Whether it’s the Office of Undergraduate Admission or the Department of Athletics, various University divisions have coordinated an extensive relief effort to aid survivors and recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

The University has been working to contact all Stanford students from the hurricane-affected areas to provide assistance. The Registrar’s office generated a list of both undergraduate and graduate students with home addresses listed for Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, totaling 106. Since it includes students from throughout the three states, it is actually larger than the number of students who may have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, according to Lee Connor, special assistant to the dean of student affairs.

There have been no reported casualties or missing persons, although “communication in the area has been very difficult and sporadic,” according to Dean of Student Affairs Greg Boardman.

The President’s Office arranged a meeting of several senior administrators representing different offices shortly after Katrina struck.

“Stanford is committed to help,” began a statement released by University President John Hennessy in response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A Web site, hurricanekatrina.stanford.edu, was also set up to publicize University initiatives. Below is a sampling of the Stanford efforts to assist hurricane survivors.

Admission and Financial Aid

Stanford is using an online application process to admit academically-qualified students from colleges and universities that have been closed due to the hurricane as part of a one-quarter guest program.

The Office of Financial Aid is accepting requests for assistance from Stanford students from the Gulf Coast, including those who have not previously received financial aid, as well as the non-degree guest students.

“Given the tragedy these young people have faced, Stanford is being flexible in terms of working with students and their families to assess the level of need given the change in circumstances,” said Richard Shaw, dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid, who replaced Robin Mamlet in June.

Stanford admitted 36 guest students before closing the process on Sept. 14. Of the students who were accepted, 28 will be enrolling, including three freshmen, seven sophomores, eight juniors and 10 seniors.

Although priority was given to those from the Bay Area, Stanford accepted students from across the nation for the fall quarter. The students, who are coming from Tulane University, Loyola University of New Orleans, Dillard University and Xavier University of Louisiana, will be able to study tuition free.

“The concept is that those students who attend Stanford this Fall Quarter will pay tuition to their home institutions to assist with the rebuilding efforts,” Shaw said. “It seemed obvious that [reaching out to students from the Gulf Coast region] is something Stanford would want to do after such an extraordinary tragedy.”

The guest student program will take effect for one quarter only, Shaw emphasized. Students will be expected to return to their home campuses in the winter. Additionally, students were evaluated based only on their test scores and transcripts when offered admission.

Housing and Residential Education

Current Stanford students from affected Gulf Coast communities who needed to return to housing at Stanford early were able to do so at no charge, including a meal plan. As of last week, only six to eight continuing students had expressed interest in returning to campus early, according to Todd Benson, director of Housing Assignments Services.

“Resident fellows and college directors received the names of all of their future residents who were impacted by the hurricane and the resulting dramatic weather following it,” said Jane Camarillo, director of Residential Education. “They offered support and encouragement as well as the early housing if [students] needed it.”

Undergraduate and graduate guest students are eligible to fill vacancies left by Stanford students who are studying abroad — 45 undergraduate housing openings this fall. Fifteen of those have been awarded to guest students, who will have to pay for room and board. But there are alternatives for those who are unable to do so.

“There have been some very generous offers of housing support from local community members and many local Stanford alumni in surrounding areas who have offered rooms in their homes to hurricane-affected students coming here as needed,” said Rodger Whitney, executive director of Student Housing.

New Student Orientation

The Freshman Dean’s Office has been asked to help the visiting students make a smooth transition to Stanford, and visiting students have been invited to attend New Student Orientation, or NSO, which started yesterday.

“While we realize that most of [the guest students] have been to orientation at their home institution, [Stanford NSO] will provide them with an opportunity to get acquainted with Stanford’s resources and the community they will be joining,” said Krista Zizzo, director of outreach and assessment in the Freshman Dean’s Office.

Visiting students are encouraged to join the transfer community events, which would enable them to meet a smaller group of new students who are also coming to Stanford from another university, Zizzo said.

“The Freshman Dean’s Office reached out to incoming freshmen who live in areas that may have been affected by the hurricane to make sure they are okay, and to see if they had any needs we could address,” said Jim Kim, assistant dean of freshmen.

Each guest student will be assigned an undergraduate advisor through Undergraduate Advising Programs. The advisors of current students affected by the hurricane will also be notified of the special circumstances.

Stanford Medical School

Prof. Eric A. Weiss explained on the Stanford School of Medicine Web site last week that the Stanford Medical Center and Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital are working with the United States Department of Health and Human Services to help staff medical tents setup for victims of the hurricane.

According to Weiss, over 100 physicians, nurses and ancillary staff have signed up to help provide medical support, and the Medical School plans to eventually provide “an entire cadre of health care providers and ancillary help to staff one of these tents” for two to four weeks.

“I have been very impressed with the tremendous amount of support and willingness to volunteer from all of the staff at Stanford,” Weiss stated.

Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School opened its doors to five displaced third-year law students from Tulane University for the fall term. The law school has waived tuition for these students, allowing their home schools to keep tuition already paid to help compensate staff and faculty, all of which are being kept on payroll, in hopes that work will resume before the end of the semester.

“Given the scale of the tragedy, our efforts are small, but we hope not meaningless,” said Larry Kramer, dean of the Law School. “Students who were working toward their professional careers at Tulane and Loyola were about to have those careers disrupted and delayed, with all the attendant problems. Hopefully, we can help them avoid that and enable them to keep their lives on track.”

Christian Dallman, one of the visiting students from Tulane, said he has been “humbled and amazed” by the outpouring of support.

