Hurricane blows potential students to KU

By By Frank Tankard

Thursday, September 1, 2005



A week ago, Laury Pflaum was getting ready for her junior year at Tulane University. Now Pflaum, an Overland Park native, may be looking for a new school.

For students from Gulf Coast colleges that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina, that new school could be the University of Kansas. Hurricane Katrina has shut down several colleges, including Tulane, and forced thousands of students to find new places to study.

Nearly 30 students had called the University of Kansas by 2 p.m. yesterday and asked about being admitted to the University, said Lisa Pinamonti Kress, director of admissions and scholarships.

Evacuees have filled the gym at the shelter on the campus of LSUS in Shreveport, Louisiana.The refugees are staying at the college because of Hurrican Katrina.

Evacuees have filled the gym at the shelter on the campus of LSUS in Shreveport, Louisiana.The refugees are staying at the college because of Hurrican Katrina.

Pflaum, who is now in Galveston, Texas, said she was waiting for Tulane to announce if and when classes would resume before deciding what she would do. She said she was originally scheduled to start classes yesterday.

Pflaum, a finance major, was worried that some of her business classes wouldn’t transfer and that she wouldn’t be able to make up for lost class time.

“I’m still holding out,” she said. “I’m hoping the university will make the announcement soon. It’ll be hard for a university to accept us because we started so late. Hopefully they’ll make a decision in the next couple days.”

Pflaum said she was heading to her Overland Park home today, where she’ll figure out her next step with her family.

Before the storm hit, more than 400 Tulane students were evacuated to Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., where they are being sheltered and fed temporarily. Others were evacuated to Dallas and Atlanta. Tulane reports an enrollment of 13,000.

Tulane’s Web site has posted emergency messages to keep students updated. One message contains the following condition report, which was posted Tuesday night:

“As expected, our facilities have been damaged; however, based on our preliminary assessments, the majority of the damage can be remediated in a reasonable period of time. The uptown campus is covered with debris from fallen trees and shrubs, making it almost impossible to drive or even walk on campus. We have no power in any of the buildings other than a few where we control the power source.”

Tulane has not announced when or if this semester’s classes will begin.

Provost David Shulenburger said the University would send a message to faculty members advising them to allow transfers from hurricane-battered colleges to make up missed work.

“We’ve got everyone alerted to work with students as they appear,” he said.

Marlesa Roney, vice provost of student success, said the University would waive the late enrollment fee for these students.

“If we can make that happen for students and help them get a good semester under their belts, then, obviously, that’s a lot better than not going to college at all,” she said.

— Edited by Tricia Masenthin

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