Hurricane Katrina efforts at UC Berkeley
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Berkeley community has been helping with donation drives at football games and Upper Sproul. The administration opening up the school to college students from Xaiver, Tulane, and Loyola displaced by the disaster and some of the Greek houses will be opening up to their houses to them. Nuts and Boalts has started up a fund for those coming to classes at Boalt (via Cal Patroit Blog). A student has even offered housing for two students needing a place to stay while they attend the law school.
As for issues surrounding the hurricane, Beetle Beat wonders about “the lack of a giant vigil thingie for Katrina’s victims” (link to Beetle fixed) and some of our readers discussed the possible racism in the press coverage of the Hurricane, as did Cal Patroit Blog.
For Calstuff’s part, two buttons have been placed on the upper corners of the blog for the Salvation Army (code) and the Red Cross (code) (buttons found via Buzzmachine). The code links are for others with websites and blogs to put them on their pages.
What else has Berkeley been doing to help these people?
*Update: If anyone is interested in what other colleges are offering in terms of housing and services, check out this awesome livejournal post and this page on the Katrina Help wiki.
Also, some people may prefer other charities than the ones I placed buttons for on the site. Here’s a list of charities to give to. I’ll also be happy to add more buttons if they are available.
Technorati Tags: Hurricane, Katrina, HurricaneKatrina
interesting to see you asking folks to donate through an openly anti-gay rights (among other things) group. until you take down your link, civilized folks should be encouraged to choose the red cross instead of the salvation army.
Comment by mano — September 7, 2005 @ 9:53 am
Some of the co-ops are also offering space for displaced students, as well. Wilde House for sure, and I believe there are others.
Comment by yami — September 7, 2005 @ 10:20 am
no - look into that further. Red Cross has a lot of problems, worse than Salvation ARmy’s. They pay their top symbolic officials including Elizabeth Dole $400,000/yr +, and there are some articles around detailing how many of their donations collected during disasters for foreign countries have been turned over for military purposes. My mother, who isn’t very political, was the first one to tell me to avoid the Red Cross.
I would pick a separate general purpose charity, a local group that you know who are doing relocation, or pick a better religious group, such as the mennonites.
Comment by c — September 7, 2005 @ 12:29 pm
It’s common to give 3-figure salaries to top officials at many fundraising organizations, with the understanding that the money will be used to maintain a kind of schmoozing cred that increases donations in the long run. Whether this is actually a good idea or not is a whole ‘nother question, of course, but it’s a cultural issue encountered in many charitable organizations, colleges and universities, etc., and is in no way specific to the Red Cross.
Do you have links to more information about donations going to the military? Is that a problem with the American Red Cross, the International Red Cross, or foreign IRC affiliates?
Comment by yami — September 7, 2005 @ 12:50 pm
Personally, I recommend:
American Humane Association - helping lost animals and children in the affected areas.
International Medical Corps - supplying emergency medical staff and resources to the region.
Go to give.org for more info.
Comment by Ben N. — September 7, 2005 @ 2:55 pm
This is a tangent, but interesting. Re Vigil thingie - after the Sept 11 candlelight vigil on Sproul, the univiersity banned all use of candles on campus because of the amount of wax that was left on the plaza (liability issues?). If any student group wishes to use candles or any open flame for that matter, they must get prior approval.
Comment by N — September 7, 2005 @ 7:10 pm
“the university banned”. fuck them, who cares what they ban. chalk. candles. up theirs. people should ignore the university and its stupid “bans”.
Comment by mano — September 7, 2005 @ 11:43 pm
I kind of feel bad for the displaced students who end up living at a co-op. They probably would have been better off at the superdome.
Comment by anon — September 8, 2005 @ 8:49 am
I reccommend Catholic Charities.
Comment by anon54 — September 8, 2005 @ 9:13 am
PS Did anyone read this article and think that these people are insane? Academic credit for going to New Orleans? Um, yeah, I guess they want Berkeley to turn into one of those places where “you can get a PhD based on your life experiences, no courses or studying required”.
http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=19367
Comment by anon54 — September 8, 2005 @ 9:14 am
i hope da ASUC doesnt turn dis into anotha tsunami political ting like dey did last year. on a bunch of candidate literature “OH LOOK AT ME I PUT TOGETHER DA TSUNAMI RELIEF” ya u put together a measly 10k in relief daT was like 6 months late. grats on being insignificant. da sad part is da students bought it as a serious accomplishment. what a fukin jokeT. =(
“-smashT”
Comment by smashT — September 8, 2005 @ 3:12 pm
The university also banned UNLIT candles from the dorms. That means if you have a piece of wax with a string in it it’s dangerous.
Comment by RepBast1984 — September 8, 2005 @ 6:47 pm