The unexpected natural disaster in Southeast Asia devastated nations yet brought together the world, including administration and student groups at UW-Madison.
The UW-Madison Departments of International Student Services and International Academic Programs have already focused much of their attention on locating international and study abroad students and ensuring their safety. All 25 UW-Madison students studying in India and Thailand have been found.
Pap Sarr, director of ISS, said it is much harder to find international students from Southeast Asia who traveled home over the break.
\The school is on break so it's hard to say who's going to come back or not,"" he said. ""When the tsunami hit we sent an e-mail to students in affected areas inquiring if they were all right ... The phones and Internet there were dead and it was mostly tourists online to tell family they were OK, but some did take the time to let us know they were fine.""
Sarr also said the university would cooperate fully with the needs of the more than 700 international students to make sure they would not penalized financially or academically for returning late. The university will also provide help with paperwork and visas for international students, as well as offer counseling.
""We are prepared in any way to help the students affected to deal with coming back late and other difficulties,"" Sarr said.
Liz Stern, director of International Relations for the Wisconsin Alumni Association, said the WAA is also actively searching for alumni and learning how it can help with the disaster. UW-Madison has a strong alumni base in Southeast Asia with 514 in Thailand, 781 in India, 573 in Indonesia, 504 in Malaysia and 17 in Sri Lanka.
""Immediately after everything came out we put out a message of thoughts and condolence on our main website,"" Stern said. ""We also have our monthly e-newsletter expressing our deepest wishes and thoughts for fellow alumni in Asia. We also urged alumni to give donations to a credible charity of their choice.""
Courtney Woods, a UW-Madison sophomore and president of UNICEF UW-Madison, said she already has plans for the organization to help with tsunami disaster relief once the spring semester begins.
""We have a lot of ideas,"" she said. ""We're thinking about putting canister jars with the UNICEF logo in campus buildings and in businesses. We've also thought of doing a clothing drive where students bring in old clothing and resell it - sort of like a campus garage sale - and the profits would go to the disaster relief funds.""
Contacting leaders of other student groups is also an important goal, according to Woods. If the groups can plan larger events together, students will be more likely to get active and involved with the cause.
""If people want to get involved, there's a ton of opportunities with student groups,"" she said. ""There's so much going on on campus, there's no way they wouldn't be able to help somehow.""
John Lucas, a spokesperson for UW-Madison, said the university is also looking into forming a scholarship for students from the region.
""We're possibly establishing and funding a scholarship for students from the area or perhaps for students here affected by that,"" he said. ""But that's all in the preliminary stage.""
UW-Madison has posted a centralized website of facts about areas affected by the tsunami, as well as university updates, relief efforts, links to donate money, and events, lectures and fundraisers on campus. The first meeting will be held Jan. 19 by ISS for anyone interested in helping. The website is http://news.wisc.edu/tsunami.
