Wake Forest taking steps to accept Gulf Coast students for fall semester

President Nathan O. Hatch

President Nathan O. Hatch

Nathan O. Hatch, president of Wake Forest University, today expressed his profound sympathy for those affected by Hurricane Katrina and the resulting devastation in New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region.

In light of the disastrous situation, Wake Forest University is offering to accept a limited number of undergraduate, graduate and professional school students affected by the hurricane in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area.

The university is considering applications from students who would be accepted for the fall semester as visiting students.

The university determined this week that accepting students from schools in the Gulf Coast region offered one of the best opportunities to provide assistance.

“Almost immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Wake Forest began hearing from university students in that area hoping to find some temporary relief at our university,” Hatch said. “We are committed to helping as many as we reasonably can to continue their studies this fall while their own schools work to recover and resume operations.”

“Our goal is to help the students and ultimately to support the colleges and universities that have suffered such an extraordinary setback,” he added. “As a university community, Wake Forest stands ready to help in any way it can those other colleges and universities so profoundly affected.”

Wake Forest has been considering applications mostly from Tulane University, but other schools in that region are involved.

A small number of students have been accepted for admission. Since classes at Wake Forest began in August, students coming from the Gulf Coast area would join classes already in progress.

Wake Forest is in a position to accept a limited number of students. Those already announcing plans to accept students include the undergraduate College, the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law, the School of Medicine and the Divinity School.

Meanwhile, the Wake Forest community is taking a wide range of steps to aid the Gulf Coast hurricane victims in other ways, too. The university is planning a campus vigil, a blood drive, and a benefit concert by student singing groups. At the Wake Forest-Vanderbilt home football game on Sept. 1, television station WXII and the American Red Cross conducted a fund drive for hurricane victims.

Already the university has set up three locations on its Reynolda Campus for donations to be dropped off for hurricane victims.

Categories: Admissions, University Announcement