Email Article

Printable Page

Jackson State Hosts Fleeing Tulane Students

By Kendrick Marshall
Black College Wire

On Sept. 15, While Jackson State Tigers football fans were lined up outside Jackson State University's Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center to purchase tickets, hundreds of Tulane University students and employees were sleeping inside.

Photo credit: Brandon Coffey, The Blue and White Flash Two Tulane students wait out Hurricane Ivan at Jackson State.

Tulane students and employees left New Orleans on the night of Sept. 14, normally a three-hour drive, fleeing the impending impact of Hurricane Ivan.

"We're hoping for the best," said J.D. Loulke, area director of housing at Tulane.

Loulke and 150 others from the university made the journey to Jackson State, where bottled water, board games and non-perishable food were available to aid in the stay in Jackson.

Ivan, a category four hurricane -- in which winds are 131 to 155 an hour, small residences see complete roof structure failure and there is major erosion of beach areas -- was expected to hit the Louisiana coastline in less than 24 hours. Jackson State was the place to give some refugees a surrogate home.

The agreement to house students and staff from Tulane in case of a hurricane was made initially in 2000. Tulane’s William Schroeder, director of insurance and risk management, and Jackson State's Larry Belton, acting vice provost for student life, made the arrangement.

“This emergency accommodation for the Tulane students evacuating the New Orleans area is not just happenstance,” said Belton. “The University and Tulane have shared an emergency evacuation site plan initiated over three years ago, for just such an eventuality as this. Jackson State and the university community have long shared in this spirit of caring and giving.”

This is the first time that students, Tulane housing and residential life staff, and volunteer adult chaperons have had to test the arrangement. In 2002, when Hurricane Isidore threatened to hit Louisiana, the Tulane campus was spared mass evacuations.

Late in the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 14, Jackson State announced that its Emergency Response Team was alerted that it would be on duty to help assist with the transformation of the athletic center into a temporary shelter. Other preparations and precautions for the threatening weather were also underway, according to Wayne Goodwin, director of facilities management, and included checking the university’s backup generators, electrical and power facilities, dumping all outside trash containers and removing limbs and other debris that might be blown around by high winds.

Photo credit: Brandon Coffey, The Blue and White Flash Tulane students play cards to pass the time.

Curtis Johnson, assistant to the president at Jackson State, explained that the university will reap benefits from housing the distressed members from Tulane.

"It's a good public relations move for the university," he said. "This will give JSU a great image in the minds of the people as a school that will accept all kinds of people."

Johnson added that Jackson State will make the visitors feel as comfortable as possible.

At the new hurricane Command Central Center on campus, arrangements can be made for phone calls and medical attention. Supplies that might be needed in case of emergency can be obtained there.

Meals, lodging and some recreation, along with limited counseling, will be provided as well. Jackson State student organizations have provided some of the needed items for the evacuees.

Tulane students will have access to meals at the cash section of the dining hall and access to the J.L. Reddix Campus Union and Sampson Library.

According to Johnson, Tulane students will stay a minimum of three days and a maximum of 10 days if conditions in Louisiana get worse as a result of Ivan.

Kendrick Marshall is a student at Jackson State University and editor-in-chief of The Blue and White Flash.

Posted Sept. 16, 2004