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One in Four Students Not Returning to N.O.

Photo of apartment: Sharita Akuma Photo of Sharita: Dr. Ezikpe Akuma Sharita Akuma decided not to return to Xavier University. She said it would be too stressful after losing her apartment to the Hurricane Katrina and the flooding.

By Mercy Chikowore
Black College Wire

An estimated 11,500 students displaced by Hurricane Katrina are not returning to New Orleans in January as their classmates resume their education at the city's six four-year colleges.

Together, they make up about one-fourth of the roughly 43,000 students who attended the colleges before the hurricane and flood.

The loss varies greatly from school to school, although overall, the colleges are pleased that more students than expected came back. For example, about half of Dillard University's 2,200 students returned. Xavier University of Louisiana expected 3,100 of its 4,100 students. Tulane University anticipated close to 85 percent of its 13,000. Southern University, which was able to move many students to its other campuses, believed 1,500 of 4,000 would return to classes in New Orleans.

Still, shaky or uncertain city conditions, financial setbacks, tuition costs and a lack of communication with the campus administration are among the reasons others are refusing to return after sitting out the semester or studying temporarily at other schools.

Sharita Akuma, 22, a junior psychology major, decided not to return. She said it would be too stressful after losing her apartment and belongings to the hurricane and flood.

With nothing in New Orleans to return to, Akuma went home to her family in Burlington, N.J., and enrolled at the College of New Jersey, just 25 minutes away.

If she returned to New Orleans, she said, "I would have to live on campus, or find somewhere to live. It could happen again," she said of the hurricane. "And they want to put two semesters in one," she said, referring to Xavier's plan to let students complete two semesters' work by summer. "It just seems like a lot going on."

Some students see going back as a burden that would be too hard to carry. Despite reports that the campuses are making progress in cleaning up, some students said they feared what they would see or experience: damaged buildings and waterlogged neighborhoods contaminated by mold, bacteria and chemicals that could be unsafe or make people uncomfortable.

Around the country, local news reports have identified New Orleans students not returning due to cancelled athletics programs. Other students have transferred because they have allergies or asthma that could be triggered by the mold. Still others have cited the number of professors who lost their jobs through layoffs at the struggling colleges, which said they had to pare academic programs and staff to survive.

There are also doubts about the colleges' readiness to reopen, because of what some students considered a lack of detail in the initial announcements. For a time after the disaster, the universities had no access to records and made official contact with students through the Internet. Then college officials began holding town hall meetings around the country.

"I went to the meetings encouraging students to come back; they didn't seem too up to par," said Andrea Cooper, a senior at Xavier who doubted the living and learning conditions would be sufficient for her and other students. She said she would not go back.

Teirra Rollins said financial difficulty prevented her from continuing at Dillard.

"When you leave for a hurricane, you expect to come back and pick up right where you left off," said Rollins, who attended Paul Quinn College in Dallas in the fall semester.

She made the trip to New Orleans in January to see off a friend who was returning to Dillard's makeshift campus in the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel.

"She and I have been friends for 10 years, and this is the first time we'll be apart," said Rollins. "And while I love Dillard and I'm going to miss my friends, I just cannot afford to return. Financial aid and out-of-pocket money aren't enough to cover the costs for this semester."

The eight students interviewed for this report said they simply found it easier to continue the progress they have made since returning home to live with their families, and enroll in colleges nearby.

The evacuation of New Orleans and closing of gravely damaged campuses forced students to hurriedly apply for temporary admission to schools outside of New Orleans to finish the fall semester. More than 1,000 colleges accepted upwards of 18,000 displaced students after the hurricane hit the Gulf region at the end of August, the National Student Clearinghouse reported, based on a survey of its member colleges. The fate of other displaced students is not well-documented.

To ensure that displaced students could continue their education, many colleges agreed to offer free or reduced tuition for one semester. At the same time, many agreed they would not keep the visiting students, in a national pact made to preserve the New Orleans colleges and prevent poaching. Though some student groups mounted protests, many of the colleges, including Harvard, have pointed the displaced students back to their New Orleans schools.

