Colleges and universities in other parts of Louisiana and the nation are opening their doors to the 72,000 college students in the greater New Orleans area who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, Louisiana's commissioner of higher education, says the state's board of regents is making arrangements to allow the students to enroll at other Louisiana schools without records that in many cases have been lost. According to Savoie, the board is taking steps to make it easier for the displaced students who were attending public universities to enroll as "visiting students" to other universities in Louisiana this semester. He notes that the displaced students who do not want to enroll at other Louisiana colleges will have an opportunity to finish the fall semester with distance-learning courses beginning in October. According to Savoie, the board is also trying to find faculty and staff that were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Colleges and universities across the country are stepping up to help students displaced by Katrina. Oklahoma City University announced that it is offering free tuition to any student enrolled at a college or university affected by the hurricane. The National Association of Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, working with several historically Black colleges and universities, also offered to take in displaced students from Dillard, Xavier, Southern University, New Orleans and other historically Black schools.