Only a few of Haiti's colleges have resumed classes since the earthquake effectively shut down higher education in the impoverished country. Most of the country's 159 colleges are concentrated in the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince. Those that have reopened are housed in temporary quarters. The destruction of Haitian higher education was so…

This paper recounts the author's story as she returned to Haiti in February to join a building project near Port-Au-Prince and to document efforts by U.S. higher education institutions to help the country rebound from the devastating 2010 earthquake. The author describes how consortiums have been formed in order to support the development of the…

Eddie Francis bursts out laughing when he recounts his unexpected coaching debut for Southern University at New Orleans this past semester. The men's track team was planning to travel to Tennessee for a national indoor championship meet, but their part-time coach, a runner himself, couldn't accompany them because of a race he would run in Europe…

Hundreds of higher education faculty lost their jobs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans' colleges and universities were forced to cancel fall semester classes after the city's levee system failed, submerging 80 percent of the city just weeks before the academic year began. Damage assessments began even before the deadly storm's…

Probably the most reported and unforgettable story in 2005, in addition to the ongoing War in Iraq, was Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast region of the United States at the end of August. The hurricane's aftermath is still affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. In the higher education community, thousands of…

Like the resilient residents, city leaders and community boosters battered and displaced by Hurricane Katrina, officials from the Big Easy's colleges and universities vowed early on to come back. For Tulane University, one of the biggest challenges to overcome before resuming classes in January was finding schools for the children of the…

The 27 institutions damaged by hurricanes Katrina or Rita--there were 14 in Mississippi, 12 in Louisiana and one in Alabama--estimate their combined physical damages at $1.4 billion. But rather than providing aid, the Louisiana Legislature was forced to call for $77 million in cuts in November, leading to a wrenching gut-check on many campuses.…

Dr. Keith Amos' undying support for his undergrad alma mater, Xavier University of Louisiana, took an unusual turn last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Amos, who graduated from Harvard Medical School after earning his bachelor's from Xavier, also served as a mentor and advisor for Xavier students whose plans for applying to medical…

As the floodwaters drowning New Orleans recede, they may well be swamping historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the country as they gear up to deal with a rising tide of displaced college students in search of shelter from the storm. More than 9,100 HBCU students, plus thousands more faculty and staff, have been directly…

Colleges and universities in other parts of Louisiana and the nation are opening their doors to the 72,000 college students in the greater New Orleans area who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, Louisiana's commissioner of higher education, says the state's board of regents is making arrangements to allow the students to…

For decades three historically Black colleges and universities have called New Orleans home: (1) Southern University-New Orleans (SUNO), founded in 1956 as a branch of a system known for producing a majority of the state's Black lawyers; (2) Xavier University of Louisiana, founded in 1915 and long known for sending the most African-American…

The entire world saw the images of Black New Orleans residents left homeless, jobless and helpless by the arrival and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The pictures and stories dominated mainstream news outlets for weeks. What hasn't been widely publicized, however, are the Katrina-related ordeals of Vietnamese Americans, another socio-economically…

To get some notion of how deeply scholars have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, one might look to someone like Dr. Erma Lawson, a medical sociologist from the University of North Texas. Lawson, who has coordinated the assistance efforts for the Association of Black Sociologists, has not hesitated to call on colleagues, graduate students, civil…