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Black Colleges Struggle Back After Katrina: Future Cloudy for Proud Schools With Small Endowments

Posted on: Monday, 16 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Jodi S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune

Jan. 16--NEW ORLEANS -- On graduation day later this year, Dillard University seniors will march down the campus' grand Avenue of the Oaks in a ceremony that seems as old as the oaks themselves.

Senior Dalia Williams plans to be there, between the rows of broad trees, proudly graduating from a college with a 136-year tradition of educating African-American students.

"They opened the doors to continue the legacy," said Williams, 21, who spent last semester at the University of Houston after Hurricane Katrina forced Dillard and all other New Orleans colleges and universities to close. "It shows that no matter what, we can always recover and rebuild."

While every university here was damaged by the hurricane, Dillard, Xavier University of Louisiana and Southern University at New Orleans face particular challenges.

The three historically black colleges expect to enroll a combined 7,000 students this semester--considerably fewer than in the fall semester before Katrina. And with relatively small endowments and alumni networks from which to raise funds, their efforts to reopen have been daunting.

Officials of all three universities said last week that they were driven by their mission to educate a population historically left out of higher education.

"If something were to happen to Xavier, Dillard and SUNO, we would have a real problem in terms of the career productivity of African-Americans. We can't afford to do that. It is too important to America," said Xavier President Norman Francis, the nation's longest-serving university president at 38 years.

Students describe the universities as small and nurturing, where professors know their names. Some students also said they feel more comfortable at a university where they aren't in the minority.

Nationally, black colleges have had greater success in graduating black students than other schools, according to University of Pennsylvania assistant professor of education Marybeth Gasman. While 25 percent of all college-bound black students attend historically black colleges, 28 percent of black college graduates are from those schools, she said.

Xavier sends about 100 black students to medical school a year, more so than any other institution.

Dillard University, founded in 1869 to educate freed slaves, is known for its nursing, education and liberal arts programs.

Southern University at New Orleans, the only public school among the three, requires that all students perform community service and is known for its social work program.

Xavier to reopen campus

Xavier, which kicks off the spring semester Tuesday, is the only one able to return to its campus, which still has signs warning people to keep out of damaged areas. The school has spent about $20 million on repairs and expects to spend $15 million more, Francis said.

Except for commencement ceremonies this summer, Dillard will operate for the next six months out of a downtown hotel, where gray partitions divide a ballroom into 14 classrooms that are anything but soundproof. An African history class had to move to the back of its room to avoid the booming voice of an education professor next door.

About 50 percent of Dillard students returned for the spring semester, and about half the faculty was laid off. The campus, in the Gentilly neighborhood, sustained about $500 million in flooding and fire damage but only two of its oak trees were destroyed, President Marvalene Hughes said.

Southern University has an estimated $18.5 million in damage and will hold classes at a middle school for a few weeks before moving to a makeshift campus of trailers near the deserted school, where a desk calendar remained open last week to Aug. 26. Katrina made landfall Aug. 29.

Signs on the temporary campus proclaim "SUNO is Back!" but fewer than half of the students are expected to return this semester. About 43 percent of the faculty members and about 19 academic programs have been cut, officials said.

Some students who are not returning to New Orleans will get their education in Chicago instead.

Marvell Brickhouse would have been a sophomore this year at Xavier but transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago with a dozen other Xavier students, according to UIC spokesman Mark Rosati.

"When we were freshmen, [Xavier officials] guaranteed that they had some sort of evacuation plan if something like this was to occur. They didn't," said Brickhouse, a Chicagoan who said he was stranded in a dorm for several days after the storm.

Small endowments

All three colleges are unsure about how many students will enroll this fall. Decisions about attending school here will depend in part on the city's ability to rebuild and recover.

All three also face financial questions. Dillard and Xavier have endowments of about $50 million, small compared to Tulane University's $850 million.

The universities relied on donations from alumni, foundations and other universities to help them reopen. Brown University, whose president, Ruth Simmons, is a Dillard graduate, donated $1.1 million for student scholarships at Dillard, Xavier and a Mississippi university.

Simmons said the universities have a unique opportunity to help the black community hit hard by Katrina.

"In a strange way, here is an unparalleled moment yet again for these institutions to play a role in bringing that community back," Simmons said.

jscohen@tribune.com

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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