“Although the circumstances of my arrival seem dire, I find myself in a better place than many of those who were affected by Hurricane Katrina, so I have little to complain about,” Dallman said. “Everyone at Stanford Law has been incredibly gracious and I look forward to spending the semester here.”

Graduate Schools

The Registrar’s Office provided assistance for graduate degree programs in Earth Sciences, Education, Engineering and Humanities and Sciences. The office received eight applications from affected graduate students. After reviewing the students’ qualifications, it forwarded the applications to the specific departments for decisions, according to Kate Chesley, associate director of University communications.

The School of Earth Sciences has heard from one student from Tulane, and they expect to hear from more. The school is already housing the chair of the Louisiana State University Geology Department.

The School of Engineering has not yet capped the number of graduate students it will accept from the region, but they will accept only displaced engineering students that would normally qualify for admission, Chesley explained.

Stanford Alumni Association

There are 251 Stanford alumni currently living in the official disaster zone and 674 living in the Gulf region, according to Stanford Alumni Association President Howard Wolf, class of 1980. The staff at the association has been trying for the past week to get in touch with alumni in the area to understand both their status and needs.

On Thursday, Sept. 9, Wolf sent an e-mail to over 110,000 Stanford alumni around the world — the total number for whom they have e-mail addresses — informing them both of Stanford’s response to Hurricane Katrina and of an online clearinghouse designed to help Stanford alumni affected.

The clearinghouse is located on the association’s Web site, www.stanfordalumni.org, within the InCircle virtual online community. To date, there have been a multitude of posts from both those in need and those offering assistance. These needs have included housing, work and professional clothing.

“In one representative case, a request for professional women’s clothing was met with eight offers of assistance within minutes of the original posting,” Wolf said. “Similar matches have occurred for housing.”

Department of Athletics

For the first time since 1929, the Stanford Golf Course was opened for public play on Monday, Sept. 19. Collections from the capacity crowd of 300 players generated an estimated $30,000 that will be donated to the American Red Cross for the Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort.

Stanford will also be accepting donations to relief efforts at women’s volleyball, men’s soccer and football games. Boxes will be available at venue entrances to collect public donations, according to a press release from the Stanford News Service.

In addition, men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson is auctioning off four premium seats to the Stanford vs. Denver game on Dec. 19 and will take the winning bidder to breakfast the next morning. The auction will be run on the Web site AllCoachesCare.com and proceeds will go to Habitat for Humanity. Last winter, Stanford basketball and the Sixth Man Club raised almost $4,000 for tsunami survivors in South and East Asia.

Student Efforts

On Sept. 7, over 45 staff members, students and faculty met at the Black Community Services Center (BCSC) to share their stories of loss and hope and to formulate a plan to help those in need. The group formed four committees focusing on immediate needs, communication, relocation efforts and long-range rebuilding.

“As members of the Stanford family, we know that we sit in the seat of privilege, and we felt that we cannot continue to watch [the relief efforts]; we need to try to make a difference,” said Jan Barker, director of the BCSC.

The group has developed an informational Web site katrinahelp.stanford.edu to help students learn about how they can volunteer. In addition, the group’s immediate needs committee is planning its first of a series of monthly donation drives for personal items for the week of Sept. 19.

“To the degree possible, we are trying to make sure that the donations have an immediate impact on the families and individuals in need,” said Sally Dickson, associate vice provost for faculty development and co-chair of the immediate needs committee. The committee has been working primarily to distribute donations through churches in Texas and the Gulf Coast.

“It is important to realize that the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is not something that is going to be cured in a month,” Dickson added. “People should think of this as a long-term project.”

Stanford Students for Relief (SSR), which was originally created to respond to the tsunami in Asia, will centralize the disaster relief fundraising process for student groups. These groups will need to submit all proposals for benefit fundraisers to SSR before they are passed to the Office of Student Activities for approval.

“Currently SSR is in the process of recruiting a core group of graduate and undergraduate students to help in two key ways,” said Donna Winston, a second-year doctoral student in the School of Education who is leading SSR’s efforts. “First, a group is needed for selecting a few 501(c)(3) organizations to be designated as beneficiaries of Stanford student-initiated fundraisers. Secondly, members of this core group would review the plans student groups submitted for proposed fundraisers.”

The ASSU is working in conjunction with SSR leadership to streamline communication among student groups and the general student body. In addition, a working team of Stanford students, Stanford Concert Network employees and ASSU staff members are organizing a benefit relief concert.

“We truly sympathize with those whose family and friends have been affected, and we are committed to doing whatever is in our power to provide help,” said ASSU President Melanie Kannokada, a senior. “While we are still defining our unique role, we’ve been able to provide logistical guidance and our connections with staff to help students get the resources they need.”

Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) in tandem with the ASSU, will collect employee donations that will be matched up to $15,000 from SSE business income, and the Chief Executive Officer of SSE, Justin Fishner-Wolfson, also the ASSU’s financial manager, said he will personally match $5,000. SSE and the ASSU hope to contribute at least $30,000 to the relief efforts.

University initiatives in progress include donation drives for items like bedding, toiletries and diapers. A memorial service was held last Thursday in Memorial Church for victims of the hurricane and the Office of Religious Life is also accepting donations on behalf of the Red Cross.

University Employees

University employees approved to participate in the disaster relief effort may take up to one week of paid leave time. Stanford will match the employee’s leave time on a one-for-one basis with up to five days of paid special leave to be taken at the same time for disaster relief purposes, according the University’s main Web site.