Allow the Displaced Katrina Students to Stay at UC-Berkeley

• Seventy-seven students from New Orleans universities have relocated to UC-Berkeley as a result of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The students are from Tulane University and two historically black colleges/universities (HBCUs), Xavier and Dillard.
• Currently, UC-Berkeley is saying these students must return to New Orleans next term and cannot continue their studies at Cal. 
• Some of the displaced students cannot return to New Orleans next semester and want to continue their studies at UC-Berkeley. For many students, adequate housing is unavailable. The mayor of New Orleans has publicly stated that the city will not be truly habitable for at least six more months.
• Xavier and Dillard universities are historically black colleges and have been especially devastated by Katrina. Xavier, which up until now sent more black students to medical school than any other university in the nation, has been forced to lay off or place on unpaid leave 396 of its 784 faculty and staff. Dillard has been forced to terminate  half  of its staff as well.  They have little  to no housing available for students. Only a national relief effort with government and/or private funds can restore these universities to their historically vital role of expanding access to higher education to all. 
• Other universities and colleges, including UCLA and Saint Mary’s, have offered the displaced Katrina students the opportunity to continue their studies at those universities.
• The displaced Katrina students are struggling to readjust their lives and pursue their education. Forcing students to leave only prolongs their state of uncertainty and forces them to search for new colleges and homes next term. These students should not have to bear the burden of this manmade disaster. Only an outpouring of national, including federal government, aid can restore their universities and their lives.
• At a time when the UC-Berkeley administration is stating its commitment to increase underrepresented minority student enrollment, forcing the highly-qualified Xavier and Dillard students to leave undercuts and compromises the university’s efforts.
   

Therefore, we the undersigned:

1. We call on UC-Berkeley to allow the displaced Katrina students to continue their studies and complete their degrees here if they so choose.
2. We call on the federal government to make available the funding that will be necessary to fully restore Xavier, Dillard, Tulane, and other Gulf Coast universities so that the displaced Katrina students across the country have fully functioning colleges to return to.