PRESS RELEASE

Universities, Colleges in Louisiana Issue Hurricane Gustav Updates
BATON ROUGE, La. (August 29, 2008) – Louisiana colleges and universities issues updates ahead of Hurricane Gustav Friday.

University of Louisiana System
The eight University of Louisiana System campuses are vigilantly monitoring Hurricane Gustav. All have activated their campus emergency action teams. The four South Louisiana universities are making appropriate arrangements to secure the safety of their campus faculty, staff, and students, if necessary, and the four North Louisiana universities are preparing to support and assist, as needed.

“Over the past year, our System universities have been collaborating to improve emergency preparedness efforts. I commend our campus presidents and their staffs for their planning and preparation, as well as their willingness to offer assistance,” said UL System President Randy Moffett.

The following are special contact information and the latest status updates by university:
GRAMBLING STATE UNIVERSITY, Grambling, Louisiana
www.gram.eduwww.gram.edu
The university is monitoring the storm.

LOUSIANA TECH UNIVERSITY, Ruston, Louisiana
www.latech.eduwww.latech.edu
The university is monitoring the storm and is preparing for the arrival of students from Nicholls State University.

MCNEESE STATE UNIVERSITY, Lake Charles, Louisiana
1-800-622-3352; www.mcneese.edu/emergencywww.mcneese.edu/emergency
All non-essential buildings will be closed and secured beginning at 5:30 p.m. today. Residence halls, dining services, athletic complex and university police will remain open.

NICHOLLS STATE UNIVERSITY, Thibodaux, Louisiana
1-866-709-8927; www.nicholls.edu; http://emergency.nicholls.edu
Classes are canceled starting at noon today until 7:30 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 3. Students and nonessential personnel are advised to leave campus. Students are advised to evacuate the area by 3 p.m. Saturday. On-campus residents without a means of transportation will be evacuated to Louisiana Tech University where they will receive pre-arranged shelter and meals for the duration of their stay. At this time, there are no plans for an open shelter on campus.

NORTHWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY, Natchitoches, Louisiana
318-357-5431 (University Police); www.nsula.edu/hurricane.aspwww.nsula.edu/hurricane.asp
NSU's Health and Human Performance Building is being prepared as an emergency evacuation shelter if requested by the American Red Cross. The facility has served as a shelter for evacuees from Katrina, Rita and other storms in recent years. Depending on the track of Gustav, students from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, the University of New Orleans and other South Louisiana schools could be housed in a vacant dormitory at Northwestern that is being prepared as a possible shelter for students. Efforts are also being made to accommodate emergency response personnel from utility companies in Louisiana and other states who will be dealing with possible power outages in the region.

SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA UNIVERSITY, Hammond, Louisiana
www.selu.edu ; KSLU 90.9 FM
Southeastern Louisiana University will cancel classes and events and close its main campus and off-site locations on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Southeastern will also close the Pennington Student Activity Center over the weekend for hurricane preparations. Based on current information, normal operations and classes expected to resume on Wednesday, Sept. 3. While the campus is closed, only previously identified essential emergency support personnel will be allowed on campus. The university does not operate a "public" shelter. In the event of a campus closure, only students who live on campus and are unable to return home, e.g., international students, will be housed at the University Center.

UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA AT LAFAYETTE, Lafayette, Louisiana
1-337-482-2222; www.louisiana.eduwww.louisiana.edu
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette announced Friday that it will be closed on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 due to the threat of Hurricane Gustav. The decision was made early to allow students, faculty and staff an opportunity to make their preparations and be with their families for the storm. Residence halls are fully staffed and secured for any students who currently live on campus and choose to remain on campus.

UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA AT MONROE, Monroe, Louisiana
1-866-698-4887; www.ulm.eduwww.ulm.edu
Today ULM opened Fant-Ewing Coliseum as a Special Needs Shelter operated by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Louisiana Social Services, and ULM's Nursing and Pharmacy faculty, staff, and students. Residence halls are at full capacity and cannot hold additional people. ULM is directing families of students, faculty, and staff to local shelters.
Status changes and decisions on class and campus closures may be made over the weekend. Please utilize the specific university websites and phone numbers for the latest up-to-date information.

Louisiana State University
Emergency Operations
The LSU Emergency Operations Center has been activated, as of 10 a.m. Aug. 29, and is continuing to monitor Tropical Storm Gustav closely.

Classes at LSU were canceled for Tuesday, September 2.

Today, LSU students, faculty and staff are asked to turn off all non-essential equipment (such as copiers, computers, printers, lights, lab equipment, etc.) when they leave their offices or classrooms today in order to conserve power. The power conservation will allow LSU to utilize power from the central plant to prevent flooding of buildings, loss of freezers, loss of research and loss of power to residential life facilities.

IIn keeping with the LSU Commitment to Community, there is an expectation to “contribute positively to the life of the campus and surrounding community” through possible volunteer efforts. If you are interested in volunteering to help, please visit www.lsu.edu/hurricane and click on the volunteer registration link.

The PMAC has been activated as a Medical Special Needs Shelter and will be staffed with university and state representatives beginning today. The Ag Center Lot has been activated as a Bus Forward Triage Area and will be staffed with university and state representatives, who will be prepared to triage/accept patients from evacuated areas.
Any updates related to the storm will be posted to the LSU Web site, www.lsu.edu; recorded on the LSU emergency hotline, 225-578-4636 or 1-800-516-6444 (toll free); and made through the local and campus media.

Changes to Academic Calendar
With the university’s closing on Tuesday, Sept. 2, due to the threat posed by Hurricane Gustav, LSU has made adjustments to the Academic Calendar. The following have been adjusted to reflect the closure

Tips for Parents
How to Contact Your Child During an Emergency:
LSU has a variety of methods for communicating emergency information to students. Messages related to Hurricane Gustav will be relayed via broadcast e-mail, broadcast voice mails to residence hall rooms, the LSU homepage (www.lsu.edu), the LSU hotline (225-578-4636 or 1-800-516-6444), and the news media.
In the event of a crisis, we recommend that you and your child have an established plan for how you will communicate with one another. Cell phones are great, but it’s important to have a back-up plan in case lines go down. Here are a couple of alternate ways to get in touch with your child during an emergency.

1. Send a text message—If you cannot get through on your child’s cell phone, try text messaging him or her. Text messaging is often more reliable during a wide-scale crisis situation.
2. Communicate at a predetermined time—Arrange a specific, predetermined time when both you and your child can likely be at landline telephones.
3. Communicate by e-mail—During an emergency, e-mail may work even though telephone and cell lines are at capacity, especially if e-mail is accessed through a cable or DSL line.
4. Communicate via social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.)

Southern University-Baton Rouge
Southern University – Baton Rouge will be closed Tuesday, September 2, as Hurricane Gustav threatens the Louisiana coast, Southern University and A&M University Chancellor Dr. Kofi Lomotey announced Friday evening. Lomotey said he will announce over next day or so whether the closure will be extended.

In other hurricane preparations on the Baton Rouge campus:

• Students were encouraged to leave the campus Friday morning.
• The faculty was told not to penalize students who did not attend class on Friday.
• Southern University’s football game with the University of Houston was still set for 6 p.m. Saturday in Houston as of late Friday afternoon.
• Southern expects to house some students from Southern University at New Orleans.
• Southern students are asked to monitor the SUBR web site www.subr.edu and their email to receive updates about campus operations.

For updates stay your local media as well as BRCC website: www.mybrcc.edu .

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