Franklin Pierce Responds to Devastation in Texas, Launches New "Harvey Scholars" Program
Aug 31, 2017
With many college and university campuses in the Houston, Texas area struggling to reopen following the impact of Hurricane Harvey, officials at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire have pledged to offer support to students from that area. Franklin Pierce is offering students displaced by Hurricane Harvey and the tropical storm that followed an opportunity to attend the fall semester at the University’s main undergraduate campus in Rindge, N.H., free of charge.
“Devastation on this level can severely impact or effectively end a student’s pursuit of a college degree,” said Franklin Pierce University President Kim Mooney. “We prepare leaders of conscience at Franklin Pierce, and right now as we witness the devastation in Texas and launch our 2017-2018 academic year, we feel very strongly that this is the right thing to do,” Mooney stated. To qualify, a student must be currently enrolled in good standing as an undergraduate student at an accredited higher education institution impacted by Hurricane Harvey and a resident of a county impacted by the storm and subsequent flooding.
“Just as we did when [Hurricane] Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, Franklin Pierce will offer help, assistance and a fall-semester home to students whose learning experience was impacted by Harvey,” she said. “We will offer them a temporary home and a safe environment in which to keep their educational pursuits on track until they can return to their own educational institutions for spring semester.” President Mooney has reached out this week to her counterparts who lead many of the colleges and universities that were among the hardest hit by the storm.
Franklin Pierce University, a private non-profit liberal-arts university, offering coursework for professional preparation, enrolls more than 1450 undergraduates at the College at Rindge and over 700 undergraduate and graduate students online and at four Graduate & Professional Studies centers across New Hampshire and Goodyear, Arizona. In 2005, the University enrolled 14 “Katrina Scholars” from Louisiana campuses for one semester, free of charge, all of whom continued to pursue their higher education.
According to Linda Quimby, Vice President of Enrollment Management at Franklin Pierce, the University is offering the new program in light of the unusual circumstances of the devastation in Texas. “We are moving forward with the offer of a one semester, full tuition, room and board scholarship to 20 students displaced by Hurricane Harvey,” she said. “It will represent a full scholarship for fall 2017 semester of tuition, room and board, and institutional fees.”
Quimby noted that up to 20 students will be admitted as non-matriculating students with the expectation that they return to their “home” institutions once they reopen in the next academic term. “They can apply using our online application,” she said. “We understand that many are without internet connections in the region, so we’re also making it possible for applications to be made by phone.”
Details can be found at franklinpierce.edu/harvey and by calling the University’s admissions office at 1-800-437-0048.
