As colleges and universities in Maine gear up for the fall semester, school officials have contacted their out-of-state students who may have been affected by Hurricane Harvey and the devastation in southeast Texas caused by the massive flooding.
Doug Cook, spokesman for Bowdoin College in Brunswick, said four students have not yet arrived on campus because of the hurricane. Deans from the college have been in touch with the students, who report that they and their families are fine, he said.
“It has been a matter of their not being able to get out because of the airport closure,” Cook said in an email. “Now that the airport has reopened, we’re expecting they will be here (Friday).”
Several Bates College students from the Houston area are expected to arrive on campus when classes begin next week, said Marjorie Hall, a spokeswoman for the Lewiston college. She said school officials have reached out to the students to offer them any assistance they may need, but did not know if any students had accepted the offer.
Colby College had identified some students affected by Hurricane Harvey and was doing what it could to support them in their return to campus, Kate Carlisle, the school’s director of communications said in an email Thursday night.
Nile Dixon, a Colby sophomore who developed an automated text program to inform Houston residents about the nearest shelter, said in an email Wednesday that his flight out of Texas had been rescheduled five times because of the storm. He was hoping to fly out Thursday.
The University of Maine did not return calls Thursday asking whether it had students who were affected by the hurricane.
Franklin Pierce University is offering a free semester of college to students displaced by Hurricane Harvey. The university in Rindge, New Hampshire, will provide free tuition, room and board for up to 20 students for the fall semester, a similar offer given to 14 students from Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, The Associated Press reported.
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