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Featured News and Events
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press releases
Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,
We have all been touched by the images
and stories of those
affected by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The recovery from this
catastrophic event will take the support and compassion of our entire
national
and international community. We are proud to tell you about the ways
that Columbia
University Medical Center
is helping to
rebuild the lives of these devastated families and communities.
First, our schools, P&S, Mailman,
SDOS and Nursing have
opened their doors to displaced students from Tulane and other affected
schools
in the Gulf Region.
Spearheaded by Dr. Lisa Mellman,
Senior Associate Dean for
Student Affairs, P&S has joined the Association of American Medical
College’s (AAMC) coordinated national effort to address the needs of
the
affected schools and offers made to provide assistance. We have
communicated
both directly and through the AAMC an offer to absorb some of the
displaced
medical students in each of the four years. We are waiting to hear from
them and
the AAMC about whether non-Houston area schools, including P&S,
will be
involved in taking students.
The Mailman School and the Children’s
Health Fund have
launched “Operation Assist,” which has already put mobile medical units
in the
affected areas to provide emergency services to children and families
in the
areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. The founders of Children’s
Health Fund,
Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National
Center for
Disaster Preparedness at
Mailman and music legend Paul Simon, traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi
on Labor Day to survey the devastation and to meet the medical units.
To learn
more about this important program and how you can support their
efforts, view
a
press release.
The Mailman
School, in
coordination with the Association of
Schools of Public Health, is working to accommodate up to 30 public
health
students from Tulane and Louisiana
State University
to take fall-term classes as special students. The Mailman School
has already been in touch with 33 potential students. The Mailman School
has also had an overwhelming response from faculty, staff, and friends
who have
volunteered to provide temporary housing for these students, if needed.
The School
of Dental and
Oral
Surgery has generously offered to help train Louisiana State University
(LSU)
postdoctoral dental students/residents. Additionally, the SDOS student
government is spearheading an effort, led by each class president, to
reach out
to SDOS students, faculty and friends to raise money for the
American Red Cross.
Kristine Gebbie, DrPH, director of the
School
of Nursing's Center for
Health Policy,
is coordinating national efforts for nursing volunteers in Louisiana, Alabama
and Mississippi.
Joan Valas, MS, ANP, staff
member of the School of Nursing's Center for Health Policy, has been
mobilized through the Disaster Medical Assistance Team to Biloxi, Miss.
The School has opened its classes to nursing students from the gulf
area schools as well as non-nurses who could take seven of the school's
science and policy classes for transfer for either undergraduate or
graduate credits. The School
of Nursing
has also contacted its alumni in all three states to offer assistance
and
support.
Anyone wishing to make a contribution to the national relief effort can
consult the organizations listed below for various ways to do so:
Additionally, a Katrina Relief Fund has been established
at Columbia to assist families of Columbia
students, faculty, and staff who are
in distress. We invite those who wish to contribute to send their
donations to:
The Office of the University Chaplain, W710 Lerner Hall, 2920 Broadway,
Mail
Code 2008, New York,
NY 10027.
Checks should be made payable to Columbia
University and
indicate Attn: Katrina
Relief Fund. We also invite anyone who
knows of Columbia
families in need in the disaster area to let us know who they are and
how to
reach them. Again, this information should be sent to the Office of the
University Chaplain. If we raise money beyond the needs of these
families, we
will contribute the surplus to one of the major national relief
agencies.
For more on Columbia University's response to Hurricane Katrina, click
here.
We will continue to keep you updated
about Columbia’s
efforts to help the Hurricane
Katrina survivors. We and New York-Presbyterian Hospital may partner in
providing emergency medical assistance for survivors, coordinated
through FEMA
and local hospital organizations. Please be sure to keep Dr. Ron Drusin
apprised of further activities. He will be coordinating medical center
involvements for my office.
Thank you for your help – it is
greatly needed and sincerely
appreciated.
Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D.
Executive Vice President
Columbia University Medical Center
Index of
press releases |
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