Rollins College Helps Displaced Gulf Coast Students

September 12, 2005

Rollins College was pleased to join other members of the higher education community in offering special student status to those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Based on academic acceptability and course availability, Rollins worked with students scheduled to attend colleges and universities that were affected by the Gulf Coast disaster.

Rollins re-opened admission and key departments worked together quickly to schedule students into classes that had begun on August 22. Rollins welcomed 17 students who were enrolled at Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans. The majority are first-year students, and most are from the Central Florida area.

"While we are deeply sorry for the circumstance, we are pleased to be able to welcome these students into our academic home," said Rollins President Lewis Duncan. "We stand ready to help them as they start or continue their college education."

In an effort to help these families through this unexpected event, Rollins waived term fees and late fees. Students are being charged per credit hour, rather than full-semester tuition ($14,195). Room and board for students living on campus was prorated based on the number of days remaining in the term. For students who return to Tulane University in the spring, Tulane has stated it will credit tuition paid to other institutions to their student accounts for the spring semester.

Rollins has also made counseling services available should these students need support during this difficult adjustment period.

The Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business also accepted a student who was getting ready to begin the full-time MBA program at Tulane University. Crummer classes began September 12.

“We just wanted to do our part to help students so they didn’t have to delay their education because of this natural disaster,” said Crummer Graduate School of Business Dean Craig McAllaster.

Members of the Rollins community also gave generously to the campus-wide collection for the American Red Cross to help with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.