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Printer-Friendly ModeUniversity contributes to Katrina relief efforts
September 12, 2005 —
An informal meeting will be held tonight at 9 p.m. for the SVSU community to discuss the University's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Student Life will be sponsoring the Multipurpose room to find out who wants to do what to contribute to the response, so interested people can connect with one another.
The response, an ongoing fund-raiser that will last until the end of this month, had already raised over $1,000 by Friday.
All monetary donations will be donated to the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Fund. No food or goods will be taken, as they are not currently needed.
According to Ryan Fewins, assistant director of Student Life, it was important for SVSU to organize a response quickly.
"Everybody is looking at the news and what they are reading and seeing and feeling like, 'I have to do something,'" Fewins explains. "So the University community came together and said, 'What can we help students and staff do?' Well, we can collect money here; we have the facilities for that. We can help energize people to do this, and help connect them to do this, so that's what we'll offer as an institution."
Student organizations, faculty and staff, and departments are all encouraged to raise funds. Competitive fund-raisers are not allowed, and groups wishing to coordinate efforts are encouraged to work with Student Life.
All check donations must be written out to American Red Cross, not SVSU; an indication of "Disaster Relief" is also desired.
All donations will be deposited with the Cashier's Office. Checks will be held in the safe until they can be given to the Red Cross. All cash will be deposited in an agency account, which will then be emptied after the collection period by check requisition.
According to Fewins, on-going fund-raisers by anyone in the SVSU community should plan to deposit proceeds on a daily basis to the Cashier's Office. No other office or individual should collect donations, and credit cards will not be accepted.
Fewins says there is potential for an Alternative Breaks-type volunteer mission to the area, but not right now.
The area is not stable enough to send anybody, he says.
"As an institution we don't want to send our students into something that might be dangerous," he explains.
"But there's potential for that. I know there are students that are talking about that, and I have information on how we can do that, it's just a matter of when will it be stable enough to send our students safely."
Student Life's Web site, www.svsu.edu/studentlife, is something Fewins encourages those interested in helping to check out. There is a link for Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts, which features constant updates on fund-raisers on campus, meetings on campus, and news from the Web.
Collection will end on Friday, Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m.