New Orleans Xavier U's Survival in Jeopardy

Parent Cafe
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October 11, 2005 (713)212-1341
NEW ORLEANS’ PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
JOIN FORCES IN WAKE OF KATRINA
Tulane, Xavier, Dillard and Loyola universities are working together to support one another’s efforts to resume classes in January. The four institutions have formed a consortium that will allow Xavier and Dillard to hold classes this spring on the campuses of Tulane and Loyola universities, as well as to share meeting and administrative space among the four schools. The effort will allow Dillard and Xavier students to maintain a sense of community and identity–physically and symbolically–for the calendar year 2006. … Dillard and Xavier students will be able to attend classes on Tulane and Loyola’s campuses so long as they pay their tuition to their home schools. Tulane and Loyola courses will be available to Dillard and Xavier students
on a space available basis. “Tulane invited us to consider a Memorandum of Understanding, which we developed collaboratively,” said
Dillard President Marvalene Hughes. “They have responded enthusiastically and we approved this opportunity to return to our home in New Orleans.”
“While we remain confident of our ability to welcome students back to our own campus, the relationship established with our Tulane and Loyola counterparts will be an important aspect of Xavier’s plans to reopen in
January, said Xavier President Norman C. Francis. “It gives us leeway, in the event of any unforeseen challenges or hindrances to restoring full campus operations by then.”…</p>

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<p>The entire question of how much of NOLA to rebuild is really a knotty one. I have no conclusions yet but if many former residents choose not to come back the question might be moot.</p>

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<p>Jmmom, I hope I didn’t come across too critical, I really didn’t mean to be that way. People are pretty disgusted with FEMA around here, too. There are many problems and many angles to the problems - just like the blind men and the elephant, it is a matter of perspective.
An example, FEMA delivers trailers, sets them up with hook-ups, etc, but the delivery person doesn’t have the keys - they “just deliver”. So the trailer sits there for days with the electricity humming along, empty.</p>

<p>On the other hand, the Coast Guard removes beached shrimp boats (a large undertaking). The owner’s insurance covers much of the coast, and FEMA may reimburse the CG a small part, maybe not. The problem, though, many of the beached shrimp boats were in some stage of foreclosure, and in many more the owners had no insurance. The mayor of B la B wants FEMA to pick up the cost of removing the boats (about $60000/boat), and give them back to the “owners” regardless of foreclosure status. FEMA is not sure. Now if I was an owner who had kept up my insurance policy, had my livelihood returned to me, but was facing huge insurance increases, I would not be happy about FEMA paying to remove the other guy’s boat!</p>

<p>The are hundreds of problems like that bedeviling every aspect of life in the hard hit areas. Yes FEMA did a bad job, but I’m just not sure how much better a job they could have done, anyone could have done. I hope we are learning lessons, but to think that somehow the next disaster of Katrina magnitude will be responded to without a hitch - that’s naive.</p>

<p>Did anyone else hear Cokie Roberts’ comments on NPR earlier this week, about delivering her Mom back home to the French Quarter? Very interesting, and very telling.</p>

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<p>Cangel, I agree with you that I’m not sure anyone was prepared for what happened or could have been prepared. I also feel that a lot of false information and slant was put on what was reported in the media. My parents live in one of the affected areas in Mississippi and the remainder of my extended family lives in New Orleans, Slidell, or other areas of affected south Louisiana. They all evacuated and are fine but have been living with the after affects for several months now. My cousin is a paramedic in New Orleans and saw first hand the desparation and rescue efforts. He was a part of them. </p>

<p>The main problem in all of these areas has been a return to normalcy. My aunt’s job was temporarily relocated to Baton Rouge, but right now she’s just thankful to still have one. Many of my mother’s aunts, uncles, and cousins were retired but had their possessions and homes destroyed. However, no one is complaining because we all know it could have been a lot worse. They’ve all grown up and lived in that area their entire lives. They’ve always heard that the levees would collapse in stronger than a 3. However, it becomes like the boy who cried wolf. They heard it so much that no one really thought it would ever happen because they had been through so many hurricanes where people said it would and then it didn’t. </p>

<p>Yes, there was a huge delay in supplies and help. However, no one really knew the magnitude of what was going to happen. Everyone was affected regardless of age, race, or economic status. I agree that FEMA seemed completely unorganized as did a lot of the politicians in Louisiana following the disaster. </p>

<p>Many people are not returning to the area. The school where I teach in Alabama still has many evacuees enrolled. Traffic in my parent’s city is horrendous because they have 10-15,000 extra people still living in a city that began with only about 60,000 people. It’s still impossible to get a rental property or apartment there. </p>

<p>It will be interesting to see what the population of New Orleans looks like one year from now.</p>

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<p>cangel - no, not at all, I didn’t think you were overly critical at all. I truly appreciated your information, in that first post and then the added info in this one. It gives us some - tiny - picture of the complexity of the issues, and remind us that we cannot expect to be accurate when we can cavalierly sum up the situation in a clever sentence or two.</p>

<p>btw, I didn’t catch Cokie Roberts and was with a group of friends the other night who were wondering why we hadn’t heard anything from her recently. I will check NPR on line and see if I can find that commentary.</p>

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<p>This is so sad about Xavier. It sounds as if it’s mortally wounded.</p>

