After spending fall quarter at UCLA, University of New Orleans
graduate student Wes Harris, studying film and television, decided
to stay at UCLA for the remainder of the year because his New
Orleans apartment is currently occupied by a family displaced by
Hurricane Katrina.
Bryan Segil, a graduate student at Tulane University studying
ecology and evolutionary biology, evacuated his wife and his
4-day-old baby from the Louisiana area and drove to California to
stay with family. Now he wants to finish his dissertation at UCLA
and stay in the L.A. area.
These two students are some of the few who decided to prolong
their academic careers at UCLA after receiving concurrent
enrollment and financial aid through the UCLA Extension program
that accepted displaced students from the hurricane-ravaged
region.
At the beginning of the fall quarter, close to 500 students from
hurricane-ravaged schools were offered enrollment in the University
of California ““ 84 students at UCLA alone.
A very small number of these students remain for winter quarter,
said Julie Jaskol, public affairs manager for UCLA Extension.
Students in the program were expected to return to their home
university when classes began in the spring, though some students
hesitant to return to the area decided to stay through June
2006.
The majority of the students in the program were from Tulane
University, Xavier University and the University of New Orleans.
All of these schools have reopened for their spring semesters.
Students in the UCLA Extension program were offered financial
aid for the fall quarter, and though students wishing to stay
longer may continue in the program, they have to pay the regular
fees for the program and other university services.
Harris had already paid for fall semester at the University of
New Orleans before the hurricane hit, and he said the money he paid
was comparable with what he would have paid for fall quarter.
Though students were not admitted into a degree program, they
took classes that were transferable to their home universities.
The transition has been a positive experience because of all the
opportunities UCLA has to offer, Harris said.
He said he made the decision to stay the rest of the year
because UCLA is a “phenomenal” school and he believes
the professors have more experience in the field of film and
television.
Segil was doing graduate work at Tulane when Hurricane Katrina
hit. After evacuating the region, Segil, a California native and
former UCLA undergraduate, decided UCLA was a good fit for him to
finish his education.
Through a professor contact he had made during his undergraduate
work at UCLA, he began doing research and enrolled through the
extension program in fall quarter.
Some of his associates at Tulane went to Dartmouth and Louisiana
State University to complete research as well, Segil said.
After being away from UCLA for several years, “it is nice
to be back on campus,” he said, adding that the transition
was fairly smooth because of the UCLA Extension program, which
helped him reactivate his UCLA e-mail account and gave him
much-needed access to the online library.
Those who wish to continue studying at UCLA for the 2006-2007
school year must apply for admission through regular channels.
Harris has already applied for admission to graduate school and
is settled in the L.A. area. He does not intend to return to New
Orleans for several years, until the city has been rebuilt.
In the meantime, Harris said he has adjusted to living on the
West Coast and looks forward to completing his education at
UCLA.