Northwestern’s intake of evacuees fell midway on the scale of its peer institutions.
A total of between 67 and 72 visiting undergraduates displaced by Hurricane Katrina will join the Northwestern student body today as classes start in both the traditional university and night-time School of Continuing Studies.
Cornell University enrolled 193 students and sent veterinarians from its school of agriculture to help care for New Orleans’ dislocated pets, according to the school’s press office. University of Chicago enrolled 20 undergrads.
By midday Monday, NU had enrolled 20 of the 75 evacuated students it admitted to take night and weekend classes at SCS, according to Dean Thomas Gibbons. Gibbons expected up to five more students to enroll by the end of the day.
In the course of its Katrina relief effort, NU admitted two batches of student evacuees, Gibbons said. With an eye on limited class space – particularly in the math, science, economics and foreign language courses popular among Tulane University and other New Orleans students – NU enrolled 47 academically qualified undergrads to take up to four daytime college courses and live in university housing.
“If you’re talking 50 students, you’re talking maybe 200 enrollments,” Gibbons said. “That population we thought we could service, we brought into the day school.”
All students rejected from the day school were, in turn, offered admission to SCS, where they could take classes apart from most of the undergraduate population. The SCS students are not offered on campus housing, but Gibbons said the vast majority of the 20 SCS enrollees are from the Chicago area.
University of Chicago was prepared to accept 50 students, 30 of whom the university could house, said Michael Behnke, University of Chicago’s dean of college enrollment. Of 42 applicants, 30 were deemed academically prepared to handle the university’s workload.
“We had several pre-meds apply where we were sure we’d end their dreams of med school,” said Behnke.
At Washington University in St. Louis administrators took a less selective approach, admitting almost all of its 140 to 150 applicants, according to Robert Wiltenburg, dean of the university’s continuing education department.
“I don’t believe we turned away a single student for academic cause,” Wiltenburg said. “They all seemed to be good, strong students.”
In some circumstances where students were unable to present either a high school or college transcript, administrators “presumed good faith on their parts and took them at their word for what their last semester grades were,” Wiltenburg said.
“We had no reason to mistrust people in this situation,” he added.
Housing space, according to Wiltenburg, was the most pressing question, as some administrators suggested only accepting as many students as they could accommodate in dorms.
“(Following this suggestion) would have limited us to 35 spots, and we wanted to do better if we could,” he said.
Gibbons said he feels NU’s efforts were impressive, regardless of what other institutions accomplished.
“There was academic selection for the day school specifically because there was a limit on space,” Gibbons said. “I know a lot of universities around the country that said we’ll take 30 or we’ll take 50. We really tried to study our capacity. But all students who applied here had an opportunity to come into our doors.
“Truthfully I think this is Northwestern at it’s best.”
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