RPI takes in displaced students
Safe from the storm, O’Hara plans spring return to Tulane



GUILDERLAND — Patrick O’Hara says he feels grateful. Then he says it again. And again.

He’s in the midst of taking courses he cares about at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, living on a campus in Troy that he describes as welcoming, near friends who were part of the same Odyssey.

O’Hara, a 2004 Guilderland High School graduate, was to be a sophomore this fall at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Tulane closed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But, thanks to the Gulf Coast Visiting Scholars program, O’Hara is continuing his studies uninterrupted. He’s at a different highly competitive private institution, founded like Tulane in the first half of the 19th Century.
"I’m really grateful that I got back home, and RPI has been great," said O’Hara. "It’s just amazing how much people are willing to help."

Odyssey

O’Hara arrived at his uptown New Orleans campus in August to be a resident advisor in the Honors Dorm at Tulane.
"We didn’t really pay attention to Hurricane Katrina," said O’Hara, "because it was originally going south. We started paying attention when it looked like it was going to come back by us."

His parents in Guilderland, Nancy and Michael O’Hara, were following reports of the storm and were pleased Tulane was on top of it.
"Tulane took no chances and evacuated the kids who couldn’t get flights home up to Jackson State University in Mississippi on Saturday night," said Michael O’Hara.

The O’Haras thought the pattern would be the same as last year when the students had stayed at Jackson State a couple of days and then returned safely to the Tulane campus.
"I thought, ‘Here we go again,’" recalled Michael O’Hara.
"It all happened fast," said Patrick O’Hara. "They loaded us on charter buses."
O’Hara and his fellow students were allowed to take "whatever would fit in our laps." He brought toiletries, a change of clothes, his Game Boy, and his phone, leaving his laptop computer in the dorm, thinking it would be a brief stay away.

The Tulane students stayed in the Jackson State gymnasium, where they had stayed before. They were made comfortable with pillows and blankets. Many of the freshmen who had just arrived on campus were able to get flights home, said O’Hara.
"We drove them to the airport every hour on shuttles," he said.

Two televisions were set up in the gym. One was kept on the weather channel and the other broadcast various programs like sporting events.
"Some of the kids who didn’t live on campus were worried about their apartments," said O’Hara. "My stuff was on the fourth floor so I knew it would be fine."

The mood was still stable Monday, he said, as the center of the hurricane went east of New Orleans.
"Monday night we were feeling pretty confident; the levees hadn’t broken yet," said O’Hara.
"When we woke up the next morning," he said, "there was a dramatic change. The levees had broken...Eighty percent of the city was under water."

By Tuesday, midday, the storm had hit Jackson, knocking out power and flooding the campus.
"After that, it was harder to get information on what was happening," said O'Hara.

He expressed admiration for the college’s president, Scott Cowen, who stayed on Tulane’s campus, dispatching information and directions.

Cowen, who relocated with an emergency team to Houston on Sept. 2, continues to communicate with Tulanians through the university’s website.
"My love for the city and anguish for what has happened has no bounds," he wrote in a Sept. 12 posting. "Out of this tragedy we will be stronger, we will be wiser, and we will do whatever it takes to replace despair with hope; acquiescence with action; disorientation with focus."
He also stated, "Physically, we may be in Houston but our hearts and minds are in New Orleans as we work feverishly to return to the city — the sooner the better. Every day we become more optimistic that we will be back on campus and in our homes well in advance of our formal spring semester opening."
"My bosses talked to President Cowen," said O’Hara as they remained in the gym at Jackson State. "My boss was leaving on Wednesday...He was taking three friends up north with him to Maryland. He offered to take me with him. I took the offer."

O’Hara then got a flight home from Maryland.

Parents’ perspective

Back home in Guilderland, his parents had been figuring out their options.

Patrick is the youngest of three boys. His brothers attend universities in the state system — one at Brockport and the other at Albany.
"He’s always been a really good student," said Michael O’Hara of Patrick. "He got lots of scholarship offers...
"Tulane invited him to be part of their honors program. When he visited his senior year, they were great. They wined and dined him. He loves it. He can’t wait to get back."

After the storm struck, Michael O’Hara, who works as a conservation officer for the state, spent time on the Internet making a list of colleges, many that his son had applied to when he was in high school. Patrick had not applied to RPI, his father said.
"I saw one estimate on the Internet that over 100,000 college kids were affected...We were scratching our heads and originally thought of SUNY Albany."

