|
Credit: Nick Romanenko
Tulane University senior Nicole Tartaro
gets to know some Rutgers students in a
group session during a Sept. 9
orientation for students displaced by
Hurricane Katrina. Tartaro’s plans to
apply to graduate school have been
temporarily sidetracked since the storm
hit the Gulf Coast.
|
As Hurricane Katrina moved slowly toward the Gulf Coast, Tulane University senior and West Windsor native Nicole Tartaro scooped up her dog Stella and made her way to a pet-friendly hotel in Galveston, Texas.
“I really wanted to be in Baton Rouge or in Houston but the shelters and hotels didn’t accept pets,” said Tartaro, who is majoring in math and psychology at Tulane University in New Orleans.
After the storm passed, leaving death and destruction across the Gulf Coast and in the city Tartaro has called home for the past three years, she and her boyfriend set out on a 25-hour, two-day road trip back to New Jersey. At the same time, her father in England did some research and found that Rutgers University was offering visiting status to students studying in the Gulf Coast.
While Tartaro plans to return to Tulane when the school reopens – “It looks like we’ll be going back in January,” she said – her experience in getting into the right courses at Rutgers has been “really quite easy.”
That is exactly what staff members at Rutgers want to hear. Since the devastation wrought upon the Gulf Coast by Katrina, they have been working day and night to make sure those whose lives were disrupted by the hurricane have a seamless transition into their new lives as visiting students. Sixty students have enrolled as undergraduate and law school students at all three Rutgers campuses – 11 in Camden, six in Newark and 43 in New Brunswick/Piscataway.
Academic departments are also doing their part, taking in faculty from Tulane University and other schools. Tulane’s Ulrike Diebold joined the chemistry department in Piscataway as a visiting faculty member, bringing with her a crew of graduate students doing research in surface science and nanotechnology.
“It made me feel good knowing the higher education community could get together and mobilize like this,” said Lenore Neigeborn, associate dean of academic services at Rutgers College.
Tuesday, Aug. 30, began with one or two phone calls from students asking about visiting status. Once the phones began to ring off the hook, Neigeborn and others across the university sprang into action and coordinated their movements.
“I have never seen so many offices working together to make something like this happen so quickly,” said Barbara Fiorella, an assistant vice president in the Division of Continuous Education and Outreach. Her office worked closely with the Office of the
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs to get a Web site launched in record time. Staff across several departments put in extra hours, and some worked weekends to get students registered and questions answered.
About 15 students attended a Sept. 9 orientation, meant to be a compressed version of what most first-year Rutgers students experience. Mark Forest of the Rutgers College Counseling Center was there to explain resources available to students coping with the storm’s aftermath. And assured that they would not have to worry about financial matters until mid-November, President Richard L. McCormick encouraged them to think of Rutgers as home for as long as they wished.
“I know that this is far from an ideal time for you. But I believe you will find Rutgers to be a truly welcoming community,” McCormick said at the event. “We will do everything we can to make sure you get the best possible education that we can provide.”
First-year student Keenya Logan, from East Orange, spent four days in August at Xavier University for orientation, getting to know the school and the city of New Orleans. “I loved New Orleans,” she said. “The people were all so friendly. I liked the campus, and I was really looking forward to going back.” Scheduled to start classes at Xavier Sept. 1, Logan watched the television in frustration as colleges and universities in the area evacuated.
But Logan said that her transition to Rutgers has gone smoothly. The registrar’s office made easy the often-complicated process of selecting and registering for courses. Unlike typical visiting students, the registrar did not expect displaced students to have a letter from their sending institutions indicating that they are in good standing. Application and enrollment fees were also waived for displaced students. A student ID, term bill or acceptance letter served as proof of attendance.
|
