Smeal Welcomes Students Displaced By Hurricane Katrina

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (September 9, 2005)—The Smeal College of Business at Penn State welcomes to its classrooms students who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Students from schools along the Gulf Coast began taking classes at Smeal this week.

Craig Eozzo, an academic counselor at Smeal, says the college came together in a hurry to open the classroom doors for the student evacuees. "First, we got them set up with housing," he says. Then he and other counselors worked with the university registrar and faculty members to quickly get the students into classes that were, in some cases, already full.

"It was pretty exceptional," Eozzo says of the students' stories and the efforts of his colleagues to get them enrolled in Smeal.

Meanwhile, a fund-raiser initiated by Smeal MBA students has raised more than $2,200 in hurricane relief funds. The initial donations were accepted at a tailgate during Penn State's football game on September 3. Members of the Penn State MBA Association collected money from the Penn State community during the game, and will continue to accept donations in the coming weeks.

The MBA Association will hold the money until the campaign's conclusion, at which time it will be handed over to the Red Cross.

Other "Tailgate for Katrina" events are in the works, including a T-shirt sale and silent auction. To make a donation or for more information, please email tailgateforkatrina@gmail.com.