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Students Pitch In to Help Students

By Juliuna Mitchell
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Michael Grant More than 100 volunteers at Grambling State University participated in a relief effort for Xavier University students. Students dropped off clothing and stayed to organize them by size and gender, and then to fold them.

With acts of kindness and sacrifice, students at historically black colleges have been pitching in to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, who are still in need after the devastation that hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

At Grambling State University in Louisiana, many students have donated to Operation Good Samaritan, a fund drive organized by the staff of university radio station KGRM. The station collected donations and involved the community in a live discussion about the hurricane.

However, everyone does not have money to give. Many students have found other ways to pitch in to help those still in evacuee shelters as well as displaced students arriving at historically black campuses.

Freshman Demetria Jaggers is among Grambling students who recently worked with the Lincoln Parish School Board to provide school supplies for grade school students who cannot return to Gulf Coast schools.

"It felt good because the people needed those things and there was no other way they could get them," Jaggers said.

Other students donated toiletries and clothing for hundreds of students from Xavier University of Louisiana who were taken to Grambling and Southern University after their Sept. 1 evacuation from their flooded New Orleans campus.

�I donated a whole bunch of stuff,� said Grambling freshman Latasha Donson. �I wish I could give them more, but I can�t.�

The calls for help are being answered in a number of creative ways.

Several students from a joint social work master�s degree program at University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina A&T are helping the Red Cross gather information from evacuees, and providing local housing and social services information, The A&T Register reported.

North Carolina A&T students also are doing their part by participating in Aggies Care, a project offering counseling services and financial assistance for affected students. The Aggies Care project also collected bottled water to send to Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., where a shelter in a campus gym has been home to roughly 500 Katrina evacuees.

�Over 250 students, administrators, faculty, staff and community people have volunteered on a daily basis,� Diane Craig, Southern University�s executive associate to the president and college system, told the Southern Digest.

Students have participated in prayer services for the victims at several campuses, including Johnson C. Smith and Tennessee State universities, according to reports in campus publications. Campus organizations have been collecting donations.

The Rustorian student newspaper at Rust College is encouraging students to pitch in as the college collects bottled water and other goods to help with the national effort.

�Desperate times [call] for desperate measures, and we should not just stand and watch without doing something,� Marlon J. Williams, a staff writer, wrote in a Sept. 6 column.

�This is our opportunity to prove that we will come together on one accord, no matter what race, ethnic background or social class,� Williams wrote.

�As students, sometimes we are not financially stable to give, but giving the littlest things like bottled water, non-perishable foods, tissue, and clothing that merely sit in our closets, means more to our brothers and sisters displaced and dispersed by Katrina.�

At a town hall meeting at Howard University in Washington, students gathered to discuss and understand the effects of the hurricane on the Gulf region and the nation, the Hilltop reported.

Ronald A. Allen, judicial coordinator of the Graduate Student Council at Howard, said the meeting presented an opportunity.

�We want to give students a chance to readdress grievances they have and consolidate all relief efforts into a digestible part so they know what they can do,� he told the Hilltop.

At most of the colleges, student fund drives have been under way. At Savannah State University in Georgia, for example, the school is collecting money in the student union, The Tiger�s Roar newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, at Florida A&M University, the Famuan newspaper reported, members of the Student Government Association and various clubs and organizations solicited donations for displaced students at their Sept. 3 football game.

Buckets and even trash bags of money were collected by the end of the night, $10,175 in all raised by the Southern Hospitality Foundation, which also sponsored a charity basketball game.

�The whole concept of students helping students is very important,� said donor and alumna Stephanie Clarke, assistant secretary of the Florida A&M University alumni association in Tallahassee, Fla. �It could have easily been me, so whenever I am able to help others, I do,� she told the Famuan.

Juliuna Mitchell is a freshman at Grambling University. Contributing to this report are the Southern Digest of Southern University, the Famuan of Florida A&M University, the Rustorian of Rust College, the Hilltop of Howard University, the Tiger�s Roar of Savannah State University, the Register of North Carolina A&T University and the Gramblinite of Grambling State University.

Posted Sept. 23, 2005