Campus Community Reaches Out to Victims of Hurricane Katrina

By Paul K. Mueller I September 26, 2005

In response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, faculty, students and staff at UCSD have worked to help the affected students and institutions in the best ways available.

The administration, the Academic Senate, the Medical Center, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Calit2, Student Affairs, and undergraduate, graduate and extension admissions officers, among others, have taken action and continue to explore other ways to help.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those members of our community who are making contributions to the relief efforts," said Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, "and to express my continued concern for those who have been personally affected by the tragedy."

UCSD Medical Center

Doctors, nurses, EMTs, pharmacists, chaplains and other volunteers from the Medical Center were part of San Diego's Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT CA-4) that sped to New Orleans to offer assistance. Read about their hectic but successful mission

Academic Admissions

The university quickly devised academic accommodations for affected students who are UCSD-related or reside in the San Diego region and need alternatives for proceeding with their education. These include:

. For students who did not accept their admission to UCSD and who cannot attend a college as a result of the hurricane, UCSD will provide late enrollment into the regular undergraduate program.

. For both undergraduate and graduate San Diego area students who were not admitted to UCSD and who cannot attend a college which has been closed because of the effects of the hurricane, UCSD will try to accommodate their educational needs through concurrent enrollment with University Extension.

. For enrolled UCSD students who may be directly affected by the hurricane to the extent that they cannot continue their enrollment, UCSD will grant leaves of absences or delayed admissions for up to one year.

. UCSD School of Medicine will offer to provide rotations for senior medical students affected by Hurricane Katrina, and the School of Medicine is checking to see what placements might be available for residents and fellows.

As of mid-September, UCSD has received 62 inquiries from interested students, and has offered accommodation to almost 50 students, including 31 undergraduates, 7 graduate students, and 7 medical students, out of the 20 the Medical School hopes to accept. University Extension has offered accommodations to 25 students to date; and of those students who had previously applied or were in-state residents (who originally chose not to attend UCSD), 10 have accepted enrollment.

In a message to academics and staff at UCSD, Chancellor Fox noted that currently all available on-campus housing is occupied, but that the university is working to identify possible support services, including federal assistance programs to address needs for housing and/or financial aid to students seeking accommodations.

Special Meeting of the Academic Senate

Jean-Bernard Minster, chair of UCSD's Academic Senate, held a special meeting on Sept. 9 to discuss the university's and the faculty's responses to the crisis in the Gulf. Chancellor Fox described the efforts taken to date, and detailed those policies of the UC Office of the President which enable or limit individual universities' responses, and she praised both academic and administrative units for their creativity and generosity in building an effective response. Faculty members offered a number of suggestions for helping - from sharing library resources with colleagues to providing summer-session housing and teaching for students held back a semester. A subcommittee will evaluate suggestions and send forward their recommendations to Minster.

California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology

The UCSD Division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) is working on wireless communications technologies that could soon be deployed in the Katrina-hit region, as part of a wider NSF-funded project called RESCUE (Responding to Crises and Unexpected Events) that is developing technologies for improved response to man-made and natural disasters.

San Diego Supercomputer Center

Data experts at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) are collaborating with the American Red Cross and other rescue organizations to make it easier for persons to locate missing loved ones in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. SDSC has created an amalgamated list containing thousands of names from a number of individual data searches that have sprung up since the disaster occurred, including The Family Links Registry available through www.redcross.org. This amalgamated database is available at www.katrinasafe.com. The SDSC Katrina team, led by Dr. Chaitan Baru, a renowned data scientist at SDSC, includes specialists in data management, data storage, high performance computing and Web development. Jerry Rowley, Lab Director, Advanced Database Projects Lab, has been coordinating the daily activities at SDSC, working closely with database expert, Vishu Nandigam, who is responsible for the daily data loads and data dissemination from SDSC. "This is a perfect example of blending SDSC's high-tech data tools and expertise with traditional methods of disaster relief," said Baru. "We hope to take this opportunity to use what we have learned to construct a database system to be in place even before the next disaster hits." Read more about their efforts

University Administrative Leave for Eligible Employees

Jenni Leibman, director of Employee Relations and Policy Development, has been designated as the UCSD Program Coordinator to handle requests and issues in response to Hurricane Katrina. She will work with supervisors to review and approve requests to participate in relief efforts using either paid or unpaid leave. Tricia Takacs, director of Academic Personnel, will handle questions about leave for academic employees.

For employees with special skills, such as medical personnel, scientific and technical personnel, and environmental health and safety personnel, who are members of university-sponsored response teams that are organized on a university-wide or local basis and are being sent to assist with the relief efforts, administrative leave with pay may be granted for the duration of the assignment.

After securing the approval of their supervisors and the UCSD Program Coordinator, employees who participate in relief efforts with agencies that have requested assistance, such as FEMA and the Red Cross, may be granted administrative leave with pay for a period of time to be determined, depending upon the particular circumstances.

All requests for leave will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and must be pre-approved prior to the leave.

Student Involvement

With most students off-campus during Hurricane Katrina and its immediate aftermath, their role in helping the victims - from donations to charities and disaster-relief groups to volunteer work for selected organizations - should expand rapidly in the coming days. Read about relief efforts now underway as part of UCSD Cares.