Ted Long had unpacked his clothes and CDs and slept one night in his new dorm room when Hurricane Katrina rained out his first semester at Loyola University New Orleans.
The college freshman from Littleton hitched a ride with a new friend’s family to their home in New Mexico, where he caught a flight home to Colorado.
Long enrolled Friday at Regis University in Denver, which is offering free tuition for one semester to freshmen from its sister Jesuit school in New Orleans.
He is one of dozens of students who have enrolled in Colorado universities because Katrina derailed plans to go to college in Louisiana and Mississippi. They aren’t likely to return to their original schools until next spring or later.
At the University of Colorado at Boulder on Friday, students lugging their suitcases crowded the lobby outside the admissions office. CU had enrolled 50 students by late afternoon and expected dozens more Tuesday, said Kevin MacLennan, interim director of admissions.
Students were calling friends, telling them to hop a plane to Colorado and enroll at CU, Mac Lennan said.
Chancellor Phil DiStefano has asked professors to cut the new students some slack because they’re arriving two weeks into the semester.
Colorado State University and Johnson & Wales University in Denver also are offering late admission, and the University of Denver pledged to accept 50 students from the Gulf Coast region.
DU received more than 100 calls, mostly from parents of students who had planned to attend Tulane University in New Orleans, said Todd Rinehart, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment.
Regis has admitted four students from Colorado and Missouri who had intended to go to Loyola.
Tulane’s campus had damaged roofs and downed trees, but dorm rooms and students’ belongings were safe, the university’s website said. Loyola was not reporting any major damage.
Katherine Dines, who was supposed to graduate from Tulane in December, left New Orleans days before the hurricane hit for a planned visit to her parents’ home in Colorado Springs. Instead of returning to Louisiana, she’s headed to DU.
“I’m devastated about Tulane,” she said. “I can’t imagine it’s for real.”
Dines’ roommate rescued her dog, but her car and belongings were damaged by the flooding, she said.
Long, a jazz bass player who intended to study the music industry at Loyola, instead is back living with his parents.
“It’s a drag to go back and live at home,” he said. “But I don’t feel that I have any reason to be disappointed. I’m far more concerned with the city of New Orleans.”
The 18-year-old hasn’t thought for a second he won’t return to the “beautiful mecca of art and culture.”
“I love the city of New Orleans,” he said. “I’m sure it will recover.”
Elementary and high school students whose families were displaced by the hurricane also were enrolling in Colorado.
About a half-dozen hurricane evacuees have enrolled in elementary schools in the Denver Public Schools, said spokeswoman Tanya Caughey.
The children are welcomed without proof of residency or immunization records under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, Caughey said.
Adams 12 school district enrolled four families Friday, said Joe Ferdani, a school district spokesman.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
Staff writers Allison Sherry and Annette Espinoza contributed to this report.
