The Bridge - Special Edition - September 2, 2005
NOTE: This special edition of The Bridge is being sent to all WPI alumni as a service of the WPI Alumni Office. To receive our regular monthly mailings, please visit The Bridge to sign up, if you are not already a subscriber.
Statement for the WPI Community
Issued September 1, 2005
Dear WPI Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni
The extent of Hurricane Katrina's destruction in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana--especially Greater New Orleans--presents sobering and heartbreaking news to us all. It will likely become the worst natural disaster to hit the United States.
While the WPI campus is out of harm's way, we currently have 12 students with geographic ties to the states impacted by the storm, and faculty and staff who have friends and loved ones in that region. We are addressing the needs of the students through campus resources, including the Office of Student Development and Counseling and the Academic Resource Center.
In addition, the Office of Admissions is handling inquiries from students who are currently enrolled or who were to be enrolled at Tulane, one of the universities that was hardest hit by the hurricane. We anticipate that we may receive additional inquiries, as more than 75,000 college students in the New Orleans area have had their classes or start of classes indefinitely postponed. WPI is committed to helping these students as much as possible, much as our peer institutions are doing.
More than 100 WPI alumni live around the affected areas. We pray that they are safe and invite members of our extended alumni family to use the message board posted on the WPI Web to inquire about friends and classmates who may be in the affected areas (see below.)
I urge the community to unite in thoughts and prayers for those who have lost so much.
Dennis D. Berkey
President, WPI
WPI Establishes Hurricane Katrina Message Board
The massive destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina has left the WPI community deeply saddened and greatly concerned for those who have been impacted--particularly members of our own extended family who may have been touched by this disaster. To help members of our community keep in touch during this difficult time, the university has established a message board they may use to let us know their own status, inquire about classmates, friends, and colleagues, or post other pertinent information or questions.
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Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: May 25, 2006, 14:11 EDT