Penn Engineering Responds to Hurricane Katrina

Statement from Dean Glandt:

Hurricane Katrina has caused a devastation of truly biblical proportions.  Penn Engineering faculty, staff and students grieve with those who have lost relatives and friends, with those who find themselves homeless, rootless and displaced.

The University of Pennsylvania has responded to this catastrophe by offering a possible academic home to students whose home is in the Philadelphia area and who are enrolled in schools in the affected region.  Penn Engineering adds its own response to the disaster in several ways:

- We will be happy to receive inquiries from engineering graduate students who are from the Philadelphia area and who have no school to return to in the areas that are devastated by the hurricane.  Those interested in applying to study at Penn Engineering for the Fall 2005 semester should call us at 215-898-9650.

- We will be working internally to support our own students from the affected region, as well as our guest students, to ensure that they can continue their studies in as productive a manner as possible given the circumstances.

- Penn Engineering faculty and staff interested in serving as volunteers with the organizations involved in hurricane relief efforts may be given up to three weeks of paid time off, with agreement of their supervisors in light of current departmental needs.

Those interested in making financial contributions to the relief efforts will find a link to organizations accepting donations on http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/hurricane.php Penn's Hurricane Katrina Response page.

We extend our solidarity to our fellow citizens and to our academic colleagues affected by these catastrophic events.

Eduardo D. Glandt
Dean