"Loyalty is great, but I want a diploma," said Ashley R. Harris, who decided to stay at the University of Houston despite her love for Dillard. "After Hurricane Katrina, there was a lack of communication, and now that I'm comfortable and settled at the University of Houston, I feel it's the best decision for me to stay."

Early in January, some news reports suggested that upperclassmen would be more likely to return to New Orleans because of commitments and investments in financial-aid packages and academic credits. Freshmen who had not yet developed bonds might be less likely to come back, especially if their parents opposed it, they said.

"I was in my dorm for two weeks, and we just finished our first week of classes and the hurricane came that weekend," said Donte Howard, who had been a Xavier freshman. He transferred to Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in part because, "I think the city would be in such bad shape that it wouldn't be so much fun," he said.

The only bad part about transferring, Howard said, was ending up back home.

"I've been wanting go to Xavier for a long time, but when the hurricane did come, it just seemed like this was a sign that God didn't want me to be there," Howard said.

For some, starting over at this point would mean sitting out the spring and summer while waiting to be admitted to another college: Many did not wish to take this risk.

"Most of my friends are going back, a lot of them are from New Orleans and a lot of them want to finish. It's easier to go back," said Matthew Alemu, who attended Georgia State University in the fall. He is returning to Xavier. "I'm a senior and at this point, I don't want to lose credits and be idle for a semester."

Others have accepted that they might have to postpone graduation or change other plans because they're not going back to New Orleans. Some are finding ways to make the transition work for them.

"One reason I'm delaying my return is because the school I'm attending now is cheaper. And because I'm in my home city, I get more funding," said Cecilia Maxwell, a Dillard student who plans to stay at the University of Memphis for another semester. She said she planned to return to Dillard in the fall after school conditions improve.

"The first thing that really triggered my decision was they said they were going to put people in a cruise ship," she said. "By then, I had already made up my mind to stay" at the University of Memphis.

Dillard officials told students they were considering a cruise ship as a housing alternative, but later decided to rent 500 rooms in the Hilton Riverside. The hotel houses students and faculty and provides classroom and assembly space. Tulane has since announced it will house some of its students on cruise ships.

Maxwell is making a trade-off, she acknowledges: Although the tuition is cheaper at the University of Memphis, Maxwell said she does not think she is getting the same education that she received at the historically black college.

"Just the environment was totally different -- the classes, the professors," Maxwell said. "The classes, I really just didn't care for -- not saying I was being spoon-fed at the college I attended, but I learned more at Dillard."

Some students who are not returning had a hard time adjusting.

Akuma's transfer to the College of New Jersey resulted in culture shock. Xavier is the nation's only historically black Catholic college. The undergraduate population at the College of New Jersey is 6.3 percent black. She said this presented no immediate difficulties, "it's just different."

"I spoke to the dean of admissions and they got me in the system really fast and they accepted my credits," Akuma said. "When I got here, the teachers were really helpful. We did a lot of group projects, which helped me adjust to getting to know people and getting to know the campus."

Other students from Dillard and Xavier chose to move to other historically black colleges. They said having the support of their new campuses and school administrators has helped.

Marci Fuller, a Dillard junior, said she felt welcome at Texas Southern University, in her hometown of Houston. Both are historically black colleges, but Texas Southern has 11,000 more students than Dillard. Nevertheless, Fuller said, she experienced an easy transition.

"I had fun; I'm still having fun," she said. "Another reason I'm not going back is because I got involved" at Texas Southern. During her fall semester there, Fuller was chosen as the Association of Black Journalists' homecoming queen.

"I miss Dillard, I love Dillard. I would love to return, but as of right now, I'm a TSU student," she said. "I'm not ready to relocate and get ready to go through the whole hassle. I don't feel too confident with Dillard's plan. I don't feel safe going back to New Orleans. I don't want to have classes at the Hilton Hotel, and I don't want to park at the convention center."

Fuller said she would love to return, but "I'm just taking it one day at a time," a sentiment expressed widely by the hurricane's student victims.

Mercy Chikowore is a senior print journalism major at Claflin University in South Carolina. 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. 20, 2006