Chancellor Sean O’Keefe held a town hall-style meeting in the Cox Communication building Friday to “get everyone on the same page” with the changes the University is going to have to make in order to accommodate what has been called the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States.
Faculty, students and administrators listened to O’Keefe describe the University’s plan for the coming weeks and asked questions after his address.
“The challenges the University may face as we go through this will be a mere fraction of the challenges faced by the people displaced in this disaster,” O’Keefe said to the audience.
O’Keefe said the students displaced by Hurricane Katrina will be accepted into the University this semester and allowed to enroll in classes without having to pay tuition.
He said that the University will also offer faculty members from Tulane, Loyola, Xavier and other New Orleans area universities the opportunity to teach at LSU.
“We are continuing our endeavor to be as accommodating as possible,” O’Keefe said.
The Board of Regents and the University are willing to be flexible and understanding as more than 1,400 New Orleans-area students enrolled in the University as of Friday, he said.
O’Keefe’s speech became more poignant as Monica Clark, a UNO education senior who fled the city Saturday, stepped to the microphone and thanked him and the student body for being so willing to allow New Orleans students enroll in the University.
“It doesn’t matter what school you’re from, we are all in this together,” Clark said.
O’Keefe also said the Sept. 6 start date for classes will “be a little bumpy,” as the University juggles day to day functions in addition to caring for evacuees at the Maddox Fieldhouse and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. But he stressed the University’s commitment to starting classes again Tuesday.