Case Responds to Hurricane Katrina
September 8, 2005
Dear Case Community,
As relief efforts in the Gulf Coast region continue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I would like to update you on how the Case community is helping. The compassion and creativity that our community is bringing to this tragedy is inspiring. For the latest information on Case's efforts and how you can contribute, visit the special website we've established at http://www.case.edu/news/katrina/.
One way the university has helped is by reaching out to our friends at Tulane University and the students displaced by the disaster. We are offering tuition relief and other benefits so that they can continue their college studies this semester. Case has received some 50 inquiries from undergraduates displaced from the New Orleans area and has hosted two orientation sessions for them. The university already has enrolled 24 transient students and expects more will join the Case community by the end of the week. Case's professional schools and graduate programs are likewise making accommodations for displaced students and faculty.
Case is extending a helping hand in other ways, too. Among them is the donation of more than 400 pieces of residence hall furniture to colleges in the stricken area. Also, fundraising efforts are in progress around campus, including a drive scheduled for the first home football game of the season on Saturday, September 10th, at Case's new athletic stadium. For those students, faculty, and other visitors needing a place to stay, the university is coordinating the efforts of Case members who wish to open their doors. Next week's Case for Community Day, on Wednesday the 14th, will include a Hurricane Katrina disaster relief component.
For timely exchanges of information among individuals on what's needed and how to meet those needs, Case has established a blog for the university community. It's available at http://blog.case.edu/katrina. Many alumni have asked us how they can help. We are organizing an outreach effort that will include relief activities in our chapter cities.
On behalf of Case, let me offer my deepest thanks to all of you for helping so generously, and for the outpouring of concern you've expressed.
I'm proud to be a member of our Case community.
Very truly,
Edward M. Hundert, M.D.
President
Case Western Reserve University
September 1, 2005
Dear Case Community,
Our thoughts and prayers go out to our fellow Americans whose lives have been changed so cruelly by Hurricane Katrina. Here on campus, many hundreds of miles away, we express our sympathy and support to our alumni, faculty, students, and staff who live or have family in the area. More than 50 of our students come to us from the region caught in the storm's broad path. Our staff is working with these students to help them through this terrible time.
We are thinking as well of the colleges and universities in the affected region, including Tulane University in New Orleans, whose president is our friend and former longtime dean of the Weatherhead School of Management, Scott Cowen. Scott and his family are safe. Case and other universities are working together to help Tulane's students.
We can all help the people in the region by contributing through the many relief channels and providing personal support to those we know and their families. We can help further by letting this national disaster be a reminder of the preciousness of life, and allowing that understanding to guide us in our actions toward our fellow human beings.
Very truly,
Edward M. Hundert, M.D.
President
Case Western Reserve University