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3 Mississippi Schools Pick Up Pieces

Photo credit: Kendrick Marshall The ball field dugout at Jackson State University was wiped out.

By Kendrick Marshall
Black College Wire

Three of the Mississippi's historically black colleges are picking up the pieces as the state's Gulf Coast recovers from damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Alcorn State University in Lorman, Miss., reopened Sept. 6, though many parts of the campus still lack power. Tougaloo College resumed classes Sept. 7. Jackson State University opened student registration Sept. 6 and continued cleaning up, with plans to resume classes on Sept. 12. All three schools experienced widespread power outages and slight structural damage across their campuses. All halted classes when the storm blew through central Mississippi on Aug. 29.

One school reported an injury: Alcorn sophomore and football player Mark Butler, a defensive lineman, was hurt Aug. 30 when part of a tree fell on him near the campus cafeteria. According to university officials, Butler was taken to a hospital in Shreveport, La., where he was in serious condition.

Classes resumed at Alcorn as scheduled on Sept. 6.

Mark Butler

"It was really hot, really hot" in the reopened classrooms, said Kelly Moore, an Alcorn State junior who was reached at the J. D. Boyd Library on campus. She was one of the 1,000 students who stayed on campus through the storm and through the week despite the lack of power.

Moore said the first day of classes was "a little tough" without air conditioning in some buildings.

"One of my teachers had to cut classes short because it was so hot in the room," she said.

Students said downed power lines and trees were still visible, as were broken windows in campus buildings.

"It was not that bad, but there are still no lights in some places. The school has a lot of cleaning up to do," said Alcorn senior Ursula Thomas.

"It's been three nights without sleep to make sure our campus is safe and secure," Alcorn President Clinton Bristow Jr. told the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss. "When you say a Herculean effort by my security people, my grounds people, my food service staff � I've been through a lot of things in my life, but this has been it. I just can't compliment them enough."

Although classes were suspended, "The dining hall staff and campus security stayed on campus with the students to make sure that everything was OK and the students remained safe," said W. Christopher Cason, director of university relations. "We are currently taking inventory on the damage caused by the storm, and when we look at the damage, then we will go from there," he said.

Cason said that updates would be given on Butler's condition when the university received them. The Alcorn-Grambling State University football game scheduled for Sept. 10 in Lorman, Miss., has been cancelled.

Tougaloo College

Mississippi�s only private historically black college, Tougaloo College in Jackson, lost power and some of its buildings were severely damaged. Nevertheless, classes resumed Sept. 7.

Many students remained in the area while school was closed. Many had been evacuated from the campus, but about half could not, and they initially packed into a single dormitory to wait out the storm together, according to reports in the Clarion-Ledger.

"We told the students to leave if they could," Earl Sanders, assistant director of student activities, said Sept. 6. "If they did not have a way to get home, then we set the students up with alumni in the Jackson area or a shelter close to the school."

With extensive damage to several buildings, the college appealed for funds to help with repairs. Responses have come from as far away as Brunswick, Maine.

Bowdoin College in that city announced Sept. 2 it was contributing $30,000 to three historically black colleges that have substantial recovery and reconstruction expenses. Bowdoin officials said the college would donate $10,000 each to Tougaloo, Dillard University and Xavier University of Louisiana.

"These are three historically African American institutions with modest resources who will need help," Scott Hood, a college spokesman, told the Portland Press Herald.

Jackson State University

Faculty and staff members reported to Jackson State University Sept. 6 to help currently enrolled students finish registering, and to help register displaced students from other colleges that are closed due to the hurricane.

For now, the displaced students need not worry about having access to records such as financial-aid paperwork and transcripts; enrollment will be immediate and admissions and financial-aid eligibility will be confirmed during the semester, said Anthony Dean, Jackson State University's director of communications. Interested students should e-mail [email protected] or call (601) 979-2100.

To ease the students' burden, the university said it will charge in-state tuition rates to students from out-of-state universities that are closed as a result of the hurricane.

Jackson State also said it was open to hiring faculty and staff members from colleges and universities that cannot reopen.

Meanwhile, the university is providing 160 rooms to the temporarily homeless families of students who are enrolled for the fall, school officials said in a news release.

Kendrick Marshall is a senior at Jackson State University.

Posted Sept. 7, 2005