Hurricane Ida FAQs

When we initially announced our return plan, initial estimates from the city indicated the area could be without power for approximately four to six weeks. Now, Entergy power has returned to nearly all of New Orleans and many surrounding communities. Gasoline stations, restaurants, groceries, pharmacies and other vital businesses are re-opening while area universities and grade schools are planning to restart in-person education. Currently, Tulane staff and professional contractors are working around the clock to repair and remediate any damages in order to facilitate a swift return to campus.

Off-campus students should complete this survey if they have not already done so. If students do not know the status of their off-campus residence, please contact the landlord or property management company as soon as possible to obtain this information. Off-campus students whose homes are not habitable, will be receive assistance in securing alternative housing. For additional questions or resources available to students please email srss@tulane.edu.

Faculty and staff should complete this survey if they have not already done so. Employees are also eligible for financial assistance - Learn more.

No. Tulane will restructure the fall semester to allow for maximum in-person instructional time, while also protecting the safety of our community.

• Classes Cancelled: Monday, Aug. 30 through Sunday, Sept. 12
  The two weeks of cancelled classes will be rescheduled at the end of the semester.
   
• Classes Online: Monday, Sept. 13 through Wednesday, Sept. 22
  Classes will resume online only to give the city time to repair and reinstate power and other critical services.
   
• Fall break will be rescheduled for Thursday, Sept. 23 - Sunday, Sept. 26
   
• Return to Campus: Monday, Sept. 27

Tulane has redesigned the Fall 2021 Academic Calendar. Updated dates are available here.

Before students, faculty and staff return to New Orleans they should first determine the status of their residence and whether electrical power has been restored to their home or apartment.
 
Uptown faculty/staff can enter offices to get essential things (not stay and work) from 10-12 through Monday, Sept 13. This will be the last opportunity to enter uptown campus buildings until on-ground operations resume on Sept. 20.
 
Students are not allowed to enter Uptown campus buildings until further notice, including offices and residence hall rooms.

Assessments by our Damage Assessment & Recovery Team (DART) and repairs by contractors are currently underway. This process includes the presence of numerous vehicles and personnel, as well as the use of heavy machinery. For safety purposes, access to campus is limited.

Please consider donating to the Hurricane Relief Fund. If you are in Houston, please contact the local alumni club.

The IT Service Desk has resumed operations and will be open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. If you need assistance, please call (504) 988-8888 or email help@tulane.edu.

As long as you have internet service, we can remote into your laptop to troubleshoot any technical difficulties.

As of Tuesday, 9/7, Tulane’s Mail Services is working with the USPS, Amazon, UPS, and FedEx to determine their operational capabilities. All of these companies are still completing damage assessments and we expect further details on their operations at the end of the week.  No deliveries have been made to campus since Saturday, August 28th.

Packages received on campus by Saturday, August 28th are safely stored and will be available for pickup or placed in an LBC package locker for retrieval when access to our campuses is again open to the general Tulane community.

Please do not ship additional items to campus until we provide updated instructions.

No. Limited dining service is available in the Commons only for previously-identified mission-critical personnel and university contractors who are supporting the work of campus recovery.

No, retails operations are closed to the community and public. At this time, damage assessments and repairs are still taking place. When campus is safe for students, faculty, and staff to occupy, hours for these services will be shared.

Parking enforcement will begin on Monday, October 11. Until that time, egregious violations of the parking policies will be ticketed as needed, including parking in ADA spaces without a placard, parking in reserved spaces or fire lanes, or blocking a sidewalk, dumpster, or driveway. If you have not yet purchased your 2021-2022 annual permit, please do so at parking.tulane.edu.

In such cases, faculty should offer students as much flexibility as possible.

Students who live on campus should plan to return to campus between Friday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 26. All on-campus students will receive more detailed information regarding the return to campus from Housing & Residence Life

Students who need emergency aid can apply here.

Although taxis, Ubers and Lyfts are operational, we will offer a limited shuttle service on Friday and Saturday to offset demands on these commercial services. View the shuttle schedule here.

Students may apply for emergency aid here.

Student Resources & Support Services is also available at srss@tulane.edu.

Beginning Monday, September 13th, students may use the Hutchinson Auditorium at the School of Medicine Hutchinson Memorial Building (1430 Tulane Ave) to access the internet. Students using this space for remote learning should bring headphones. Students are not allowed to enter buildings on the uptown campus until further notice, including offices and residence hall rooms. According to Cox, internet service is expected to be fully restored to Orleans Parish no later than the end of this week or early the week of 9/13.

Per City of New Orleans leadership, it is best if those students, faculty and staff who evacuated remain away from the city. Some repairs are already underway, and the repair process will begin in earnest once we receive a complete assessment of our campus. Currently, access to campus is restricted to mission critical staff who are essential to the repair and recovery process. Faculty and staff are able to access the LBC M-F 8a-5p to recharge devices at the LBC.
 
However, emergency funds are available for students who need financial assistance for housing insecurity, travel, food insecurity and other essential needs. Please apply for assistance here.

Campus Health is working to address students’ needs as we deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Students who need medication refills or medications transferred can email Marius Commodore for assistance. It may take up to 48 hours for a response. We are not able to retrieve medications left behind on campus or to ship medications from the Student Health Center at this time.

