New Orleans Disaster a Priceless Education

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New Orleans Disaster a Priceless Education

By JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writer

Tue Jan 31, 3:04 PM ET

http://news./s/ap/20060131/ap_on_re_us/katrina_colleges_1

NEW ORLEANS - For engineering students, the mechanics of pumps and

levees has never been more important. For biologists, the study of

mold never more timely. For political scientists, the challenges of

democratic decision-making never more real.

The flood waters that followed Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans'

colleges with a huge array of problems, but also one unprecedented

and enormous opportunity. In nearly every academic field, from

architecture to sociology to economics, the city's rebuilding offers

a real-world educational laboratory the likes of which American

universities have never seen.

" This is our Katrina dividend, " said Kroloff, dean of Tulane

University's school of architecture, which has revamped its entire

curriculum to focus on Katrina-related issues.

Even as they lay off staff and cut programs (including some

engineering ones at Tulane), the colleges say they are determined to

take advantage. Offering a unique educational experience may be

their best hope for attracting students to a city with so many

problems and inconveniences.

Each of New Orleans' half-dozen or so major colleges, in varying

stages of recovery, say they plan to blur the boundaries between the

recovering city and the classroom. Tulane is adding a public service

requirement, while Dillard University will require a Katrina-related

academic project of students. All are reworking classes.

The focus may be sharpest at Loyola University, a Jesuit school next

door to Tulane with a long-standing tradition of " moral learning "

and public service.

" Sometimes (students) think what they're doing in college is

disconnected from the 'real world,' " said the Rev. Wildes,

Loyola's president. But in post-storm New Orleans, he said, there is

little danger of that.

When Loyola reopened this semester, course offerings

included " Psychology of Disasters " and " Religious Responses to

Katrina, " in which students recently parsed the story of Noah,

debating whether it revealed an angry or merciful God.

" There is an interest in trying to see how these things relate to

our religious background and culture, " said religious studies

professor Goodine. " 'How could God let this happen to my

city' is an important question for them. "

Many Loyola courses blend teaching, research and public service.

Students in an oral history course will gather stories from victims,

which will be preserved for future researchers, while business

students will give local companies a hand getting back on their

feet. A course at Loyola's college for adults will help students

make sense of the mass of information New Orleans residents are

getting about the rebuilding.

" This is exactly the kind of subject matter, community outreach and

community service, that I always try to lead my students into in

this class without forcing them into it, " said Parr, who is

making Katrina the focus of her documentary photography class. " But

now they see the benefits of doing this, even the necessity of this. "

Several of the classes have proven popular with students, who seem

both eager to put the past few months in perspective and glad to be

back among others who understand what they've been through.

" It's a huge life event. I lost all my stuff, my home, " said

le Renaud, a junior sociology major taking the oral history

course. " I was in Wisconsin last semester, and nobody cared what was

going on. After a week or so it became a non-issue for everyone

else. "

Some also sense a new seriousness among students, a product of their

own experiences and exposure to human suffering in a city so badly

damaged. A public service fair on Loyola's campus was so well-

attended that the student government has had to look into more

programs to accommodate demand. The college has been running bus

tours through the most badly damaged parts of the city.

" You wold have to be inhuman to go through those parts of the city

and not be affected in some profound way, " said Loyola history

professor Mark Fernandez. Saucier, a student taking the

psychology of disasters courses, said he's noticed fewer students

skipping or showing up late to class this semester.

Still, while students want to make sense of Katrina, many also long

for a return to normalcy. When Loyola students spent a session of

the oral history class telling their own Katrina stories, one class

member, Boyle, seemed to struggle as she talked about the

death of her grandmother soon after the storm and the storm-related

death of a family friend.

She signed up for the course not realizing it would focus on the

hurricane, and wasn't sure she would stick with it.

" When I found out it was about the hurricane, I was like, 'oh man,'

because I want to move on, " she said. " It's not really therapeutic.

It's kind of making me go backward. "

Wildes said the post-Katrina experience of living in New Orleans is

a tremendous educational opportunity, and he hopes it will attract

civic-minded students to fill Loyola's classrooms in the coming

years. But wary of overkill, he rejected advice he got last fall to

transform Loyola into a school focused almost entirely on the storm

and recovery.

" There's a fatigue, " said Wildes, who declined to make public

service mandatory for students. " They don't want to come back

to 'Katrina U.' "