UVA Tulane Student Starts Petition

A University of Virginia (UVA) student compiled a 600-signature petition to persuade her college to change its mind about sending students back to New Orleans, and a similar petition process is expected to occur at Harvard next week.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, colleges across the country opened their doors temporarily to New Orleans students whose schools were unable to open this fall.

At Harvard, the original agreement between the administration and Tulane students stated that the students would return to Tulane for the spring 2006 term.

Stephanie M. Swisher, a Tulane University freshman currently at UVA, organized a petition as a first step in persuading the UVA administration to allow the 14 first-year New Orleans students to apply for permanent admission to UVA.

Swisher first presented the UVA Student Council with the petition to persuade them to pass a resolution and present it to the Dean and President of the University.

Despite tremendous support from both students and faculty, the petition was ultimately unsuccessful in persuading the UVA administration to alter its transfer policy.

“The Student Council passed the resolution, but the Dean and President still stuck with their original decision,” Swisher said.

Ryan A. Petersen ’08 recently wrote a position paper advocating that eight visiting freshman students from Tulane be allowed to apply for permanent transfer to Harvard, which was adopted by the Undergraduate Council (UC).

He said he expects a petition like UVA’s to be organized by Harvard students in the near future.

“I expect there to be a petition process going on within the next week,” Petersen said.

“Especially with UC elections going on, [the Tulane transfer issue] will be very prominent in public discussion.”

Petersen said that a combination of support through “unofficial” channels, such as facebook groups, UC bills, rallies, and petitions, and “official” channels, like communication with the Dean, will ultimately persuade Harvard administration to allow the eight visiting students to apply for permanent transfer.

“I expect a concerted effort through various media will together cause the administration to respond to Tulane students,” Petersen said.

According to Harvard’s current transfer policy, “once a student has completed one year of full-time study at a single college or university, he or she ordinarily may apply to Harvard College only as a transfer student.”

Petersen said one of the biggest problems is that the Tulane visiting students have no sense of finality about their future.

He said the students are “three degrees away from finality”: they need to be allowed to apply for transfer, they must be accepted, and they must make the final decision to attend Harvard for the next three years.

“It is paramount that the administration make a decision as soon as possible,” Petersen said.

Several Tulane visiting freshman students, however, said yesterday that they did not favor a petition.

“I actually do not think they should organize a petition,” said Tulane visiting freshman William Y. Ke ’09. “Harvard is an example for everyone else. If Harvard were to say yes, there would be a mass exodus from Tulane.”

Susana M. Kostaras is another visiting Tulane freshman who is not advocating a petition.

“I personally don’t think I’m going out of my way to stay here. I’m grateful to Harvard and hold the institution in high esteem,” Kostaras said.