Katrina-Affected Students Find New Educational Opportunities on Web
ElectronicCampus.org and CSUMentor.edu are two college-planning portals managed by Xap to provide Gulf Coast students with educational options for this fall.
Culver City, CA – September 12, 2005 – Students of Katrina-affected areas are becoming acquainted with additional educational opportunities through recent updates to the Southern Regional Education Board's Electronic Campus (www.electroniccampus.org) and California State University's CSUMentor (www.csumentor.edu) web sites, which are managed by Xap Corporation (www.xap.com), a leading provider of Internet-based educational services.
The Southern Regional Education Board and the Sloan Consortium, an international association of colleges and universities committed to quality online education, are collaborating on a unique "Sloan Semester," (www.sloansemester.org), which will help displaced students continue their studies during the current academic term via online courses.
The special accelerated program will provide a wide range of courses to serve the learning needs of students at the community college, university, and graduate level, regardless of academic discipline.
Designed as a bridge until the next academic term, students from "impacted institutions" will be permitted to apply to participating institutions at no cost through the Electronic Campus web site.
"We know that many colleges and universities in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi will not be able to resume their fall semesters and students are scrambling for alternatives," said Dave Spence, President of the Southern Regional Education Board.
"With the help of dozens of colleges and universities nationwide, we can now offer students key courses online to bridge them through this difficult time and eventually allow them to return to their home campuses."
CSUMentor, which provides broad application and admission support for the nation's largest higher education system, has promoted the system's new policy to affected students from the Gulf Coast areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, even those who lack proper academic documents.
CSU's will conditionally admit these students, who will be exempt from paying the non-resident tuition and pay the in-state tuition, for the fall 2005 term.
Nine CSU campuses have some spaces available in their fall 2005 classes including Bakersfield, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and Sonoma.
Classes at three of these campuses have yet to begin: East Bay (9/22), San Bernardino (9/22), and Los Angeles (9/22). Students can apply at the CSUMentor web site.
"As a national education service provider, Xap has been diligently working with our partners to update critical information expeditiously on our education portals so it can get in the hands of students who are looking for answers and direction," said Liz Dietz, CEO of Xap Corporation.
About Xap
Headquartered in the Los Angeles area, Xap Corporation (www.xap.com) focuses on the creation of comprehensive Internet-based information management systems relating to secondary and postsecondary education.
Founded in 1990, Xap is the leading developer of online student services systems for associations and statewide groups of colleges and universities across the United States.
