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Displaced Students Face Financial Hurdles

Photo credit: Fresno Pacific University "I don't want the storm to stop me from attaining my goal or completing my dreams," Kia Thomas says.

By Ashley R. Harris
Black College Wire

As Kia Thomas walks from her dorm room to her next class at Fresno Pacific University in California, she carries a heavy load.

Thomas, 18, of Fresno, Calif., is one of thousands of displaced students from historically black colleges in the New Orleans area who face the daunting challenge of replacing lost belongings and finding money to pay expenses as they try to resume an interrupted education.

Before Hurricane Katrina, Thomas had planned on being a biology/ pre-med major. Xavier University of Louisiana was a perfect fit, she said, because it was the number one producer of African American medical school candidates in the country.

From the first day in August that Thomas set foot on the Xavier�s campus, where she was a freshman, she knew that New Orleans was for her.

�It was great,� Thomas said. "I didn't get to see much, but the Southern hospitality was great."

All the promise that the school year held for Thomas was washed away in an undercurrent that has changed her life, and those of residents of the Gulf Coast, forever.

Thomas was among the 460 students and staff members who stayed on the Xavier campus Aug. 29 when Hurricane Katrina lashed Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. After that, major levees broke around New Orleans and flood waters rose around the dormitories. She was rescued Sept. 1 and taken to Southern University at Baton Rouge, where her mother met her to begin her long journey home.

She left everything behind: all of her clothes, her high school yearbook, her television and DVD player, her computer, a refrigerator, dishes, towels, a quilt, eyeglasses and contact lenses � the inventory is long. She did not have renter's insurance.

But her spirit is not broken.

"I don't want the storm to stop me from attaining my goal or completing my dreams," Thomas said.

Her days now are spent catching up with the classes that began before she enrolled Sept. 7 at Fresno Pacific, and trying to find the money to replace some of her property. Even with donated help, keeping up with expenses related to staying in school is difficult.

There is little hope for any refund from colleges shut down by the storm and floods. Many don�t see a way to pay back this semester�s collected tuition and keep paying faculty and administrators who are working toward reopening the schools. Even if they could, it would be some time before college officials could get into the offices where major enrollment data was kept.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Marvalene Hughes, Dillard�s president, said, �I can�t return the tuition. I don�t have access to any of our financial records.� Norman C. Hughes, president of Xavier, agreed.

So how are Thomas and other displaced students making it?

Her community has helped with donations. Her family has tried contacting the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross, an experience they have found to be frustrating but not daunting.

Fresno Pacific University has helped, too, by waiving tuition and housing costs. Vendors, including the university food service and bookstore, have come up with donations and discounts. A relief fund has been established at the college.

It�s still hard.

�All monies were spent just getting my daughter to the school,� said her mother, Selina A. Adams, in an e-mail, as she searched via the Internet for assistance.

Reached by telephone, she summed up her resolve: "I've tried various sources like FEMA and the Red Cross, and I've run into some walls, but this is just a reminder that God is in control and he's going to take care of us."

Ashley R. Harris, evacuated from Dillard University, has enrolled for the semester at the University of Houston.

Posted Sept. 19, 2005