CLOSE-UP: Katrina Resource Center

When Hurricane Katrina bore down on southern Mississippi and Louisiana last month, thousands of college students were left without campuses to return to.

Since then, the UW has taken in more than 100 students whose schools were ravaged by the storm. Their lifeline is the Katrina Student Resource Center, a new facility designed to help them transition to life at the UW.

Located inside the Gateway Center at Mary Gates Hall, the center works with the admissions, housing and financial aid offices to get displaced students ready to attend classes. Last week, it offered special advising and registration sessions, where students who never planned to attend the UW were personally welcomed to the University by administrators.

The students hail from nine different universities, among them Tulane, Loyola, Dillard, Xavier and the University of New Orleans. The Office of Admissions has accepted them on a temporary basis until their home schools reopen.

Center coordinator Terry Hill said the UW accepted all students who applied from closed schools.

"The hurricane happened at a time when semester schools were already started," Hill said. "Quarter[ly] schools became a better option for the students that were displaced."

The First Year Programs staff formed the Center after UW President Mark Emmert urged the UW community to do all it could to help students affected by Katrina.

One of the Center's biggest jobs is finding students housing in Seattle. None of the students could move into already packed dorms, Hill said. Instead, most are staying with local families who have opened their homes to those in need.

"More than 130 volunteers have offered them rooms," Hill said.

Some have also moved into Radford Court, a UW housing complex that still has space available. The remainder are staying with friends and family in the area, Hill said.

Maurice Warner, assistant director of the Student Counseling Center in Schmitz Hall, said the Katrina Student Resource Center has been working with the Counseling Center to provide emotional support for Katrina victims.

Hill said the Katrina Student Resource Center will stay in contact with the exchange students throughout the quarter.

"Other incoming freshman we may see, and then they disappear," Hill said. "These ones we will be working with continuously to make sure their experience goes smoothly."

Kravas, who contacted some displaced students by telephone before they arrived in Seattle, said UW administrators felt an obligation not just to support Katrina victims monetarily, but also in other practical ways.

"It's not enough if you're a people person to write a check to the Red Cross," he said. "It gives us a lot of personal pleasure to reach out and help these students."

Emmert, who served as chancellor at Louisiana State University before becoming the UW president in 2004, said that despite the UW's already crowded status, it and other major universities would never have considered turning away displaced students.

"Not one school said, 'Oh, we're full, we don't want any new students,'" he said. "We're full [at the UW], but there's always room for another hundred students."