Wed., 31 Aug.

4:58 am, Burks Oakley, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois and member of the Board of Directors of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), sends e-mail note to Ray Schroeder, also of the University of Illinois, saying that New Orleans is flooded; they follow-up with VoIP discussions.

6:14 am, Burks Oakley sends Frank Mayadas of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation an e-mail note saying “We need to act now - imagine if every Sloan-C institution could open up additional online sections for students whose institutions have closed. This is EXACTLY the type of campus crisis that Ray Schroeder has been telling us about - and how ALN can address the problems.”

Conference call with John Bourne, Executive Director, T he Sloan Consortium, Bruce Chaloux Director, Electronic Campus, Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), Ray Schroeder, Frank Mayadas, and Burks Oakley to plan Sloan-C response in collaboration with SREB

11:59 am, Burks Oakley sends a draft of a proposal for Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funding to Frank Mayadas

Thurs., 1 Sept.

8:19 am, Request is made to register domain name: SloanSemester.org

8:30 am, Burks Oakley sends e-mail note to Sloan-C listserv: “Specifically, we propose to offer online courses during a “Sloan Semester”, which would be an eight-week term starting on October 10th. … The purpose of this note is to gauge the level of interest in this proposed initiative.”

3:42 pm; Frank Mayadas sends Ralph Gomory, President of Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a draft of the proposal

Fri., 2 Sept.

10:11 am, SloanSemester.org website available online

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Executive Committee approves proposal

Sloan Semester Provider listserv created

Sat., 3 Sept.

Conference call, Bruce Chaloux subsequently writes “rules” for providing institutions

60+ providers express interest in participating; website goes “live”, student interest form and submission form for potential courses available on website

Sun., 4 Sept.

Three students submit interest form via website

Mon., 5 Sept.

First of many provider institution placed stories promoting participation in Sloan Semester. Springfield State Journal-Register “UIS to offer courses for displaced students”

Wed., 7 Sept.

Grant Award Press Release: “Free Online College Courses for Students Displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Leading consortium of universities to provide at least 10,000 student enrollments with a $1.1 million commitment from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Fri., 9 Sept.

Ceased allowing new providers to join; 161 providers on list (with consortia, over 200 providers)

First of 22 radio interviews about Sloan Semester conducted

Sun., 11 Sept.

Providers begin entering courses in database

National Guard impacted by Katrina become eligible for the Sloan Semester

Mon., 12 Sept.

Chief student advisor hired; recruitment, coordination and training of volunteer academic advisors begins; to date, 40 advisors from across the country have been donating their time and expertise serving Sloan Semester students.

Tues., 13 Sept.

Financial aid consultants on-board (Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation)

800+ students have signed up on website, 380+ courses in database

Thurs., 15 Sept.

Catalog available with 1000+ online courses (to grow to 1310); 158 course providers from 38 states

Mon., 19 Sept.

Students begin registering for online classes through Southern Regional Education Board system

Thurs., 22 Sept.

As Hurricane Rita moves towards shore, all students impacted by major hurricanes become eligible for the Sloan Semester

Fri., 23 Sept.

Banner ads developed in collaboration with the Ad Council distributed to 9 networks and 20-30 website that are currently running Ad Council Hurricane campaign. Each of these networks have anywhere from 200-300 sites within their networks.

Mon., 10 Oct.

First Sloan Semester courses begin

1092 students approved to participate in the Sloan Semester, 2554 valid course requests (out of a total of 3125 total course requests).