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TCC RESPONSE TO HURRICANE KATRINA AFTERMATH
College to offer enrollment assistance to displaced students

NORFOLK, VA. – (Sept. 12, 2005) – Responding to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Tidewater Community College has opened its doors to any displaced students from the Gulf Coast region whose enrollment at an institution of higher education has been interrupted as a result of the storm's aftermath.

“Community colleges have long served as the figurative homeport for the most needful of our brothers and sisters in American Society,” says TCC President Deborah M. DiCroce. “Indeed, our business is precisely about creating promise from despair as we promote community development and prosperity one individual at a time. Now, we must translate that distinctive mission into action on behalf of millions of people who know firsthand the suffering that comes of unprecedented natural disaster.”

TCC assistance includes:

Depending on their financial circumstances, displaced Gulf Coast students might be considered as in-state students at TCC and their tuition and fees will be calculated accordingly.

Using locally available, non-state funds, TCC is making up to $100,000 in scholarship aid available for hurricane-displaced students who were enrolled at another college to help cover the cost of tuition, fees and books.
TCC offers a number of classes that start at various times during the current semester, including a full complement of eight-week classes that begin Oct. 13. Many of the college's classes are available online as well. Additionally, faculty will work with displaced students to place them in classes that have already begun, if appropriate.

TCC has designated a single point of contact to assist hurricane-displaced students. Fritz Zeisberg, dean of student services at the Virginia Beach Campus and a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, will coordinate the college's outreach to hurricane-displaced students. Interested students may contact Dean Zeisberg through TCC's Information Center at 1-800-371-0898 (locally, 822-1122) or by e-mail at Katrina-Help@tcc.edu . TCC's homepage, http://www.tcc.edu, has a link to that e-mail address.

TCC also will help with enrollment issues for anyone registered in classes at the college who is mobilized through their job or military duty to assist in the hurricane recovery effort.

In addition, TCC has launched a fundraising effort within its employee community to benefit the relief effort through the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign. The CVC will direct the funds to the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Tidewater Community College is the second largest of the 23 community colleges in the Commonwealth of Virginia, enrolling more than 36,000 students annually. The 37th largest in the nation’s 1,600 community-college network, TCC ranks among the 50 fastest-growing large community colleges. Founded in 1968 as a part of the Virginia Community College System, the college serves the South Hampton Roads region with campuses in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach as well as the TCC Jeanne and George Roper Performing Arts Center in the theater district in downtown Norfolk, the Visual Arts Center in Olde Towne Portsmouth and a regional Advanced Technology Center in Virginia Beach. Forty-four percent of the region’s residents attending a college or university in Virginia last fall were enrolled at TCC. For more information, visit www.tcc.edu