The University reached out quickly to the campus Chilean community in the wake of the earthquake in Chile, offering support and counseling to students whose families might have been affected.
On the day of the Feb. 27 quake, Tamara Felden, Director of the Office of International Affairs, contacted Chilean students to check on their families and offer the University's services. Affected students can seek help from their division's Dean of Students offices, the office of Campus and Student Life, Student Counseling and Resource Services, and Spiritual Life, Felden said in an e-mail to Chilean students. "Please know that all of us are thinking of you at this difficult time," she wrote.
The Chilean students in contact with Felden's office and other campus groups have reported that their loved ones in Chile are safe. Additionally, the University has received no reports of injury among University students studying in Chile.
Other academic units and individual faculty also reached out to their students who are from Chile or currently in Chile, to express concern and check that they and their families are safe, University officials said.
University community members concerned about the recent earthquake in Chile are organizing ways for people here to help survivors of the quake.
Anyone interested in making donations and learning more about the disaster and UChicago's response can visit www.chicagohelpschile.org.
In addition, students at Chicago Booth are collecting money at the school. Money raised by the drive will provide temporary housing, medicine and food for those affected by the disaster.
"The University of Chicago has had a strong friendship with the Chilean people during the last century," said Oscar Boettiger, a Chilean enrolled at Chicago Booth who is helping organize the fund drive. "That interest has contributed to the transformation of the country to be one of the models of economic development in the region."
Chilean scholar Victor Lima, Senior Lecturer in Economics, said Chilean students on campus are grateful for the concern that the University community has shown toward them and their families. He said many of the students have received thoughtful e-mails from their peers at the University. He added that University alumni in Chile report that they have received e-mails from their former professors conveying their concern and offering to help.
"We are all very grateful for this display of affection during these very difficult times for our country," Lima said.
Chile was struck by an 8.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the most powerful ever registered in the history. The disaster has killed more than 700 people, and more than 2 million have been affected (nearly 12 percent of the total population).
"According to preliminary estimates, the total damage caused by this catastrophe could be up to $30 billion, or nearly 18 percent of the country's 2009 GDP," said Boettiger.