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September
7, 2005
Staff report
With the same concentrated energy of the now infamous Katrina,
University administrators from across Grounds rose to President
John T. Casteen’s Aug. 31 challenge and took the
necessary steps to accommodate 140 additional incoming
students this fall.
The academically qualified students, most of them Virginia
residents and all of them enrolled in hurricane-ravaged
institutions in the New Orleans area, arrived on
Grounds over Labor Day
weekend as visiting, non-degree students who, over the
course of the fall semester, will earn credits that
can be transferred
back to their home institutions once those institutions
reopen.
Volunteering
for Relief Efforts
State leave policies allow state employees
two weeks of paid leave to volunteer to
assist during a disaster-related emergency.
According
to a Sept. 5 email message to the community from Leonard Sandridge,
executive vice president and chief operating officer, any approval
for leave must be based on the University’s ability to maintain
its academic and medical operations and also must be part of a
sanctioned, official relief effort.
Individuals interested in volunteering to assist in relief efforts
coordinated through the University in conjunction with local, state,
and federal agencies, should fill out the volunteer form posted
at www.virginia.edu/emergency/.
Completed
forms will be sent to the University’s two
relief coordinators — Marge Sidebottom at
the Health System, and Lynn Mitchell in the Academic
Division — who will work with designated
agencies to match a volunteer’s skills with
the needs at the hurricane site.
U.Va.
is working with Charlottesville and Albemarle in
a coordinated effort called "Greater Charlottesville
Katrina Relief Partnership." Links will be
posted on the above-mentioned Web site for more
opportunities to help in the relief effort.
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Among
them are 128 undergraduates -- 109 in the College, 8 in
the School of Engineering, and 6 in
the School of Architecture – all
of who are being housed on University Grounds. In addition,
there are approximately two dozen graduate students -- 12
in the School of Law -- and another dozen or more still in
the process of enrolling in the Darden and Curry Schools.
Arrangements for a special financial-aid fund for need-qualified
students are being investigated, pending potential adjustments
in federal financial aid rules to provide more conventional
financial aid for those who need it.
Orienting the New Arrivals
A special orientation session for U.Va.’s new arrivals
occurred on Sept. 4. Well before the appointed 2 p.m. start
time, students and parents began to fill the hall outside
Newcomb Hall Ballroom.
There,
they waited to meet Jack Blackburn, dean of admission,
who was handing out individual letters
of acceptance to the University of Virginia.
Once inside the room, they were greeted by representatives
of the University community — staff members from dining,
housing, academic advising, the registrar’s office,
student financial services, information technology and the
dean of students office — who had come both to welcome
and to offer guidance.
Many of the students sported green Tulane t-shirts. Among
them, huddled together near the back of the room, sat Jill
Zimmerman and her friend Kathleen Cardinale. Both of them
are sophomores at Tulane and admitted to feeling a bit
overwhelmed.
Zimmerman, an orientation leader at her home school, had
moved into her Tulane dorm on Wednesday, Aug. 24, and had
already settled in for the coming semester.
The
day the hurricane warnings came, she was off at Tulane’s gym, but came
back to her room to find 10 messages from her mother saying
to "get out of town."
Neither Zimmerman nor Cardinale thought too much about
it. They packed up enough clothes for four days, grabbed
their
computers and headed for Dallas with fellow classmates
in a caravan of five cars. Because they had to take
a circuitous route, it took them 13 hours to make
the typically
8-hour,
500-mile trip. From Dallas, they traveled to Austin
where they met up with the hurricane.
Several days later, they finally navigated their way
home to Northern Virginia.
Zimmerman's high school guidance counselor was the
first one to tell her about the opportunity to apply
to U.Va.
for the fall semester.
Both Zimmerman and Cardinale admitted to feeling some "culture
shock,” as they put it, after arriving in Charlottesville
and seeing U.Va.’s size. "It feels huge compared
to Tulane," Zimmerman said.
With its student body of nearly 20,000, compared
to Tulane’s
7,700, the University was “intimidating,” Cardinale
said. "And I'm not used to getting lost. But it'll be
a good experience for us."
"This
will never be Tulane," Zimmerman added, "but
I'm looking forward to the experience."
A U.Va. Welcome
To
Make a Gift
One way to help Gulf residents who have experienced
devastating loss is by donating to the Virginia
State Employee Hurricane Katrina
Relief Fund. As part of Gov. Mark Warner’s push to coordinate
relief efforts, state employees can donate through Friday, Sept.
16, via the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign. One hundred percent
of employees’ donations will go to the American Red Cross
and Salvation Army and will be earmarked expressly for the Hurricane
Katrina Relief Fund.
Checks
should be made payable to the “CVC-Hurricane
Katrina Relief Fund,” placed in sealed envelopes,
and either given to the CVC representative in any
vice presidential unit, taken to the McKim or Newcomb
Hall Mail Room, or delivered to U.Va.’s Community
Relations Office at 400 Ray C. Hunt Drive in the
Fontaine Research Park.
Donations
must be received in the Community Relations Office
no later than 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16, since
the donations must be sent to the state CVC office
on Monday, Sept. 19.
Donations
will be deductible on 2005 tax returns. U.Va. donors
who want a receipt for their gift should contact
the Community Relations Office at 924-1321 or via communityrelations@virginia.edu.
This
special relief fund is a separate effort from the
2005 Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign, which will
begin at U.Va. in November.
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Once
the assembly of more than 300 students and parents was
in place, Shamim Sisson, senior associate
dean of students,
welcomed U.Va.’s newest arrivals to the institution.
Her comments were directed primarily to the students — to
what they had endured as a result of the hurricane. “All
of you are facing a new semester unlike any that you expected
or planned,” she said.
Sisson also let the students know that, after the chaos
they had recently experienced, they would find, in Charlottesville, “a
welcoming community and supportive environment” that
would allow them “to take advantage of the rich curriculum
and exceptional faculty” that U.Va. offered.
“Most
of you will settle in quickly and well, but there may be
a bit of a disconnect at times: life seeming to go on
as usual here while people and places you care deeply
about face monumental struggles,” she added. “This
is perfectly normal, but if it starts distracting you too
much or you just want to talk about it, we have wonderful
counseling resources at our Student Health Center that are
free and readily available.”
Sisson also talked about the University’s core values,
and encouraged the students to become involved in all aspects
of University life.
“
We want you to be able to look back on this time and say
that while many parts of your life and your plans were disrupted,
your academic career was only minimally interrupted because
you had a great semester at the University of Virginia,” she
concluded. “In the midst of all this uncertainty, you
are safe and you are here — for which we are very grateful.”
Related News
In addition to helping some 140 displaced students
continue their education this fall, U.Va. has
provided assistance
to students whose programs were not compatible
with the University’s
to find them places in Virginia’s Community College
System or other state institutions. Piedmont Virginia Community
College in Charlottesville also has been involved in planning
this effort.
Furthermore, U.Va. is working with the American
Association of Universities in Washington,
D.C., and the American
Council on Education on other steps that
may be taken to assist
students while their home colleges are closed.
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