Jonathan Tennial solemnly crosses the shaded patio of the Village Commons, sits down and eats his french fries as if tasting respite for the first time.

More than a month ago, Tennial, a senior mass communication major, was looking forward to his last year in New Orleans and receiving his degree from Xavier University.

Today, an NIU residence hall is his home.

Tennial finds himself in the cornfields of DeKalb because Hurricane Katrina forced the closure of XU.

“From what I’ve been told, my apartment complex has been flooded,” Tennial said. “I’m taking everything that was there as a loss, so most of my clothes, furniture, all of that stuff, is pretty much gone.”

Joe King, assistant director of Public Affairs, said as of Tuesday, six undergrads and two grad students displaced by Katrina had enrolled at NIU.

Still shaken from the tragedy, Tennial believes that for many students, the transfer to other schools will become permanent.

Tennial’s brother had just started at XU a few weeks ago.

“My brother for one, he was a freshman,” he said. “He had been there, I think, two weeks total. He’s still kinda devastated and shocked, because it’s his first year, and something like this happens.”

As for help with getting settled in DeKalb, Jonathan reports that his efforts to contact various organizations offering assistance in the wake of Katrina have not been productive.

“I’ve actually been on the phone today the last two or three hours with Red Cross, the Illinois Department of Emergency Assistance, [Federal Emergency Management Agency], all those organizations,” he said. “They say that they’re going to help, but they’re redirecting everyone when they call to other places.”

Tennial’s frustration echoes the complaints of many of the survivors of Katrina.

“Some people have nothing, and it’s ridiculous for you to call the Red Cross, and they direct you to five other agencies, and of those five agencies, you can’t get any help,” he said.

NIU has designated the office of the vice provost to facilitate the transfers of students arriving here.

Vice Provost Earl Seaver said the process begins by getting the students through admissions, despite most transcript data being irretrievable. After admissions, the students seek help from advisers.

After this, they move on to a specific college, to financial aid, and in many cases, to a scholarship coordinator.

The vice provost’s office will continue to help students impacted by Hurricane Katrina who either attended Gulf Coast schools or are originally from that area.

“We went through our student records to find out if we had students here from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama,” Seaver said. “We identified 900 [undergraduate] students that list that as their home addresses. We called all those students to see how they were doing.”

Most students contacted by the vice provost’s office have so far declined assistance, but remain aware of the offer. Freshman art major Brian Flotte, originally from the New Orleans area, was not contacted by other charities.

Flotte said NIU will help out with winter clothes and whatever he owes financially.

So far, the vice provost’s office has funded the efforts internally.

“We’re using financial aid; we’re using scholarship money; we’re using tuition waivers; we’re doing whatever we can in terms of trying to cover those costs using our own funds,” Seaver said.

Seaver encouraged students who have kept quiet to come forward if they have been impacted by Katrina, or even if they know someone else in need of assistance. They can visit the Office of the Vice Provost at 220 Altgeld Hall or call 753-0494.

“We’ll do what we can do to get them connected to services here on campus that they may need,” Seaver said.