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Cosby Sends Off First Dillard Class to Survive Katrina

Photo credit: Shawn Chollette Bill Cosby, right, told the graduation audience, "This is the new Dillard. It did not crumble; it did not fold." On the dais with him is Marvalene Hughes, Dillard president, who presented medals to Brown and Princeton universities. They set up offices for Dillard at their schools.

By Brandi Worley
Black College Wire

People scurried to get a glimpse of the first class to survive Hurricane Katrina.

"There they go!" a woman said. On July 1, some 354 seniors, the largest class ever to graduate from Dillard University, started their way through New Orleans' Rosa Freeman Keller Avenue of the Oaks.

The class was determined to not break Dillard's tradition of "walking through Oaks."

Like those of other family and friends armed with still and video cameras, the toes of the woman's dress shoes were inching over a white line that marked a passageway for the graduates. An usher walked down the grass, asking people to back up.

Expressing their gratitude, graduates carried flags from the schools that hosted them after Dillard was flooded. From the side, the flag collection made it look like a small United Nations.

The band from McDonough No. 35 High School Drum Corps played upbeat music as the people walked in to Dillard's campus, which is in a neighborhood still surrounded by FEMA trailers and dilapidated homes. The crowd screamed as though the graduates were rock stars as the seniors walked through the Oaks. The temperature rose to the high 90s, adding to an already sticky and humid morning.

Speaker Bill Cosby visited with the graduates in the chapel for a quick inspirational talk. He told them they needed to keep trying and keep going, as they had in the 11 months since the hurricane.

After Katrina, many in the class scattered to schools around the country. In the spring, Dillard set up temporary housing and classes at the Hilton Riverside Hotel off Canal Street, and others finished their studies there. Some 700 students stayed at the hotel, according to a front-desk worker. Spring enrollment was 1,071 students, half the pre-Katrina enrollment of 2,200 students. But all but about 10 of the seniors came back to Dillard to finish their education, according to USA Today.

The graduates enjoyed the day.

"I loved it," said Jack Scott Jr., 22, a graduate in business management. "I really enjoyed it. I think it was a great experience with the hurricane and everything. I was glad that it was one of the biggest classes; the hype with the TV, and media being here. Bill Cosby was there to motivate us! It was a great experience meeting Bill Cosby."

Scott's host school was Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. He evacuated to Baton Rouge, staying in a home with 19 other family members for at least a month until his father was able to move back and fix the family's roof.

Patrick Miller, 22, a graduate in mass communications from Phoenix, La., said the graduation was emotional, but like Scott and others, said it was good to be back. Miller also evacuated to Southern University.

As the graduates sat in folding chairs on a lawn once covered with 8 to 10 feet of water, Cosby told the students to take care of God's gardens. He said no matter what the students choose -- a profession, grad school or a trade -- they are to look after it. And if they do, he said, "you're going to smell the roses instead of the decay or foul odor that man dumps on it."

Before the storm, Cosby said, many people probably didn't understand what Dillard was or didn't care to know.

"You came back with 'A's'," Cosby said; 78 students finished with Latin honors. "Stanford knows where Dillard is, Howard knows where Dillard is, and Norfolk State knows where Dillard is."

The entertainer stayed no more than 10 minutes at the lectern, but that was enough time to make his points.

"It's not the first time destruction hit, according to the Bible, according to history," Cosby said. "People make destruction; they blow up things. You're smart. This is the new Dillard. It did not crumble; it did not fold."

Dillard President Marvalene Hughes presented presidential medals of honor to Princeton and Brown universities. Both schools set up offices for Dillard at their schools after the storm, she said.

"It's difficult to determine in words what we have accomplished today," Hughes said. "Welcome today to what Katrina declared no future."

Brandi Worley is a student at Southern University at Baton Rouge.

Posted July 3, 2006