Posted on 09/11/2005 3:06:04 PM PDT by Archidamus
Houston schools take in displaced college students
Aubrey Phillips scanned the large hall for familiar faces Saturday morning. In almost no time, she spotted someone from a Spanish class and a guy who took math with her last year.
Phillips expected to see people she knew while registering for classes at Rice University, but it still seemed a bit odd, she said. Two weeks ago, they were moving into dormitory rooms at Tulane University in anticipation of a new school year.
Now they are at a university they did not want but seemed grateful to have in the wake of Katrina. About 110 displaced students converged at Rice for a one-day orientation, restarting their academic careers after the hurricane wiped away the semester at Tulane, one of the largest universities in New Orleans.
"I think we'll be back at Tulane in the spring," said Phillips, a sophomore from Magnolia who wore a Tulane T-shirt to her Rice orientation.
Until then, the folks at Rice will try to make the Tulane students feel welcome. But it is an awkward situation for the hosts, too, because they are trying to avoid the appearance of keeping students permanently.
On a day when Rice provided academic advisers and tours of the leafy campus, the newcomers also received a reminder that they are "emergency visiting students" expected to return to Tulane once it reopens.
"Right now we're walking both sides of the line," said Robin Forman, dean of undergraduates at Rice. "We want this to be a rich, exciting, memorable experience. But it is with the expectation that they will go back to Tulane once it is accepting students."
Colleges and universities across Texas and the country have opened their doors to the thousands of evacuated Gulf Coast students. Locally, the University of Houston expected to enroll about 1,000; Texas Southern University has added about 600; the University of St. Thomas has registered 60. The University of Texas at Austin has added about 375 students, while Texas A&M has welcomed about 300.
But the relationship between Rice and Tulane may be unique. The schools are nationally ranked research institutions that draw from similar applicant pools.
Rice made one of the first invitations to take in students from Tulane. Because Rice is not a big place, with fewer than 3,000 students, administrators limited the offer to students from Houston and those from New Orleans who lost their homes.
The displaced students will start classes Monday, the beginning of the fourth week in a 14-week semester. Faced with the daunting task of catching up, many opted for lower-level classes outside their majors.
"I almost feel selfish because I'm sitting here talking about classes," said Davin Wallace, a geology major from Katy. "We're the luckiest of the lucky. It's like our lives didn't change."
The semester will not be the same, of course. Those lucky enough to land at Rice will not be able to live on campus. Their schedules will be based on the availability of existing classes.
Some freshmen lamented the loss of the long-awaited opportunity to live and learn away from home.
"It would be nice to get the full experience, but it can't happen," said Anne Butler, who attended Memorial High School in Houston. "I'll go to classes and go home. It'll be a temporary thing. But Rice was nice to offer it."
But will they get in-state tuition rates next semester?
...they gave him a job.
Talk about your Affirmative-Action Professor!
Rice is a private school, so in state or out of state is not an issue. Tulane is also a private school. It sounds as if most of the students are from Houston, so they are residents of Texas.
I think he has some sort of institute of something at Rice, but I don't think he is teaching any classes.
Yes, what they really meant was, "Now they are at a university they could not get into ...
This man has to be the most ignorant, incompetint human-being alive. I'm not just ranting, just look at his long record of leaving each and every job he ever had worse than when he took it over.
And ususally hundred of millions of dollars in debt like he did as Mayor of Houston.
I wonder about the Tulane faculty . . . logically you would, if possible, employ them teaching Tulane students in different venues. And, just as logically, that's probably a difficult thing to arrange.
I don't even have to look for info to answer that one 'no'.
About 75 Tulane students ended up at SMU, which is also a private institution.
I recall a story on FR a week or so ago explaining that the schools taking Tulane students would do it at the Tulane tuition rates, whether local tuition was higher or lower. Tulane, is, however, keeping its football team intact to play this season (likely all road games).
I attended neither Rice nor Tulane, but had relatives who graduated from each. And you are correct, Rice, at this point, is the better degree.
A Lot of New Orleans University students have enrolled at the University of Houston, also. The school where my wife works has taken in part of the student body of a private girls school from New Orleans, also.
Somehow I get the sense that you are not a great fan of Lee Brown.
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