Although Michigan is 1,000 miles away from New Orleans, faculty and students on the University campus have been trying their best to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The Red Cross, working with the Michigan Student Assembly, has raised a total of $56,000 through bucket drives at football games. MSA is also planning service trips through the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning to affected areas over fall, winter and spring breaks.

The fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha is working on projects to help the victims in Lousiana. "I've heard people talking about (going to New Orleans), although it is not final. But if it's realistic, we'll do it," said Adrian Reynolds, an Engineering senior and the relief effort coordinator for Alpha Phi Alpha.

Beginning with bucket drives on the Diag and on North Campus, Alpha Phi Alpha raised about $2,000, Reynolds said, and the fraternity plans to continue holding bucket drives. The money collected will go to the Red Cross, but Reynolds mentioned he would like to raise money to go toward rebuilding houses in New Orleans as well.

Aaron Rubens, a junior at Tulane University in New Orleans, was not in New Orleans when Katrina hit. Rubens had planned to study abroad this semester but cancelled his plans and came to the University of Michigan, where he has friends, so he could help with relief efforts in New Orleans.

"We've been putting a lot of money into the relief," Rubens said, adding that he and his friends have put nearly all of their own money into the fund and aren't sure how they will survive themselves. "But we're doing this because we really care about the people."

Along with three other Tulane friends not from Michigan - Kevin Lander, Stephen Richard and Adam Hawf - Rubens started the New Orleans Louisiana Hurricane Fund. It has collected about $23,000 at the University of Michigan through individual donors and T-shirt sales. The group has been selling T-shirts with the slogan "OSU sucks, but hurricanes blow."

NOLA is offering more than monetary support to those affected by Katrina. "A lot of people in New Orleans are uneducated, and they will need help to open bank accounts and to find jobs," Rubens said.

One of NOLA's focuses is on affected public schools. "We are going to adopt a public school, providing them with monetary help and mentors," Rubens said. "We want to encourage people to come down during spring break to become mentors." The public school that NOLA is planning to adopt is located in New Orleans's Ninth Ward, one of the area's most impoverished districts, Rubens said.

Faculty at the School of Social Work are also contributing to relief efforts in New Orleans. They are collecting items for a silent auction, which started on Sept. 5 and will end on Sept. 19.

"I think we are all concerned, being in the School of Social Work," Terri Torkko, an official at the School of Social Work, said. "We are concerned about the students and the infrastructure (in New Orleans), which has been totally destroyed. We're concerned with how it's going to affect the victims."

Faculty and businesses in Ann Arbor have donated most of the items in the silent auction, including gift certificates for restaurants. Richard Tolman, assistant dean of the School of Social Work, is offering to take the top eight bidders to Dominick's for lunch. Two tickets to the football game against Eastern Michigan University are also being auctioned; the auction will end on Sept. 15 at 5 p.m. The list of items can be found on the School of Social Work's website.

Students can place bids in person at McGregor Commons, located on the first floor at the School of Social Work or via e-mail.

In addition to the silent auction, Tolman said the school is trying to publicize its intent to host displaced social work graduate students. "We've been depending on the University publicity, letting people know that we are making (the program) available for students," she said. "We are doing our best to help students become volunteers."

University spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said the Office of the Dean of Students has located all 86 University students who were from the hurricane-affected areas.

- Kelly Fraser contributed to this report.