Support the Hurricane Katrina Students

Last week's hearing revealed many stories and incidents of racism on the UC Berkeley campus. The ignorant culprits comprised a broad range of people from the average student to professors to administrators in high positions of authority. One of those many stories started with a tragedy: one of the largest natural disasters to hit the U.S. in years, Hurricane Katrina.

One of the students from Xavier University in New Orleans spoke about his and other students' treatment by administrators as they are nearing the end of the fall semester here at UC Berkeley. The administrations of UC Berkeley and Xavier University both see fit to ignore the realities of the devastation of the hurricane and send students back into essentially a wasteland, deemed uninhabitable for at least another "six months" according to New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin.

This is an outrage that needs to be stopped. We can help them stay at this prestigious university for another semester at least until all of the schools in the damaged region are up and fully functioning with full staff. This should be a choice for the 77 students who are here, finding their way,afraid to start connecting with their fellow students and newfound community for fear of being ripped away again. This is their choice and we need to support them in that fight.

A petition is being circulated around UC Berkeley campus now. If you would like to support this cause, please sign here and forward this post and/or link to your friends and family. You can also download a copy of the petition to get signatures and send them back to the address listed on the bottom of the printed page.

A humble thank you for your support.

p.s. Shout out to Lee for slaving so hard to get these links up. Love ya!