TBC:  Tell us about the damage Dillard sustained.

Dr. Hughes:  Dillard University is located very close to the levees that broke, and as a result it incurred considerable damage. As a matter of fact, we remained under water for several weeks. Only one building on the entire campus was not covered with water on the first floor; Lawless Chapel is the only building that did not incur major damage. Even our newest buildings [sustained damage]. Much to our chagrin and shock, three buildings burned down completely, and several buildings at the back of the campus, on the lowest terrain that we have, cannot be restored. We are in the process of determining which buildings must be demolished, where we will rebuild them, and what we can do to really master-plan Dillard in the future. In a way, that represents a new Dillard University.

TBC:  How much is the estimated damage?

Dr. Hughes:  It is hard to estimate at this time. We have more than 200 employees on campus engaged in this process of remediation and clean-up. For the most part, cleaning up of the grounds has occurred. Remediation has meant going into buildings, determining the level of damage, trying to dry the floors and provide some ventilation to avoid mold, to protect against or contain it. They are doing this to every single building on campus. Once remediation is complete, the next critical stage involves the assessment by architects and engineers to determine the possibility of restoration and reconstruction of these buildings.

TBC:  What are your immediate plans to get Dillard back on its feet?

Dr. Hughes:  They include a memorandum of understanding with Tulane University to share some of its space for the second semester and, if necessary, the first semester of 2006. We will schedule many of our classes at Tulane facilities, and determine with Tulane what we can do as partners to locate residential space for our faculty, staff, and students. That really is the biggest challenge for all of us: finding residential space for the members of our campus community who return to New Orleans. Given that we have the months of November and December, we hope that some of the second and third floors on Dillard campus may be in sufficient condition and environmentally acceptable to be used for classrooms in January. We believe this is possible. So we are proceeding under the assumption that we may be able to operate on both the Dillard campus, to some extent, and the Tulane campus.

TBC:  How has the interruption impacted this year's graduating class?

Dr. Hughes:  Severely, especially personally. I have had some very tearful moments with students who cannot believe -- after all of their life's dreams in selecting this university and succeeding to the level of being seniors prepared to graduate -- that they may not be able to graduate from Dillard. Those are the students who are so bonded to the campus. I am working on whatever [solution] possible to ensure that they receive their degrees from Dillard University and can march down the Avenue of the Oaks -- those students who have spent their lives aspiring to have that moment of magic. I have to make it happen. If my campus is environmentally safe, they will march through the Avenue of the Oaks for commencement.

TBC:  How will they be able to complete the requirements for graduation?

Dr. Hughes:  Our students are someplace taking a full semester now. We have created a plan that will enable them to receive two full semesters between January and June. Now, it will take a lot of condensing of time, and the expansion of days and weeks. The accreditation association has assured us that our plan is adequate.

TBC:  Is your faculty in place?

Dr. Hughes:  Not really. We have clusters of people in place. Some are in Atlanta; some are at other universities that are accommodating them to allow them to do the important work that they should be doing as scholars. There are actually some organizations helping as well. I was really moved last week by the extension of special privileges for four or five of our faculty members by the National Institute of Health, [which invited them] to Washington, D.C. to use space in the NIH while preparing to write special grants. These are the kinds of things that we have been working: to open doors and seek privileges for our faculty, staff and students.

TBC:  What are your most immediate needs?

Dr. Hughes:  [Getting] money to restore the university.  If there were big developers who would come to New Orleans and just say, get out of the way and let us develop your campus, I wouldn't need the money. But, I need money to restore my campus, and I need to re-attract our students to New Orleans and to Dillard University. Now importantly, from my perspective and observation as a very short-time citizen in New Orleans, if Dillard is not up and operational very soon, the surrounding community will not have the economic anchor that it should have. I have on my recent visits viewed Dillard as the economic engine to get this community up and operational again, because there is no livelihood around there now. So, to the extent that we can get our 2,000-plus students and 400 employees on board, we can, as economic donors, affect the future of that community. I am also very concerned about how to engage our students, through service-learning, in contributing their time, energy, and resources to redeveloping the neighborhoods around us.

TBC:  What is your vision for the new, redeveloped Dillard?

Dr. Hughes:  The new Dillard University will first of all build upon its legacy of 135-plus years of excellence. I have studied that legacy and I want to preserve it. In addition, the new Dillard would like to continue to be a stellar performing institution of liberal arts education in the United States. In addition to that, we now know we need to branch out into other science-oriented areas. We'll allow Dillard to contribute to the advancement of human life and human research in ways that it has not been able to do before, because it has not really focused on science -- not to the extent that I would have hoped, that we will focus on in the future. So, we will probably convene somewhere at a weekend retreat to do some planning. I am thinking about how its curriculum can become more enriched through scientific research that contributes to human life and to the environment. We actually have a lot of faculty doing some of these things now. We have a faculty member very involved in hurricane research [who] should be able to give us some knowledge base about how to proceed to better the lives of people who encounter hurricanes. In addition, we have determined that we want our undergraduate students to have a research base in all of their studies, such that each individual who graduates will have completed a major research project. You can call it a thesis or a research product. So, we will have [one of the few] small liberal arts institutions focused on research at the undergraduate level, bringing students and faculty together as partners in research. We have begun it already. We have appointed the very first director of undergraduate research.

I want all of your readers to know that we need their support in every way. We need their prayers. We need their resources. We need their contributions, their guidance, their wisdom. We need anything they can give to us, and I would simply conclude by [giving] assurance that we will rebound. Dillard University is coming back -- not merely to be what it was, but to exceed what it was. It is my firm commitment to produce a Dillard that is back, and better!