Morgan and Southwest Airlines Partner for Holiday Travel

Displaced Hurricane Katrina Students Provided Free Airfare

Morgan State University is working with Southwest Airlines to help students displaced by Hurricane Katrina travel Home for the Holidays.  Southwest Airlines is providing complimentary roundtrip airfare for 11 students who enrolled at Morgan State University due to school closures in the Gulf Region following the hurricane.

According to Cheryl Y. Hitchcock, Executive Director of the Morgan State University Foundation, Southwest Airlines’ commitment to assisting Morgan students returning home for the holidays goes far beyond traveling arrangements.

“This is indeed an honor for Morgan State to be the only university participating with Southwest Airlines in this program,” says Cheryl Y. Hitchcock, Executive Director of the Morgan State University Foundation. “It speaks volumes about the continued concern for the well-being and academic success of our students continuing their education here at Morgan.”

Anjel Magee, freshman biology major from New Orleans, La., will be traveling home for the holidays and will return to Morgan for the spring semester.

“It will be very nice to get back and see family,” she says. “To have one less thing to worry about is a blessing.”

Prior to Hurricane Katrina and following afterwards, Southwest Airlines has dedicated its resources and Employees to helping the city and people of New Orleans.  From working humanitarian flights, to sending supplies, to donating time and airline tickets to relief organizations, Southwest Airlines has reached out to the New Orleans community it serves.

“Southwest Airlines is more than happy to help students reconnect with their families during the holiday season,” said Karen Price-Ward, Southwest Airlines’ Multicultural Community Affairs Manager.  “After the experience they went through, we know this time they spend with family is greatly treasured.”

Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a coeducational institution offering more than 60 academic programs leading to bachelor’s degrees as well as programs at the master’s and doctoral levels. As Maryland’s premier public urban university, Morgan serves a multi-ethic and multi-racial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. This year, Morgan State University is celebrating its Twenty-year Renaissance and the twenty year tenure of its current president, Earl S. Richardson. For more information, visit www.morgan.edu.