Katrina continues to stir Harvard community into action

Harvard programs and initiatives to help Hurricane Katrina victims have been multiplying.

A number of Harvard Schools have been arranging for students displaced by Katrina to study at the University this fall. Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Extension School, the Graduate School of Education, Harvard Law School, the School of Public Health, the Graduate School of Design, and Harvard Business School have all accepted and waived tuition for visiting students. Other Harvard Schools, including the Medical School and the Divinity School, are pursuing arrangements along these lines.

Related links:
• On the ground in Baton Rouge
• Doctors take their place on front lines
• Learn more about what is happening at Harvard regarding the aftermath of Katrina

Deadline for Harvard donation match (up to $100): Oct. 15

In addition, the University has agreed to match donations of up to $100 through Oct. 15 to designated relief organizations by faculty members, students, or employees.

Other initiatives are in the works as well. A new humanitarian initiative based at the School of Public Health has been working with the American Red Cross to continue to coordinate and dispatch teams of Harvard doctors and public health workers to the affected areas. For more on this effort, see http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/katrina/.

Harvard libraries are making their resources available to scholars whose work has been interrupted, and members of the library’s preservation staff are collaborating with other institutions to assist in the recovery and preservation of important scholarly materials. The Kennedy School of Government has conducted panel discussions on lessons to be learned from Katrina, and other Schools have hosted symposia and teach-ins to educate the community about the disaster.

A mobile psycho-trauma team headed by psychologist Kevin Becker, director of the Institute of Trauma and Crisis at Harvard Medical School, has been dispatched to the Gulf area to help hurricane victims deal with loss and displacement. For more on this program, go to http://www.realmedicine.tv/foundation/IN1-1.html.

For an overview of Harvard Katrina relief efforts, visit http://www.news.harvard.edu/press/pressdoc/pr-050901-katrina.html.