Case welcomes graduate and professional students, faculty displaced by hurricane
Graduate students, faculty and researchers displaced from their home schools by Hurricane Katrina have sought temporary homes at Case.
According to Denise Douglas, Case assistant dean of Graduate Studies, the University has received numerous calls from students seeking enrollment in graduate and professional programs. The Graduate Studies Office is reaching out to department chairs throughout the university to assess availability.
Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing is extending an invitation for temporary enrollment in its BSN, MSN and Pre-Licensure (Graduate Level Entry) nursing degree programs to nursing students affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Bolton School advisers will speak with students on a one-on-one basis regarding tuition assistance, housing, course selection and clinical options. Please visit the school’s Web site, http://fpb.case.edu for information about nursing school programs and major and course offerings.
Interested students may call John Clochesy, the Independence Foundation Professor of Nursing Education and director, student services and the Learning Resource Center at the Bolton School, at 216-368-5976 or e-mail him at john.clochesy@case.edu.
In addition, the school also is inviting any nursing faculty at the affected colleges and universities to contact Dean May Wykle to discuss teaching, clinical or research options this semester. The dean can be reached via phone at 216-368-2544 or e-mail her at may.wykle@case.edu.
Fundraisers for hurricane victims are also being organized by the Undergraduate Student Nurses Association. “Penny Wars” consists of three teams—undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty/staff. The teams put pennies or paper money in a team box for points. If players put silver in their opponents’ boxes, points are subtracted and the team with the most points wins. All proceeds are being donated to The American Red Cross Katrina Fund.
Case School of Law
At 8 a.m. Tuesday, September 6, three Tulane law students were welcomed to the Case School of Law with t-shirts, help filling out forms and orientation to procedures needed to get them started as first-year law students at Case for a semester or two. The new students hail from Cleveland Heights; Rochester, N.Y.; and New York City.
Meanwhile, according to Associate Dean for Development and Public Affairs Barbara F. Andelman, law students at Case have shown an outpouring of good will toward the Tulane students, including offering places for the students to stay.
Case law students also have been taking up a collection to help the hurricane victims in the Gund Hall common areas, with a friendly challenge between classes to see which one can raise the most money.
Weatherhead School of Management
The Weatherhead School of Management has welcomed two Tulane University students displaced by Katrina into its Master of Accountancy program. One had previously been accepted by Case but chose to attend Tulane instead.
Management students and faculty planned to meet to determine other ways to help, including possible onsite volunteer efforts.
Case School of Dental Medicine
According to David Dalsky, director of admissions from the Case School of Dental Medicine, the only dental school in the area impacted by the hurricane was the dental school at Louisiana State University (LSU) and the University of Mississippi. Dalsky said the two universities have made arrangements to cover the educational needs of their students until spring and did not need the immediate help of other schools, but the School of Dental Medicine has offered to assist faculty, researchers and graduate students with housing and temporary work space if needed.
Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
The Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences has received an inquiry from at least one social work student from the Gulf Coast area. In addition to the university’s undergraduate tuition discounts, Mandel School Dean Grover C. Gilmore has offered a paid placement to full-time, social work graduate students from Tulane University who enroll at Case this semester.
“I expect that our coursework and field experience will be easily transferable to Tulane,” when they return to the New Orleans university, Gilmore said.
Gilmore also has extended an invitation to any social work faculty who wishes to continue their work this semester. The Mandel School already expects to gain the expertise of Cyleste Collins, a social work faculty member from Tulane University. Collins is the wife of the Case music department’s new assistant professor, Daniel Goldmark.
Students and faculty from Tulane can e-mail msassdean@case.edu for additional information.
The Mandel School also will host a salad and potluck dinner fundraiser for victims of the hurricane from 6:30–8:30 p.m. September 8 in the courtyard at the school. Members of the university community—students, faculty, staff, alumni, family and friends—are encouraged to bring their favorite sharable dish and a minimum $5 donation. All proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross.
The dinner is sponsored by the Mandel Council.
Case School of Medicine
Ralph Horwitz, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine, has extended an invitation to first- and second-year medical students from Tulane University to continue their studies at Case during the duration of the cleanup and rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina. The Tulane medical school is located in New Orleans. Placement of the students will be coordinated through the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which represents all of the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals.
The medical school dean also has asked Robert Daroff, M.D., vice dean for education and academic affairs, to coordinate information and logistics related to Katrina at the School of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals. On Sept. 1, Daroff represented Case on a conference call organized by the National Institutes of Health and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to all the medical schools in the United States. Over the next several weeks, the medical school and the hospitals will receive information as to whether it will receive third and fourth year students from New Orleans (Tulane and LSU) on clinical rotations, as well as house officers. These requests will be coordinated through the AAMC and the Liaison Committee for Graduate Medical Education (LCGME).
Daroff is also working with the affiliated hospitals University Hospitals of Cleveland, MetroHealth Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, on assessing their capacity to accept patients from the stricken areas who need specialized care, such as cancer or heart care, if the need arises. The Cleveland Clinic has already accepted one heart patient. The Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center will be utilized through direct military channels.
In addition, the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine volunteers to take up to 50 students tuition free in one the Department's five divisions:Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Genetic Epidemiology, Health Policy and Public Health. The degrees awarded are MS, PhD, and MPH. The Department does not have funds for stipends.
One student from Tulane has already called and has been accepted into the epidemiology program. She plans to start on September 9. The chair of the department is Alfred Rimm, Ph.D.
As the director of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, Stanton Gerson, M.D., who is also director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, has responded to the American Society of Gene Therapy to house investigators if the need arises.