The Southeastern Conference set aside the rivalries of three of its universities to donate money to LSU, the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University to help students affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
    The $400,000 donation to LSU will go to the Hurricane Katrina/Rita Student Relief Fund, which helps students affected by the devastating hurricanes pay for tuition, housing, meal plans and other expenses such as books. The SEC donated $250,000 to each of the Mississippi universities. Charles Bloom, commissioner for media relations with the SEC, said conference executives wanted to do whatever they could to help students affected by the storms.
    ”The impact of Hurricane Katrina was in our own backyard,” Bloom said. “The SEC is not just a league of 12 teams. This is our home, and we felt we had to do something.” Because the conference does not usually make substantial donations to a single university, the donations had to be approved by the presidents, athletic directors and chancellors of the universities in the conference, in addition to the approval by SEC executives. The donations were approved unanimously. “We heard the stories of LSU athletes volunteering to help the victims of the storm, the stories of what the students of LSU were dealing with and we wanted to do something that would help students directly,” Bloom said.
    Bloom said the only other time the conference has made a massive donation to a single organization was to the national 9/11 Fund after the terrorist attacks in 2001. The conference donated $1 million to the fund. SG President Michelle Gieg said the SEC’s donation shows the conference’s commitment to LSU students.
    ”This is a compassionate gesture that shows the SEC understands what LSU students are going through,” Gieg said. “This donation is much appreciated because it shows a true dedication to helping students in a time of crisis.”
    Scott Madere, LSU Foundation director of public relations, said the SEC donation will bring the amount of money in the Student Relief Fund to more than $1.2 million dollars. “People have been donating to the fund pretty regularly,” Madere said. “We’ve been proud of how the LSU community has responded, and it’s great to hear our SEC partners have stepped up as well. It’s nice to see that the schools in the conference share a bond that goes beyond the football field or the basketball court.”
    LSU spokesman Michael Ruffner did not return phone calls by press time Tuesday night.
 
 
Contact Jeff Jeffrey at [email protected]