FW: ACE President to President: Vol. 6 No. 28, September 2, 2005 SPECIAL EDITION

 Since there have been questions about the response to Katrina, I
thought I would share the news from the President of the American
Council on Education. The new website, www.campusrelief.org should be
ready to go live sometime this afternoon. We have compiled more than 400
offers from institutions to take in students so far. We are most
interested in making this web site a useful tool to facilitate the
exchange of information about needs of impacted colleges and
universities, and those who can offer assistance as they recover.
 
At this point, please don't send me any additional offers. When the web
site is up, it will include (or will shortly) a survey form to allow
colleges and universities to submit their information. Anne
 
Anne C. Gross
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
NACUBO
202-861-2544 anne.gross@nacubo.org
202-449-1229 (fax)

________________________________

From: President's Office [mailto:Presidents_Office@ace.nche.edu]
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 6:09 PM
Subject: President to President: Vol. 6 No. 28, September 2, 2005
SPECIAL EDITION

  David Ward and the

American Council on Education's

President to President

Vol. 6, No. 28

September 2, 2005

SPECIAL EDITION

* Statement from Associations: Gulf Coast Presidents Express
Thanks, Urge Continued Assistance
* Department of Education Announces Flexibility on Federal Student
Aid Rules for Katrina Victims
* Update on Community Efforts Involving Hurricane Katrina

Our nation-our higher education community-has been coping with one of
the most difficult weeks in our history. The devastating aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, and
perhaps more than a thousand dead. We believe more than 30 colleges and
universities in the Gulf Coast region have been severely damaged by the
hurricane, and that up to 100,000 students have been displaced. We are
clearly facing a long and challenging road to recovery at every level.

While it has been nearly impossible to communicate with many campuses in
the affected areas, we have been able to speak with several presidents
and chancellors-nearly all of whom remained on their campuses and rode
out the storm. To a person, they are absolutely overwhelmed by the
generosity of students, donors, alumni and friends. They are
particularly grateful for the outpouring of support from colleague
presidents and institutions, and find it difficult to express their
thanks for all the efforts to care for and house the students impacted
by the hurricane.

While their immediate needs include very basic items like phone service,
power and dry office space, each of these presidents is greatly
concerned about the long term financial impact Katrina will have on
their institution. Specifically, they are urging colleague institutions
enrolling their students to do the following:

* Admit students only on a visiting or provisional basis, so that
they remain students of their home institution;
* Do not charge tuition if the student has already paid tuition to
the home institution; and if the student has not paid the home
institution, charge the home institution's rate of tuition and remit
that amount to the home institution;
* Certainly other fees, including room and board, would be charged
by the host institution as appropriate.

We realize that every institution must decide for itself how to handle
this unprecedented influx of student refugees, and that some state laws
could make these financial arrangements difficult. However we also
know-as former presidents and chancellors-how each of us would feel if
put in the same disastrous situation. We urge our member institutions,
to the best of their ability and in keeping with state and federal laws,
to abide by these principles as they seek to help these students. We
hope each of our member institutions will hear the call for help from
their Gulf Coast colleagues and find ways to honor these important
financial requests as they continue their unprecedented efforts of
assistance.

George R. Boggs, President and CEO, American Association of Community
Colleges

Rev. Charles L. Currie, S.J., President, Association of Jesuit Colleges
and Universities

Constantine W. Curris, President, American Association of State Colleges
and Universities

Richard Ekman, President, Council of Independent Colleges

Nils Hasselmo, President, Association of American Universities

Michael L. Lomax, President and CEO, United Negro College Fund

C. Peter Magrath, President, National Association of State Universities
and Land-Grant Colleges

David Ward, President, American Council on Education

David L. Warren, President, National Association of Independent Colleges
and Universities

We learned late this afternoon that the Department of Education is
prepared to issue specific regulatory guidance to help colleges and
universities that enroll students from institutions who have been
impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The Department's announcement-in the
form of a memorandum from Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary
Education Sally Stroup-deals with very technical issues, so-called
"regular students" and the disbursement of federal student aid. I will
not bore you with the specifics of these provisions except to note that
the Department's action will make it far easier for students with
federal student aid to enroll at another institution for the fall
semester.

The Department of Education indicates in its statement that additional
announcements may be forthcoming but this decision addresses two of the
most significant issues that have been raised. We greatly appreciate
Secretary Margaret Spellings and her staff for identifying these issues
so quickly and putting together a constructive solution.

I would like to bring you up to date on community efforts to assist
campuses dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At the same
time that we have been trying to establish contact with presidents and
chancellors in the affected areas to assess their needs, we have been
collecting hundreds of offers of assistance from colleges and
universities around the country.

The short-term needs of students and families are obviously of immediate
concern. To that end we want you to be aware of specific efforts by the
National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) to assist
students who have been displaced, and to support campus admissions
directors and their staff who are dealing with this unprecedented influx
of student refugees. NACAC has posted special information for students
and administrators on its web site-
http://www.nacac.com/news_hurricane_katrina.html
<http://www.nacac.com/news_hurricane_katrina.html> -and I urge you to
make others aware of this important service.

However, it is also clear that the long-term recovery of our
institutions should be of paramount concern. Working closely with the
National Association of College and University Business Officers
(NACUBO), ACE has made great progress on the development of a
comprehensive gateway web site that can be used as an information hub
for all campus relief efforts - both those seeking assistance, and those
offering assistance. The site should include the ability for individual
postings by campuses, as well as providing links to the wide range of
relief activities already established by a number of higher education
associations and other organizations.

A domain name has been purchased-www.campusrelief.org
<file:///N:\Documents%20and%20Settings\arnstonl\Local%20Settings\Tempora
ry%20Internet%20Files\OLK1\www.campusrelief.org> -and our combined
staffs have already started work on the technology and content. NACUBO
has generously offered to staff the site and provide technical support.
We expect to have a workable site up some time on Tuesday. While we
expect our site will be up and running on Tuesday, I will send you a
special message to confirm when CampusRelief.org goes "live."

I will keep you informed of our progress. In the meantime, please
forward ACE Public Affairs Director Tim McDonough any and all relief
activities undertaken by your institution. Tim's e-mail address is
tim_mcdonough@ace.nche.edu <mailto:tim_mcdonough@ace.nche.edu> .

David Ward,

President of ACE

****

For further information and complete updates, please visit ACE's web
site at http://www.acenet.edu/.

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