After many years of planning and construction, the new Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for hearing and Speech Sciences facility is open for patients. Located within the top five floors of Medical Center East — South Tower, on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center campus, the facility houses state-of-the-art services for adult and pediatric hearing and speech patients who come from throughout Middle Tennessee for the facility's specialized services.

A week after Vanderbilt University began admitting students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, approximately 100 students from Gulf Coast colleges and universities had registered for classes. Vanderbilt Medical Center now has treated more than 70 Gulf Coast evacuees, hospitalizing more than 20, and its LifeFlight reserve helicopter and fixed wing aircraft and their medical teams continue to assist in disaster relief and patient transport out of the region.

Vanderbilt LifeFlight has dispatched its reserve helicopter and a medical team to Hattiesburg, Miss., to assist in disaster relief efforts after a call for assistance was made to Tennessee EMS officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In an effort to help displaced hurricane refugees from the Gulf Coast area, the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing is holding a special clinic for hurricane victims needing health care at the Vine Hill Clinic on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to treat hurricane disaster refugees who have sought refuge in Middle Tennessee.

Cancer patients displaced by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath who are in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky and in need of continued treatment can contact the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center for assistance.

From the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and from the University of the South to Jack Daniel's Distillery, the cultural, educational and economic engines of southeastern and Middle Tennessee and north and central Alabama will be showcased on the fourth annual Vanderbilt Roads Scholars Tour.