The University of New Orleans will open four satellite campuses in October to offer its students an abridged fall semester.
UNO will teach classes at the UNO Jefferson Center, Slidell High School, Mandeville Junior High School and John Ehret High School on the West Bank. Enrollment begins Monday, Sept. 26.
The University will also offer students the chance to take about 600 courses online.
Monica Clark, a UNO secondary education senior and one of the estimated 2,000 students to come to LSU, said she will keep her degree on track by taking an online health promotions course.
Clark, who said she took an online history course in the past, said Internet classes “take a lot of discipline.” But she said she believes they will benefit the students who cannot continue their education at any of the satellite locations.
The shortened semester runs Oct. 10 through Dec. 16. Classes will be held twice a week in two-hour blocks on Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. Tuition rates are not expected to remain the same.
The re-enrollment period starts Monday and runs through the first day of class.
UNO Provost Rick Barton anticipates a total of approximately 900 course offerings, both online and on-site.
Barton said students must re-enroll for University officials to know they still plan on taking fall classes.
Students taking UNO courses are asked to continue to monitor the University’s Web site for instructor information and for updates on additional course offerings.
Barton said students can return to the lake-front campus by the start of the spring semester.
“Physically, the UNO campus is in pretty good shape,” he said.
Barton said Katrina severely damaged one of the dining facilities and the facility services building. He said the first floor of the engineering building flooded but can be cleaned up quickly.
He said two-thirds of the campus did not flood. The severe damage came when rescue workers dropped evacuees there without food and water for a long time.
“They broke doors and so forth,” Barton said. “Given the devastation elsewhere in Orleans Parish, the UNO campus fared very well.”
UNO facility services employees are cleaning and repairing the campus.
Barton also said there is a possibility UNO may offer a mini-session after Thanksgiving if there is enough demand.
Although some lab courses may be offered at the Jefferson Center, UNO is encouraging students to take lab courses in the spring when they can return to adequate facilities.
Final exams for the on-site courses will take place Dec. 14-16.
Individual teachers may stretch the online courses beyond Dec. 16 on a case-by-case basis.
“An online situation is much more fluid,” Barton said.
UNO professor Ken Walsh will teach an ISDS online course this fall. He said his online course – which he has taught in the past – is primarily e-mail based with the use of Blackboard communications software.
“If (students) kind of get lost and don’t know where to go next, they can get the professor on the phone and clarify things,” Walsh said.
Contact Chris Day at [email protected]