The University reacted to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina by opening its doors to students in colleges affected by the storm.
New Jerseyans enrolled in Gulf Coast-area schools such as Tulane University have until Sept. 15 to accept an offer to attend college at Rutgers in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick/Piscataway. Students must be in good standing to be accepted.
So far, 25 students enrolled under the emergency plan since yesterday morning, said Philip Furmanski, vice president of academic affairs. The University will provide "visiting student" status to these students.
Under the program, the students are eligible to take courses at the University and transfer credits back to their home institutions.
Furmanski said the students would be responsible for in-state tuition and fees, although they could apply to delay payment in individual cases.
"We created a Sept. 15 deadline because anything later than that would be too far into the class time," Furmanski said.
The students would return to their schools along the Gulf Coast as soon as those institutions reopen for class work.
Furmanski said that while some might leave the University before others, the students would be welcome to stay until the end of the semester, if feasible.
The idea came from Camden Provost Roger Dennis, and has since been followed by other member schools of the American Association of Universities, Furmanski said.
The visiting students will attend classes where space is still available, he said.
"We want to be as accommodating as possible," Furmanski said.
Those interested in becoming visiting students may make arrangements by contacting admissions offices at Rutgers-Camden, New Brunswick or Newark campuses before Sept. 15.
The University community is looking to help those in the Hurricane Katrina devastation in other ways.
A group formed to help humanitarian efforts in the Southeast Asian tsunami in December has redirected efforts to include helping out after Hurricane Katrina.
"The Rutgers community previously united for the tsunami," said Don Curry, a graduate student and officer in the Rutgers University Humanitarian Association. "So, we should now be uniting to help the citizens of the United States, whose lives and livelihoods have been devastated as well."
Curry said group plans to tie its efforts with the federal response to the hurricane is being coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
"We will likely tie the Rutgers response in with that effort and raise money to send a few students there on an academic volunteer program, like we did with the tsunami in Thailand," Curry said.
RUHA will meet Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the fourth-floor Cap and Skull Room of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.
"There, we will begin to plan the Rutgers response to Hurricane Katrina," Curry said. "Please come and bring friends."
The group is planning a five-kilometer race to take place Oct. 22 o the Livingston campus to benefit the victims of the tsunami and the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Curry said.
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