Thursday, September 1, 2005

From New Orleans to Knoxville, universities respond to Katrina In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University's homepage has been turned into a bloglike series of personal notes from Scott Cowen, president of the university. Here's one comment that my friend Ken pointed out: "It is difficult to describe what this situation feels like for those involved. It is surreal and unfathomable; yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our focus is on the light and not the darkness." The university closed on Saturday as the storm approached, announcing that classes would resume today. When it became clear that wouldn't be possible, Cowen posted a note saying, "Over the next few days... we will be able to speak more confidently about a start date for the fall semester." Update: On Friday, Cowen announced that Tulane would not be able to conduct a fall semester on its campus. Posting his message from Houston, Cowen encouraged  students to enroll elsewhere, then transfer credits back to Tulane when it reopens. Meanwhile in Knoxville, UT Chancellor Loren Crabtree and Faculty Senate President Desiriee Kennedy said the university has offered to bring in up to 500 undergraduate students from New Orleans area schools, as well as 50 law students and all graduate students who wish to come here. Governor Phil Bredesen offered the state's assistance to students displaced by the storm, and the entire UT system and Board of Regents are supporting the effort. "It is quite simply the right thing to do," Crabtree said. Colleges across the nation agree. The website of The Chronicle of Higher Education has followed daily developments at schools in the path of the storm. The permanent addresses of its stories are for subscribers only, but the paper makes non-subscription addresses available for a few days. Here are three that have headed the paper's "most e-mailed" list: A Grim Picture Emerges as Colleges Begin to Assess Hurricane Damage Colleges Near and Far Offer Help to Campuses Stricken by Hurricane. Hurricane-Lashed Campuses Across the Gulf Coast Region Will Remain Closed for Days. Inside Higher Ed News, an online news magazine, included these stories: U.S. Help for Students Affected by Katrina Katrina Sends Students Fleeing By Thursday evening a Google News search for stories mentioning Katrina and "university or college" produced more than 8,000 articles, many of which are about institutions outside the disaster area offering support to students. (The search also finds more general stories that mention university experts talking about issues other than the area's schools and students.) Narrowing the search to Katrina and "universities or colleges" retrieved 904 stories, including reports of support for displaced Louisiana students offered by schools from as far away as Connecticut, Florida, Texas and California. 4:50:31 PM    comment [] We're all there: Reporting Katrina We've talked about the "local" or "proximity" factor in news a little in class last week, but we didn't have much time Wednesday to look at sites where Hurricane Katrina itself is local news. The first few links below were forwarded to the "online news" e-mail list. As the discussion there mentioned, the Web makes it possible for refugees, friends and families to go straight to local sources like TV station, WWL, broadcasting from a temporary studio at LSU. The WWL website has 25 times as many viewers as usual this week. "Station news director Sandy Breland and online news manager Tom Planchet and their staffs have been working around the clock to keep the news coming and the site updated," John Granatino of Belo Interactive wrote to the list. "And most of the staffers who are pumping out the news are doing so with the knowledge that they will have to return to their own homes and God only knows what when the waters subside." WWL-TV, including streaming video and a blog. The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) Biloxi Sun Herald HurricaneNow.com, a weblog from New Orleans, "has devastating video of Gulfport." Overview of blogging by ZDnet Editor & Publisher, newspaper industry magazine, on Katrina coverage Here in Knoxville... The local papers and television stations are finding local angles on the relief effort and storm impact. Here are a few. The News Sentinel: Volunteer State Rallies to Hurricane Relief Teen gets water rolling to victims ('Teen' doesn't tell you that the momentum behind this four-truck convoy full of drinking water is a 13-year-old) WVLT-TV Local vet clinic coordinating hurricane help for pets Katrina blows out power for many Tennesseans WATE-TV Students come to aid of Louisiana family seen on 6 News Local Red Cross shelter opens for hurricane refugees Helping reporters The Poynter Institute, a journalism education center on Florida's Gulf Coast, always does a good job of not only keeping track of coverage of big stories, but offering how-to archives and resources. For example, see Al Tompkins' daily tips this week on stories news organizations might look for -- Monday: Covering Katrina; Tuesday: Danger after the storm; Wednesday: Update on oil, charities; Thursday: Free housing for storm victims. The Society of Public Journalists "Press notes" are a good place to watch for brief summaries of stories about coverage, including Flooding causes journalists to turn to Web, Storm blogs offer Katrina insight and Reporters can't distance themselves in coverage, drawing on sources from The New York Times and USA Today to the BBC. What can I do? That's one of the biggest questions of the day. Most news sites and blogs, including the ones I linked to yesterday, have lists of support organizations, especially the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Up in Massachusetts, blogger Andy Carvin has linked a missing persons photo feed to his a "Katrina Aftermath" blog at http://katrina05.blogspot.com Michael Silence, columnist and blogger at KnoxNews, has more of a summary of bloggers' efforts: 'Blog beg' to aid Katrina victims 10:02:56 AM    comment []

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