During New Student Week, there was talk around campus about a handful of new students. And for once it was not about the herds of lost freshmen wandering around Ridge and Noyes.
This year the focus has been on the undergraduate students from New Orleans taking classes at Northwestern this fall. But one minor detail has provoked some debate: Less than 50 are actually joining NU as full-time students.
As the daily reported Friday, 47 students are confirmed as full-time undergraduates taking courses this fall while an additional 75 were admitted to take night and weekend classes through the School of Continuing Studies.
When the news first broke, I was surprised by cynical reactions from some students. There were questions of elitism in the admissions process, and distress that displaced students were not all given full-time status.
“That’s so Northwestern,” I was told. “As if they can’t stick ten more kids in Intro to Sociology.”
The full-time students will benefit by taking classes with fellow undergraduates and experiencing university housing like the social mecca known as Public Affairs Residential College. But really, what’s “so Northwestern” is students pegging our school as elitist and inhospitable and viewing the SCS as a consolation prize.
In reality the admissions process was “very thoughtful and considerate; balancing consideration for the students with consideration for the school’s admissions standards,” said Stephanie Teterycz, the Director of Summer Session and Special Programs at the SCS.
Determining who to admit as a full-time student was based on students’ needs and availability of classes. For example, if a student needed to take biomedical engineering which is not offered through the SCS, then that student would be admitted to the full-time program fair and square.
Logistics aside, students should step back and realize that this diaspora of students to institutions all over the country is unprecedented in academia. A flash flood of students, one might say. Sorry, too soon.
Never before has intercollegiate camaraderie been so tangible. Within days of the disaster, universities everywhere offered refuge to these nomadic scholars. The Federal Emergency Management Association should envy the quick solutions developed for questions about transferring tuition, financial aid and credits.
The students from New Orleans are no longer just associated with Tulane, Loyola and Dillard universities. They have come together as the Class of Katrina, displaced yet integrating themselves into the NU community.
To our guests: Make yourselves at home. Come to our football games. Join us at tailgates. Cut in line for the keg while you’re at it – it’s the least we can do.
Class of Katrina, we welcome you.
Amanda Junker is a Medill senior. She can be reached at [email protected].
