University administrators and students gave a warm welcome Friday afternoon to students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, offering them a temporary home for the semester and inviting them to take full advantage of Brown during their stay.
"We're very, very glad to have you with us, and we hope to make it feel like home for you this semester," said Dean of the College Paul Armstrong.
John Caron, assistant dean of summer and continuing studies, whose department is coordinating the visiting students' stay at Brown, said 100 displaced students have been admitted to Brown for the fall semester, but he was unsure if all would accept the offer. About 25 of the students were on hand Friday for an orientation at the Inn at Brown, where University administrators gave them details of their stay at Brown.
The University offered tuition-free admission for the fall semester to qualified Rhode Island residents and siblings of Brown students whose schools were closed by the hurricane, and to students at Tulane University, Dillard University and Xavier University of Louisiana. The majority of the students are from Tulane, Caron said.
The displaced students will be treated as continuing students and will be housed off campus. First-years and sophomores will be housed in two Rhode Island School of Design dorms on Angell Street - Dunnell House and Pardon Miller House. RISD residential advisers will supervise the two dorms, which were originally slated to be empty this year. The visiting students will be regarded as Brown students but must abide by both Brown and RISD dorm rules.
Caron said the University was still trying to find housing for the displaced upperclassmen, either in apartments, in houses already inhabited by Brown students or in Dunnell and Pardon Miller, if space permits.
Although the students are attending the fall semester tuition-free, they must still pay for room and board. The students will dine at University facilities.
Academically, visiting students will have the same rights as permanent students. They will be able to take any class - provided it is not filled to capacity with students already - and will be offered faculty advising. They will also be able to sign up for RISD courses.
Armstrong said University professors have been happy to take on these visiting students.
"We've gotten great faculty response," he said. "Teachers have e-mailed me saying, 'Hey, I've got room in my class,' or 'I want to be an adviser.' "
Administrators at Brown and the closed Louisiana schools are still working out details of how Brown credits will transfer to the students' regular universities.
"All the institutions are going to bend over their back to make the credits transferable," said Elizabeth Hart, associate dean for summer and continuing studies.
The visiting students have been invited to Brown for only the fall semester. Caron said it is uncertain if students will be able to continue their education at the University beyond that. "The goal is to have them return to their own schools as soon as possible," he said.
Some permanent Brown students, many of them summer residential advisers, Meiklejohn advisers or Brown Outdoor Leadership Training leaders, have volunteered to be "buddies" to the visiting students, helping them adjust by showing them around campus and eating meals with them.
"The goal is to pair a Brown student with two or three visiting students," Caron said.
"We have the insider knowledge," said Eric Tong '05.5, a volunteer buddy. "We know where Brown stands on the rules, we know where all the parties are."
Tong said he and other volunteers do not mind being buddies, adding that it's important for Katrina victims to feel at home.
The displaced students themselves, though tired from dealing with the hurricane and its aftermath, seemed relieved and happy to have found a home, however temporary.
"It's great to be here," said Alex David, a sophomore from Tulane. "Brown was actually my first choice."
David, a Long Island native, was setting up his apartment in New Orleans when he first heard of the order to evacuate the city. He didn't think much of it at first, he said, but threw his backpack and laptop in his car and drove to Texas to stay with a friend.
Classes at Tulane were canceled after Katrina hit, and David applied to Brown for the semester shortly thereafter. So far, he has been enjoying his time here, he said.
"I went to some classes (Thursday) and the teachers are really nice, and the small classes are nice as well," he said.
Aton Osbourne, a Xavier junior from Brooklyn, called Brown shortly after Xavier classes were canceled. Osbourne did research with Brown Professor Chi-Ming Hai this summer, and his brother graduated from Brown several years ago.
"I think it's pretty cool," Osbourne said of Brown's offer to Katrina victims. "They got things together pretty quickly."
Osbourne is glad to be attending classes this fall, although he is not particularly excited to be at Brown.
"It's just going to be school," he said.
Like Osbourne, many of the visiting students have ties to either Brown or Providence. Cory Dipietro, a Tulane student and Providence native who has worked at Del's Lemonade on Wickenden Street, is glad to be back in his hometown. He says he is enjoying the opportunity to take classes at Brown.
"It's something good that comes out of a terrible situation," Dipietro said.
Brown is one of many colleges and universities around the nation opening their doors to Katrina victims; all Ivy League universities and members of the Rhode Island Independent Higher Education Association are also admitting displaced students for the fall semester.