All Student Health Center and Counseling Center appointments are cancelled. Providers with access to Wi-Fi are trying to check and monitor secure messages from students. When possible, we will re-open telehealth appointments to students.

There were a number of COVID-19 tests that were still being processed when we had to shut down. Those results will be sent through the patient portal when available.  Due to the current situation, we encourage all students to complete COVID-19 testing when they arrive at their final destination.

General questions can be directed to CampusHealth@tulane.edu.

Students, both those who plan to immediately evacuate and those who plan to stay long-term, are currently in multiple hotels in Houston. Connect with students directly for information on which hotel they were moved to. Once all students who are planning to leave evacuate, we will likely be house all remaining students and support staff at the Hyatt Regency at 1200 Louisiana St. Final plans will be determined once we have a better accounting of the number of students who will be staying long-term in Houston.

The Office of International Students and Scholars is in the process of setting up an office in the Houston hub at the Hyatt Regency, as well as virtually. OISS will be able to provide assistance and guidance on the potential immigration implications of travelling internationally at this time. OISS staff are working in four states to support students, and not all processes will be provided in-person. Please email oiss@tulane.edu for more specific inquiries.

Facilities Services will remediate any issues in residence halls prior to the student’s return. If their personal property has been damaged by the storm, students will be notified.

Please contact the Office of Enterprise Risk Services.

Students will continue to receive the stipends awarded at the beginning of the semester.

Like many of our campus buildings, our residence halls did incur various degrees of damage. A team of contractors who specialize in disaster recovery are currently working closely with Tulane University staff to inspect every room on campus, including every residence hall room. While assessing rooms, this team will determine what steps need to be taken to return the room to its condition before the storm or better. This includes removing trash, emptying and cleaning the refrigerator, checking for damage, and collecting items that need to be professionally cleaned. Repairs and cleaning have already begun in many spaces.

Belongings (clothing, bed linens, etc.) that were found to be wet/damp during the inspection process are being removed from rooms, inventoried, bagged, labeled, and will be professionally cleaned and returned to the room they came from. Medications, valuables, and other personal items that cannot be cleaned will be left in rooms for students to inspect when they return. Items that need to be removed to perform work (clean floors, repair windows, etc.) will be inventoried, labeled, stored, and secured in a space separate from the work area.

Due to unexpected hardships caused by Hurricane Ida, Tulane will not assess finance charges on delinquent accounts on September 15, 2021.

The deadline date for drop/withdraw with 100% tuition and fee refund, as well as other add/drop deadlines, has been extended two weeks.  A modified Academic Calendar can be found here.

Student must return to in-person education by the announced date.  Students are not permitted to move to fully remote status for the remainder of the semester.

Part-time status will be an option going forward in any program in which it is an option in a normal semester. Tulane does not plan to extend part-time option in any other circumstances.

Students must meet with their academic advisor if they plan to completely withdraw. The date to complete this request with 100% tuition and fee refund has been extended by two weeks, to Friday, September 17.

Accounts Receivable is not currently receiving mail from USPS and private delivery services. Please do not send checks and other mailed correspondence to Accounts Receivable until further notice. If you have already mailed a check, we will receive them when we return campus. The student accounts portal is online. Electronic payments made through the portal and refund disbursements to stored direct deposit profiles are being processed as normal.

We ask those who have the capability to work remotely now to do so. For those of you who cannot work remotely, please check in with your supervisor. Uptown staff should return to on-site work on Sept. 20. Downtown campuses will re-open Sept. 13. Supervisors will communicate with downtown staff on whether they need to return to on-site work before Sept. 20. TNPRC laboratories will re-open Sept. 13. TNPRC supervisors will communicate with their staff on whether they need to return to on-site work before Sept. 20. Supervisors on all campuses will be flexible with staff who have storm-related issues that prevent them from returning to on-site work on or before Sept. 20.

Salaried and hourly employees will be compensated for their regularly scheduled time (i.e., not including overtime) during this hurricane period, until further notice.

The dates for faculty and staff to retrieve personal belongings needed for virtual classes and remote work have been extended. Faculty and staff may enter their uptown offices between 10 a.m. and noon through Monday, Sept. 13, including Saturday, Sept. 11, and Sunday, Sept. 12. Employees are strongly encouraged to enter their offices only once and depart campus as soon as possible. Parking will be available in the Diboll Parking Garage. Normal hours of operation and access to downtown buildings, with the exception of 1700 Perdido St., will resume on Monday, Sept. 13. For more information, click here.
 
Access to the rest of campus is restricted to mission critical staff who are essential to the repair and recovery process. Outside of the times above, all buildings on all campuses remain locked down to everyone but essential personnel and contractors who are performing our damage assessments and recovery work, with the following exceptions:

• The Office of Environmental Health & Safety along with leadership from the School of Medicine has coordinated a rolling opening of labs in Hutchinson and JBJ. Lab personnel will be contacted directly with details.
   
• The Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life (LBC) will be open to Tulane faculty and staff from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for the foreseeable future to allow them to charge their devices and use Wi-Fi. Access is restricted to the garden level and the first floor and staffing will be limited. No services or resources will be provided beyond basic security.
   
• Food service in the Dining Room at the Commons is available only to essential personnel engaged in the recovery of our campuses.  

Bright Horizons is opening Monday, September 13. Newcomb Children’s Center is currently closed and will be in contact with families regarding a timeline for reopening.