The University will give time off to students, faculty and staff who wish to join a campus effort to rebuild flood-ravaged areas in Minnesota and North Dakota, officials announced Thursday.
The plan calls for volunteers to be bused from the Twin Cities campus to Crookston for a three-day weekend. While there, University volunteers will be assigned duties by others already on-site at the flood zone. Housing and food will be provided for all volunteers during the effort.
Florence Funk, executive assistant for the Office of Academic Affairs, said that although no dates have been finalized, the relief effort will most likely occur in the next few weeks as the waters start to recede.
Students who volunteer would be excused from class, and those who work for the University would be excused without having to take a sick day, Funk said.
This effort has been coordinated jointly by the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of Student Development and Athletics.
Amelious Whyte, an assistant to the Office of Student Development and Athletics, said he is impressed with how quickly the effort has been planned.
“The first meeting I went to about this was on Monday, and to get something like this up and running in such a short period of time is good,” Whyte said. A final outline of the effort will be sent by e-mail next week to faculty, students and staff, Whyte said.
— Kamareia Forcier