American colleges and universities have responded overwhelmingly in their efforts to offer humanitarian support to the people affected by the Haiti earthquake.

"It is important to give aid quickly in the Haitian quake because the nation does not have the resilience of prosperous developed nations," says Richard Sylves, a professor of political science at the University of Delaware in Newark.

Colleges and universities reacted speedily and effectively across the US. Students and academics are raising money to help support the relief efforts and offering support to students of Haitian descent in the US. They have also mobilised affiliated medical and military professionals to assist in bringing aid to an estimated three million people.

Many fundraising efforts have been personal. Iinspired by the difficulty contacting his adopted daughter's birth mother in Haiti, South Dakota State University basketball coach Scott Nagy agreed to coach a doubleheader game against Oakland University of Michigan on 23 January barefoot. He hopes to raise $30,000 and collect 2,000 pairs of shoes to support relief efforts in Haiti.

The urgency for humanitarian aid and know-how has driven many other fundraising efforts. So far, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, has managed to raise $59,000 of an intended $100,000. The donations are going to Partners in Health, a humanitarian relief organisation co-founded by college president Jim Yong Kim.

In an open letter, Kim said that while "our response to Haiti is focused on disaster relief, ... we're also working to build social justice for a country that has been allowed to suffer without it for too long".

The University of Miami was one of the first to send medical support the day after the earthquake. In the space of 10 days, more than 100 medical personnel from the Miller School of Medicine moved from ad hoc installations to functional field hospitals. The success relies largely on infrastructure established by Project Medishare, founded by the university in 1994.

The online American Military University has also deployed students and academics to help in search and rescue missions through infrastructure support already established by the US military. Wallace E Boston, President of AMU's parent organisation, American Public University System, announced an offer to liaise with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency in supporting relief efforts.

As well as aid and relief to the victims, US institutions are aware of the needs of students of Haitian descent. The City University of New York has nearly 6,000 students of Haitian descent enrolled across its 23 campuses.

"We want to make sure these students continue their education," a spokesman for one of the university colleges said. "Some have expressed interest in stopping to support their families full-time, or to be a part of the long-term rebuilding effort back home."

Trustees of Tallahassee Community College in Florida agreed to offer full tuition relief to each of its 35 Haitian students currently enrolled in programmes.

More significant will be a decision by the federal government to offer temporary protected status to an estimated 200,000 Haitians living in the US, including students and their families.

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