<p>As for rebuilding New Orleans, my predictions are good news and bad news: The good news is that it will be rebuilt. The bad news is that rebuilt areas in 5-10 years will be mostly a gentrified “Disneyland” version of New Orleans. Whether the former residents wish to return will be rendered moot by economics.</p>

<p>Little known N.O. trivia: TheDad went to kindergarten and first grade in New Orleans. Being a damnyankee from elsewhere, even at five years old, he was asked why he used the “colored” drinking fountain. There were no signs and the practice had been abolished the year before but tradition still reigned. I had to get an explanation at home as to what a “colored” drinking fountain was.</p>

<p>TheDad’s N.O. bio item: if TheDad is very tired or it’s one of the very rare occasions when TheDad has had a couple of drinks too many, a few words, words as one might expect to find in a five-year-old’s vocabulary, start coming out a New Orleans accent.</p>

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<p>I did a study on Xavier years ago, and was extremely impressed with their program…here’s hoping they come back stronger.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, TD may be correct. With the slow exodus of industry, NO was becoming a tourist destination, with low paid service jobs. It’s rebuilding will only exacebate that trend, IMO. Just like a prior election’s credo: It’s Jobs, Jobs, Jobs…to encourage folks to return.</p>

<p>Last month, a Deputy Assistant something from the Commerce Dept spoke at a breakfast meeting attended by several local biz leaders. His pitch was that his #1 goal was to get businesses to relocate to NO, and gave numerous reasons why. Unfortunately, after his talk, several CEO’s at our table sadly shook their heads…they asked how they could rationally explain to their board why they should move part of their company to NOLA given the potential risk and disruption from further storms. Even with tax incentives, the risk was just too great.</p>

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<p>“I did a study on Xavier years ago, and was extremely impressed with their program…here’s hoping they come back stronger.”</p>

<p>A Xavier student sojourning at my alma mater Williams was quoted in the school paper this week as indicating they are disappointed in the Williams biology department. While in no way more than an anecdote, it should give on at least a raw idea of how strong the school really was. It really is a shame.</p>

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<p>Here’s the whole quote:

And here’s the whole article:
<a href=“WRAPS organizes campus-wide food drive, adapts to COVID restrictions – The Williams Record”>WRAPS organizes campus-wide food drive, adapts to COVID restrictions – The Williams Record;
It seems to have been a good experience, all around.</p>

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<p>I agree very strongly with Teach (sounds just like what life is like here). We’re not looking for a hotel room or apartment - what we notice daily is a distinct increase in traffic, and how busy restaurants are - the restaurants are from all the out of state workers come to do bulldozing, insurance adjusting, construction, etc, not from evacuees eating out. I can’t imagine what it is like in Baton Rouge.</p>

<p>Things in MS are getting better a little faster than NOLA, I don’t know about the Lake Charles/Port Arthur areas, but I would guess they are like MS. The “normalcy” problem is related to jobs - the jobs are gone. In MS it is interesting, they have reverted to the pre-casino economy - the shipyards, chemical plants and oil industry is mostly back, not always in production, but they’ve called a lot of folks back to do clean-up and repair. The casinos, though are gone, and with them many of the people who worked in them. The casinos will be built back as soon as the insurance and land issues are settled, but those jobs will be construction workers who mostly aren’t local. NOLA is the same, all those tourism jobs are gone.</p>

<p>I agree with TheDad, NOLA will be a Disney version of itself. I know B. Bush’s words were insensitive, especially at the time, but there is some truth there - a number of the displaced people are in much better circumstances, and hopefully some/many will make new and better lives. That doesn’t lessen the pain of what they have been through or the difficulties of leaving all that is familiar or the sadness of leaving such a distinct place as NOLA, but honestly they had little material to come back to. The Dad’s also right about the city dying - the industry had been leaving for years, the port was huge, but didn’t really employ that many people, oil has always been boom or bust - tourism was the basic industry, and it won’t be back for a long time.</p>

<p>The infrastructure damage is big too, and doesn’t get much publicity - there are so many bridges out! There are work-arounds, but as far as normalcy goes, and getting commerce back on track, they need those bridges. Mobile Bay is about 135 miles from NOLA, and about 100 miles from Waveland/Bay st. Louis where the storm came back ashore. The storm surge shifted a concrete highway on ramp on I-10 Bayway across Mobile Bay. Now it was only moved about 2 feet, but the on-ramp is closed indefinitely, and you can see the shift just driving by on I-10 at 70 mph, so to me, that is pretty impressive power for a storm that is centered 100 miles away.</p>

<p>Xavier will be a great loss for the black community, I hope that the commitment from Tulane and Loyola especially can keep it going, but I’m afraid things will be tough for those institutions as well over the next few years. I have talked to a few familied whose kids would be Tulane bound next year, and they are reserving judgment, and encouraging students to wait as long as possible to decide.</p>

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<p>“And here’s the whole article:
<a href=“WRAPS organizes campus-wide food drive, adapts to COVID restrictions – The Williams Record”>WRAPS organizes campus-wide food drive, adapts to COVID restrictions – The Williams Record;
It seems to have been a good experience, all around.”</p>

<p>Agreed, and the Williams bio dept. by rep is very good, which is why the loss of Xavier would seem to be such a tragedy.</p>