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		Past Extra Credits September 7 All issues

Today, Extra Credit is spotlighting the nationwide effort to help students displaced by Hurricane Katrina:

Katrina Efforts Successful (Belleville [Illinois] News-Democrat, 9-7)

"The arrival of displaced students from the Gulf Coast has put an extra strain on many local school districts. The U.S. Department of Education has set up a Web site that will serve as a resource center to assist those students and their transferring schools. Schools can post their contact information and a list of supplies that displaced students need so companies and organizations can target their giving where it is needed most. Hurricane Help for Schools can be accessed at www.ed.gov/katrina.

"The metro-east community has really rallied around the effort to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

"Students and staff members of Safe School in Belleville raised $815 from a one-day bake sale held at Schnucks on North Belt West last Friday. All proceeds will go to the American Red Cross….

"The lemonade stands at Roosevelt School and Douglas School, both in Belleville's District 118, were very successful in securing donations for our Gulf Coast neighbors….

"The Hats On for New Orleans fund-raiser at Pontiac Junior High in Fairview Heights raised $270. Students paid $1 for the opportunity to wear a promotional hat last Friday….

"And students at District 118's Westhaven School just can't wait to duct-tape Principal James Slater to the wall. They will have that chance once they raise the goal amount of $750 by Sept. 16 to be used towards Hurricane Katrina relief. Slater will be taped to a wall in the cafeteria during an entire lunch hour. He said he may have to shed a few pounds in order to stay put."

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Displaced College Students Return to Class - in New Jersey (AP, San Jose Mercury-News, 9-7)

"Less than two weeks ago, Sarah Marx was preparing to move into her first college dorm room, on the campus of Tulane University.

"Instead, the 18-year-old freshman from Somerdale only had time to drop off her personal belongings and, with a would-be roommate from West Virginia, obey the order of campus authorities to evacuate….

"Marx is among the dozens of students displaced from colleges and universities along the battered Gulf Coast who will instead be studying in New Jersey this fall. Around the Garden State, colleges - both public and private - are doing what they can to help them.

"Among those that have announced plans to make last-minute space for visiting students are Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Montclair State University, Rowan University, Raritan Valley Community College and William Paterson University.

"Rutgers, the state's public university, has accepted 37 visiting students who are New Jersey residents, a spokesman there said.

"Classes resumed Wednesday at Seton Hall University in South Orange and Rider University in Lawrenceville, both private schools that have waived tuition for visiting students who have already paid tuition at their shuttered home universities….

"Ivy League Princeton announced Friday it would accept applications for visiting student transfers, but closed the process Wednesday after receiving 150 undergraduate and 25 graduate student inquiries from storm-ravaged schools, a spokeswoman said….

"Spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said Princeton is unique because it offering on-campus housing as well as classroom space. She stressed that the newcomers will be visiting - not transfer - students. ‘It’s very important to their home institutions to continue to receive that revenue (from tuition) and that assurance that their students would return,’ Cliatt said."

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Project Backpack Gives School Supplies to "Katrina Kids" (Quad City [Iowa] Times, 9-8)

"An estimated 295,000 schoolchildren won’t start or go back to school in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. They might never go back to those same schools. Instead, they are in Texas, Michigan, Indiana. At least seven families are here in Bettendorf, [Iowa]. They come with nothing.

"Remember your first day in a new school? Now throw in the trauma of losing everything. These ‘Katrina Kids’ are hurting….

"They need their backpacks, too, and you can help.

"The Bettendorf News is partnering with the Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley School Districts and the Bettendorf Post Office to give kids back a little normalcy, one glue bottle at a time. A national grassroots effort called Project Backpack is trying to provide school supplies for Katrina’s children….

"The Bettendorf News will ship the backpacks stuffed with school supplies to schools next week. We will keep a number back in case some of the displaced students land in the Quad-Cities. If those or not needed, we will donate them to area classrooms….

"You can also help online. The Project Backpack Web site is http://www.projectbackpack.org/ ".