On December 26, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Indonesia, creating a massive tidal wave that ravaged the coasts of several Asian countries and killing nearly 220,000 people. The tsunami — at least from what is known — had a limited direct impact on Carnegie Mellon's students, faculty, and staff.

Lisa Krieg, director of the Office of International Education, is working to compile information on students from the affected countries. There are 638 students from the countries most affected by the tsunami: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. The overwhelming majority of these students are from India, where the tsunami's impact was more localized.

For now, Krieg is taking an optimistic, wait-and-see approach to checking up on students. She is working with Student Affairs to reach out to the international community for information regarding students who have not yet returned to campus.

Housefellows have now accounted for all students that live in dormitories. The most difficult students to reach are undergraduates who live off-campus since they don't have a designated advisor. Graduate student liaisons are still connecting with graduate students.

"I have faith in information networks to let the University know what it needs to know," said Krieg.

In the days following the event, the University e-mailed all students with permanent addresses outside the United States, requesting affected students to alert the University if they were in need of aid or other services. A second e-mail was sent to parents, alumni, and friends of CarnegieMellon located in the region. Reports so far have been positive, with only a few students reporting that extended family members were affected.

Though hopeful, Krieg believes it is very possible, given the large international population at Carnegie Mellon, that someone was directly impacted by the event.

"It is hard for me to imagine that no one was directly affected," said Krieg.

Michael Murphy, dean of student affairs, agreed with Krieg.

"I am certainly hopeful that we have heard of every significant impact, but the scale of the tragedy requires caution," said Murphy.

Dean Murphy said that students generally arrive on campus late for various reasons. However, it is rare for students to not be in Pittsburgh by the 10th day of classes. It will be at that the University begins to increase its efforts to account for students, if necessary.

Jennifer Church, assistant dean of student affairs, said the Housefellows and Resident Assistants (RAs) have had luck in checking on campus housing residents.

"Those few that we haven't heard from we have been able to get some information back that they had planned delayed returns for a variety of reasons," said Church.

One such student, Mock Suwannatat, arrived on the third day of classes. Suwannatat is from Pattaya, Thailand, in the northeast of the country. Though the casualties in Thailand were high, only its southwestern coast was affected by the tsunami.

Suwannatat was traveling with friends when the tsunami occurred. The early news reports, he said, reported only limited destruction.

"I thought it was a flood," he said, adding that every few years the coastal marshes of southern Thailand flood.

Once the scale of the tragedy set in, though, Suwannatat became shocked and e-mailed his friends to let them know he was okay. He received similar e-mails back from others, as well as one from a SCS college liaison checking up on him.

Though Suwannat hasn't spoken met up with all of his friends from southeast Asia, neither he nor his friends have heardof any missing students.

Suwannatat asked fellow members of SIAM, Carnegie Mellon'sThai student group, to donate what they could to relief efforts in Thailand. He was able to raise over $500.

Physics professor Kavan Ratnatunga helped with relief efforts as well by delivering supplies in his native Sri Lanka.  

Another student, Liz Anderson, was traveling in the region during winter break. Anderson originally planned to spend her entire break on the island of Phuket off the coast of Thailand. She and her sister instead visited Japan before going to Thailand. The two were on standby to visit Phuket, an island devastated by the tsunami, the day of the earthquake, but weren't successful in getting two seats. Anderson instead visited Samui, an island in the South China Sea east of the Thai mainland.

In the Bangkok airport,Anderson saw many people injured and bandaged waiting for flights or attempting to meet with representatives from Western embassies. She described the situation as "weird" and "sad."

"It was a strange sight because … I don't normally see people suffering," said Anderson.

Bernardine Dias and Brett Browning, both robotics researchers, were in Sri Lanka together as the tidal wave arrived, but were fortunately far from the coast. Their story has been publicized by the University and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Student Affairs is currently working to create a webpage to summarize on-campus efforts to raise funds, volunteer, or donate time to relief efforts. The University is taking only a limited role in orchestrating fundraising. Instead, student organizations are expected to lead the way with the help of Student Affairs.

For the last week, various student groups and University staff members have manned a table in the UniversityCenter to raise money for tsunami victims. The primary beneficiary of this effort is theBrother's Brother Foundation, an organization that promotes international health and educations through the provision of donated medical, educational, agricultural, and other resources.

Donations for tsunami relief efforts can be made to various organizations, including UNICEF (www.unicefusa.org) and Project HOPE (www.projecthope.org).

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