HELPING HANDS

Layafette responds to hurricane disasters

Carol Rowlands, director of admissions, led an assessment of how Lafayette could provide access to students enrolled at colleges and universities in the devastated region. The College received many inquiries from displaced students, and, after carefully evaluating each one, welcomed five students as visitors for the semester, four from Tulane University and one from Loyola University. They are paying tuition to their home institutions and not Lafayette.

Representatives of student organizations and many others from around campus came together to discuss ideas for relief efforts in an open forum Sept. 6. To respond to immediate needs, initial efforts (in addition to serving displaced students) focused on education and communication within the Lafayette community and raising money.

Leaders of the American Red Cross of the Greater Lehigh Valley, Salvation Army, and Northampton County Division of Emergency Management provided information and perspective at a panel discussion in Colton Chapel, as did Dru Germanoski, Dr. Ervin R. VanArtsdalen ’35 Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, whose areas of expertise include flooding. Other events in the following days and weeks were a candlelight vigil and lunchtime discussions in the Chaplain’s Brown Bag series. Topics included race and class issues surrounding the disaster, rebuilding New Orleans, and “What’s God Got to Do with It?”

The Landis Community Outreach Center coordinated fund-raising initiatives by several organizations. Keefe Volunteer Floor, CHANCE (Creating Harmony and Necessary Cultural Equality) Floor, and others sold Mardi Gras-style beads. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee collected cash contributions at athletic events, the women’s basketball team held a free-throw fund-raiser, and Lafayette Activities Forum dedicated its second annual charity dodgeball tournament to hurricane relief. All proceeds were split between the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. The total exceeded $6,500 as of mid-October.

Several members of the Lafayette community contributed “flood buckets” filled with cleaning supplies. These were shipped by Wesley Church in Bethlehem to the United Methodist Church’s Sager Brown distribution center in Baldwin, La. The College also shipped school supplies to the affected area.

John Colatch, director of religious life and College chaplain, formed a committee to coordinate existing relief activities and explore, on an ongoing basis, new initiatives to help in the intermediate and long term. It includes Rosemary Bader, associate treasurer; Gary Carney, director of development; Arlina DeNardo, director of financial aid; Megan Gagliardi ’08 of Hanover Township, Pa.; David Johnson, associate provost and professor of English; Jim Krivoski, vice president for student affairs, dean of students, acting executive assistant to the president, and acting administrative secretary to the board of trustees; Margaret Lapsanski ’06 of Lincroft, N.J.; Alex Meis ’08 of Erdenheim, Pa.; Jamie Papageorgiou ’06 of Tenafly, N.J.; Richard Simon ’07 of Larchmont, N.Y.; Robert Weiner, Jones Professor of History and Jewish chaplain; and Amber Zuber, coordinator of the Landis Community Outreach Center.

Chaired by Zuber, a student committee with open membership meets weekly. It is working with the Colatch panel, with Papageorgiou serving as liaison, and generating ideas of its own for future student relief initiatives.