Photo by Chensiyuan // CC BY-SA 4.0
Brown University announced that it is enrolling students from the University of Puerto Rico tuition-free so they can continue their education uninterrupted in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
The students will not be charged any tuition or fees, and Brown will also assist them with travel costs and housing, according to a news release on Brown’s website. Undergraduates, graduate students, and medical students will be able to apply, as well as UPR faculty whose work aligns with work of any Brown faculty.
This is not the first of such efforts by Brown to help students affected by natural disasters. Brown collaborated with Princeton University to aid scholars displaced by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and performed similar outreach after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Cornell University has also announced that it will accept up to 58 UPR students to Cornell tuition-free for one semester, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.
Penn is currently “working to identify undergraduate and graduate students whose study in Puerto Rico has been disrupted by Hurricane Maria and its aftermath and whose interests and educational needs can be met on Penn’s campus,” Executive Director for Education and Academic Planning Rob Nelson wrote in an email statement.
Penn is offering affected students short-term research opportunities, study through Penn’s English Language Program, courses in the spring and summer of 2018, and some housing options, though most students will live with family or friends, or make their own housing arrangements.
According to Nelson, there are already a few students at Penn who are continuing research they were conducting last summer.
In addition to administrative efforts, students have also initiated significant direct relief efforts, raising tens of thousands of dollars through GoFundMe for disaster relief and notably receiving a $20,000 donation from comedian and talk show host Jimmy Fallon.
Brown students are working to help those affected by Hurricane Maria, according to the Brown news release. Students at the university raised $3,100 in the week after the storm for “Unidos por Puerto Rico,” and are currently in the process of creating the Puerto Rican Association of Brown University to provide further assistance to those affected by the hurricane.
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