After Katrina, Delgado Community College Slowly Climbs Back

Delgado Community College leaders have had a rough road to repairing their campus. For one thing, federal funds were allocated based on the original cost of facilities and equipment, not replacement cost. And post-Katrina building codes created more expense. Then, of course, the recession hit. And the chancellor says it's hard to compete for state funding with the big institutions. In her article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Katherine Mangan writes:

It's a scene one might have expected months—even a year—after the 2005 hurricane, which devastated New Orleans and forced most local colleges to close for the fall semester. But this August will mark the storm's fifth anniversary, and only now is the state's oldest and largest community college able to move ahead with reconstruction.

Seventy percent of the buildings on Delgado's campus were damaged by floods and wind, and as the spring 2010 semester begins, 30 percent of the building space is still unusable. Still, students are coming in droves, looking for affordable ways to retool their skills and find work in a city that, like the college, is still in recovery mode.

"Last fall we had to turn away around 1,500 people because we couldn't turn another closet into a classroom," says the chancellor, Ron D. Wright. "That was the most distressing thing I had to do. I've never told anyone they couldn't come."

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

In New Orleans, Move-In Day (Again)

From this article:

Across St. Charles Avenue from Loyola University New Orleans, the grounds of Audubon Zoo were littered with branches and other debris on Sunday, but the university's green spaces were pristine. And as students moved into their residence halls on a hot late summer afternoon, it seemed like any other such day on any other campus—except that, for those at Loyola and many other universities in the Gulf Coast region, they were moving back into their dorms, two weeks after the real 'move-in' day of the 2008–2009 academic year. Loyola's students and employees dispersed to Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and elsewhere late last month as Hurricane Gustav threatened to lash New Orleans with 100-mile per hour winds. Three years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did tens of billions of dollars of damage to homes, businesses and institutions in New Orleans, catching many officials off-guard, administrators at Loyola and other area colleges took no chances this time around.

Power Outages After Hurricane Ike Will Keep Campuses Closed

From this article:

College officials in Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, and other parts of the Gulf Coast spent the weekend slogging through flooded and debris-strewn campuses, trying to assess how much damage Hurricane Ike had wreaked and when they could safely resume classes. . . . Even though many campuses appear to have escaped serious structural damage, their ability to resume classes this week may be hampered by widespread power outages in the region. That was the case earlier this month when Hurricane Gustav interrupted the fall semester for thousands of students in Louisiana and bordering areas of Texas.

Midwest Colleges Struggle to Bounce Back From Hurricane's Fury

From this article:

A few days after the remnants of Hurricane Ike swept through the Midwest after pounding coastal Texas and Louisiana, colleges and universities across Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and other states in the region continued to be hamstrung on Tuesday by wide-ranging power outages and flooding. . . . Ohio colleges are trying to clear debris and restore power after the state saw hurricane-force winds over the weekend as Ike made its way through the Ohio Valley. Repairs to the electrical grid could be delayed because a number of utility workers from Ohio were sent to help restore infrastructure hammered by Ike in Texas, before the extent of the damage in Ohio became clear. But some utility companies in Ohio are recalling their workers, according to the Associated Press.

Texas Campuses Begin Cleaning Up After Ike, and Some Reopen

From this article:

Officials at colleges and universities along the Texas Gulf Coast continued to catalog damages and get their facilities back online on Monday in the wake of Hurricane Ike, and a few that were in the storm's path were even reopening. The availability of electrical power was a deciding factor for many, as the storm destroyed power grids as it roared ashore early Saturday with peak winds at 110 miles an hour, leaving more than three million utility customers in the dark.

In Devastated Galveston, a Hospital Is on Hold

From this article:

Three days after Hurricane Ike devastated this island community, along with much of the Texas Gulf Coast, the teaching hospital that has survived hurricanes for more than a century was once again getting back on its feet. . . . Campus officials say it could be a month or more before the hospital resumes regular operations and is able to bring all of its students and residents back. In the meantime, administrators are working on temporary placements for 557 medical residents and about 2,400 medical, nursing, allied-health, and graduate students. The hospital has about 12,000 employees, 8,000 of whom work in Galveston.