesuit Province of New Orleans to find a recipient.

Several of the university's chartered student organizations, including The Santa Clara, are planning a benefit dance this fall.

Contact Nicole LaPrade at (408) 554-4546 or nlaprade@scu.edu.