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New Orleans Hilton Becomes "Hotel Dillard"

Photo credit:Shawn Chollette Gabriel Johnson and Robyn Williams linger as Dillard University administrators answer questions during spring semester orientation, held in a conference room at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.

By Shawn Chollette
Black College Wire

Chatting animatedly with friends after registering for classes, Dillard University senior Charlette Jones retold the tale of how she and three classmates were rescued in September from her New Orleans East apartment by the Coast Guard, after torrential rains and flooding left the students stranded for two days.

"We had to cook wieners by candlelight," said Jones, eliciting a chorus of laughs that echoed through the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel – her new home. With an atrium, polished wooden benches and wire-back chairs, it might not be "the Yard," but for the next seven months, the Hilton is where Jones and the rest of Dillard's 1,100 students will do their best to pick up where they left off after Hurricane Katrina.

"It's good to be back among friends," said Jones, who attended the University of Texas at Arlington in the fall after her rescue. "I didn't think I'd ever be back."

Dillard had been closed for a semester by the forces behind the same 26-foot storm surge that rose to Jones' second-floor loft. The university was hard- pressed to find a solution to replace its destroyed dormitories and also house students displaced from off-campus lodging – and find it fast so classes could start Jan. 9.

"We initially looked into moving to Morris Brown [College] in Atlanta, where we have all the amenities of the Atlanta University Center, but we wanted to keep our New Orleans identity," said Marc David, dean of students. "So we had to decide between a cruise ship or a hotel, and the cramped quartering aboard the cruise ship made it obvious that the Hilton was a better choice."

The administration decided to "recreate a Dillard University away from our campus," for students, faculty staff and administrators – including President Marvalene Hughes – in 500 of the Hilton's 1,616 rooms, David said. They were able to do so without raising the cost of tuition and boarding, which amounts to $21,000 a year for an on-campus student.

Sans mini-bars, the hotel suites/dorm rooms are standard issue. Most are double occupancy. Rooms come equipped with a bathroom, a desk for each student, a bureau and in some cases a view of the New Orleans skyline.

Among the accommodations the Hilton made for students is the Blue Devil Cafe, christened in honor of Dillard's mascot. A lightly remodeled section of the hotel's restaurant, the cafeteria serves three meals a day.

Students also have hotel amenities such as housekeeping (twice a week), and use of fitness facilities at scheduled times so as not to conflict with other hotel guests. Students can use the hotel's business center as well as its Wi-Fi Internet connection.

"For the most part, it's just like living on campus," David said. "We have residential assistants and rules to follow as if this were the Gentilly campus."

David said the hotel bar was also off-limits, and there is no overnight visitation, although he acknowledged that enforcement might be difficult.

To make the Hilton as much like a college as possible, other services have been added just for students. For instance, the Hilton now has a makeshift "campus" post office, and a student-only laundry room. There are plans for a bookstore.

Students and faculty will have to adjust to the classroom situation. Temporary cubicle walls partition one of the hotel's 20,000-square-foot trade show areas into 14 classrooms and five offices. Voices carry, so lectures on "Surveying the African World" and "American National Government" intermingle and compete for students' eardrums as animated professors impart knowledge.

The arrangement might not be perfect, said Fred Sawyer, hotel general manager. He added that the hotel staff is willing to help Dillard students in any way possible.

"I really think that all of us at the hotel feel good about doing something for our kids that are going to develop into our future leaders," Sawyer said. "Hopefully after graduation, many of them [will] stay here in New Orleans area to help bring the city back."

Providing housing for Dillard is a "win-win situation" for the hotel and the university, he said.

As the closest large hotel to the convention center, "about 80 percent of our business is convention-related," Sawyer said, "But with the first big convention not until June, we were unsure of where our next main source of business would come from."

"But now we have a student population, which helps us keep many of our workers on staff."

Another bonus for the Hilton is the possibility of student employment. Given the number of hotel guests, there are enough definite job opportunities for the hotel to hold a job fair just for students, Sawyer said. Arrangements have been made so that students on work-study can fulfill their obligations by working as part of the hotel staff, he added.

Hotel Dillard, as students dubbed it during the first week of classes, is receiving mixed reviews.

Jonathan Jiles, a freshman business management major from Mobile, Ala., said the Hilton was almost as good as his old Dillard dorm room.

"I love it. It's got plenty of space, and right now I don't have a roommate," Jiles said with a broad smile. "Now, my only concern is figuring out where my classes are."

Jones, who said she was really looking forward to life off-campus, was not as positive.

"I don't like it," she said. "I don't have a closet. I don't have anywhere to put my personal items. And it's too expensive."

However, Jones and other students had few alternatives but to live "on campus": The floods created a shortage of decent housing, and rental pricing in New Orleans for available dwellings has doubled in many cases.

Danille Taylor, an English professor and dean of humanities, said opinions might vary about the accommodations, but overall, rooming at the Hilton offers definite advantages.

"It's a little strange at first, but I'm just glad I'm not homeless," said Taylor, whose home was destroyed in the flooding. "It may be hard for outsiders to understand, but it feels very reassuring and comforting to be back in New Orleans surrounded by students and administrators. This is an ideal way for us to become connected."

What Hurricane Katrina's 125 mph winds and toxic floodwaters did not hurt was Dillard's sense of community.

"Vertical relationships between students and faculty, and faculty and administrators, may have existed at the other campus, but now that we're all under one roof, it'll force everyone to communicate with one another," Taylor said. "And given everything that we've gone through," we "need the energy of all of us together to accomplish all the work we have ahead of us."

When asked if she had an open-door policy for students with problems, questions or who just wanted to talk, Taylor simply chuckled.

"I don't plan on giving out my room number," she said. "But if they knock, I'll answer."

Shawn Chollette is a senior journalism and engineering major at Louisiana Tech University, and staff writer for the Gramblinite. This is part of a special 2006 series appearing in THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine Second Semester Super Issue through a collaboration by Black College Wire (BlackCollegeWire.org) and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN (Blackcollegian.com), now celebrating its 35th publishing year. It may be reprinted intact with this credit included.

Posted Jan. 13, 2006