by Ann Kellett
Senior Communications Specialist
The Texas A&M University System
(College Station)—The A&M System’s nine universities and health science center are working to accommodate students in the Gulf Coast region affected by Hurricane Katrina. By Sept. 9, more than 400 students—including members of six athletic teams from Tulane University who are now at Texas A&M University—had been admitted.
“We will do what we can to help these students whose educations have been so tragically interrupted,” A&M System Chancellor Robert D. McTeer said on Sept. 1. McTeer said the fall admissions process would be extended for students meeting admissions requirements and that some on-campus housing would be available.
On Sept. 2, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, under Gov. Rick Perry, waived its rules to allow the state’s public higher education institutions to charge Texas-resident rates to displaced students from other states.
Texas A&M has offered to accept up to 1,000 students. The latest on Texas A&M’s efforts can be found here.
“The hearts of the entire Texas A&M community go out to all victims of Hurricane Katrina,” said Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates on Sept. 1. “Service to others is a core value of this university, and we feel a special obligation to do all we can to help college students and faculty in the affected area continue uninterrupted with their education and their work.”
Texas A&M also is hosting 87 students on six Tulane sports teams, along with their administrators and members of their strength and training staff, in women’s soccer, volleyball, and swimming and diving, men’s basketball, and men’s and women’s tennis.
“Tulane’s athletic director, Rick Dickson, and I go back to the late ‘80s,” said Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne. “He was at Tulsa and I was at Oregon. Our football teams played each other in a bowl game in, ironically, Louisiana—the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. The Mighty Ducks won.”
Details about when and where Tulane’s teams will practice and play out their schedules had not been announced as of Sept. 8. Texas Tech University, Southern Methodist University and Louisiana Tech University also are hosting Tulane athletic programs.
Other A&M System universities have accepted students, with Prairie View A&M University ranked second in the number of students—50 as of Sept. 9.