He then discovered the American Association of Universities, with about 60 schools, including Tulane and RPI, announcing reciprocal agreements.
"If you paid tuition for Tulane, RPI doesn’t charge you anything," said O’Hara. "They say, ‘We’ll work out the money between us.’"

O’Hara was also impressed with the way RPI cleared away all the usual hurdles that go with college admissions so displaced students could begin class immediately.
"They were just great; they cut out all the red tape and he and about 20 other Tulane students are already there and starting to attend classes," said O’Hara.
"After being displaced...he thought he’d live at home," Michael O’Hara said of Patrick. "RPI said, you’re eligible for a dorm room. He looked at us and said, ‘I could still live at home.’
"We said, ‘If you want to be with your friends, go ahead.’ One of his best friends from Tulane is right across the hall."

Refuge for students

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many colleges and universities offered refuge for students displaced by the storm.
"It’s a great tragedy and it deserved a response like this by the nation," said Karl Lunta, the director of media relations for the University at Albany.

New York’s governor, George Pataki, announced on Sept. 3 that the state’s public universities would provide the lower in-state tuition rates at all of its 84 campuses; the schools were directed to offer immediate admission to all displaced students.

David Henahan, a spokesperson for the State University system, said Monday that a total of about 190 displaced students are now at 25 state university campuses, ranging from community colleges to universities with doctoral programs.
"What we’re seeing is mostly students from New York who had gone to the Gulf States to college," said Henahan, naming Loyola, Tulane, Xavier, Dillard, and the University of New Orleans as some of those places.
The state campuses have done a tremendous job of "fast-tracking," he said. "Many of these students did not have transcripts, so we have to make an accommodation, which we’re happy to do."
Asked how long the displaced students will attend the New York schools, Henahan said, "Our focus is very immediate...We want to help them get back to the college of their choice."

Lunta said, as of Monday morning, the University at Albany has six displaced students in undergraduate programs and three in graduate programs.
"We have provided housing," he said. More students may still arrive, he added.

RPI’s Gulf Coast Visiting Scholars program will accept up to 100 students who had enrolled at Tulane or Xavier universities in New Orleans. The program is also available to students from the Capital District who have been temporarily displaced from their studies by the storm.
"It became immediately apparent we would need to respond in some way," said Theresa Bourgeois, spokesperson for RPI.
She credits the university’s president, Shirley Ann Jackson, for espousing the philosophy, in the midst of the crisis, that "everyone needs to do what they can do." For RPI, this meant helping to educate the next generation of scientists, engineers, and architects, she said.

The university has received over 180 inquiries from potential students, said Bourgeois on Monday, and about 70 visiting scholars are already on campus.
"We anticipate 30 more students before the week’s end," she said.
"Rensselaer is waiving tuition, room, board, and fees," said Bourgeois, for the fall semester.

RPI decided to focus on Tulane and Xavier, she said, because they would have students with similar interests to those at RPI.
The cutting of red tape lauded by O’Hara, she said, was brought about by "a large number of people in the Rensselaer community who worked very hard to make things as smooth as possible for people who had been through difficult times."
A toll-free number was set up to put callers in touch with each of the university’s five academic schools. Teachers and administrators volunteered to determine if RPI would "be the right academic setting" for interested students.
The visiting scholars were then "put in touch with residential-life folks and student-life folks," said Bourgeois, "who took care of all kinds of details."

A group of volunteers, for example, made sure that each visiting scholar was greeted on arrival, and sessions were provided with the computer staff so the students could set up Internet accounts and be provided with the technology needed for class work.
The smooth transition for so many new students, Bourgeois said, "reflects what an extraordinary community we have...There’s been an enormous outpouring of support for this initiative. Everyone wants to help."

"So good to us"

Patrick O’Hara, as one of the recipients of that support, reiterates how grateful he is.
"RPI’s been amazing," he said. "We’re very grateful. They’re giving us free room and board....A lot of my friends are in the same quad I live in."

O’Hara, who is pursuing a double major in computer science and Asian studies at Tulane, says the computer courses at RPI are a perfect fit for him.
"A couple of the classes are the same as what I’d be taking at Tulane," he said.
He is hopeful he’ll be back at Tulane for the spring semester. "We’re all still planning to go to Tulane in the spring....Even if the city is in bad shape, Tulane is uptown, above most the flooding."
He described the old New Orleans as "as fun city." He stayed away from Bourbon Street which he described as "mostly a bunch of drunk tourists.
"I did like the French Quarter, some of the non-tourist places," he said.
Being "a local kid" with family nearby, he hasn’t "really suffered too much," said O’Hara.
He concluded, "I’m just so grateful that I got back home, and RPI is so good to us."