Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Big Easy universities plan to rebuild, attract students displaced by Katrina Julia Silverman THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS — In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, professors and students from the city’s universities took academic refuge in other schools — some as far away as the University of Haifa in Israel. Now, more- than a month after the storm, New Orleans’ universities — including Tulane, Loyola, the University of New Orleans and Xavier — are putting together ambitious plans to reopen in January. Officials are patching up battered campuses, finding housing for employees whose homes were destroyed, gauging how many students will return and persuading top faculty not to jump ship. “There might be some people who prefer not tc? go back to the city, especially if they’ve lost their houses, but for the faculty who have invested a lot in Loyola, they won’t be inclined to hunt for something else,” said Bernard Cook, a history professor at the university. Cook, who has a visiting assistant professorship at Georgetown until his school reopens, said he is splitting his time between the university and the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where he’s working on a book about diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Romania prior to World War I. Many New Orleans faculty have taken temporary refuge at universities like Brown, Yale and Princeton, and are using their break from teaching as uninterrupted time to focus on research projects'. “One or two of our people have indicated that they have had offers that they are considering,” said Elizabeth Barron, the vice president for academic affairs at Xavier. “I think most institutions would be a bit above that under the circumstances.” To lure faculty back with their families, Tulane — the largest private employer in greater New Orleans with 6,000 employees — has received approval from the Orleans Parish School Board to sponsor a charter school aimed at children in the neighborhood. Kristine Davis, a spokeswoman for Loyola, said the university was working on lining up temporary housing for the 60 percent of its employees estimated to have lost their homes, but such units are in high demand in New Orleans, and will likely be in short supply. The American Council on Education estimates 75,000 to 100,000 college students in the New Orleans area have been affected by the storm, and close to three dozen universities in the region have been seriously damaged. The University of New Orleans will open classes next week at satellite locations, including their suburban classrooms in Metairie and at four schools across Lake Pontchartrain, although the main campus remains closed because of damage. Students can mix actual classes with online work, and UNO Vice Chancellor Sharon Gruber said 7,000 of the 17,500-student body signed up. In addition, many UNO students are taking classes at other Louisiana colleges, including Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where the UNO administration has taken refuge. On Tulane’s campus for the first time since he escaped Katrina’s flooding in an old motorboat and a hot-wired golf cart, university President Scott Cowen said only about 100 of the school’s 13,000 students have said they don’t plan to return. At Xavier, Barron said she’s only heard from “perhaps 10” of the school’s approximately 4,100 students who say they won’t be returning. “It’s great to be in Seattle, but in January, it will be good to get back to New Orleans,” Justin Cooper, a Tulane student now settled at the University of Washington told The Daily, the school’s student newspaper. borne students, though, weren’t as sure about returning. Linda Morton had planned to start at Tulane in September; instead, she’s at the University ofNebraska-Lincoln. “Everyone is so nice here — it’s completely opened my eyes to a new choice,” she told The Daily Nebraskan. Tulane and Xavier also have announced plans to get students back on track by adding an additional semester tucked between the end of classes this spring and the start of the 2006 07 school year. The New Orleans schools also are working on plans to band together, allowing students from the harder-hit Xavier and Dillard universities to take classes at relatively unscathed Tulane and Loyola. Xavier and Dillard would also lend faculty. Tulane and Loyola are on higher ground and thus in better shape; Xavier officials will have to cope with the remnants of a flooded library, while three of Dillard’s dorms were lost to storm-related fires. —;—__—--—---1 Share your space, but live on your own. HP Laptop Bedding All furnishings pictured are from Wal-Mart. storage WAL-MART Get everything for your dorm room at Walmart.com and still afford tuition. always low prices. Walmart.com fk