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Black Collegian News & Views Activist Urges Major
Rebuilding Role for Students
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Drew Daniels
Reps. William Jefferson, D-La., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., urged that the nation
take greater responsibility for Gulf Coast recovery. |
By Drew Daniels
Black College Wire
College students must play a major part in the rebuilding of New Orleans, a hurricane
recovery activist told an audience gathered at Dillard University to commemorate the second
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
“Students learn to be civically engaged if they are civically engaged in college,” said
Marcus Littles of the Louisiana Disaster Relief Foundation. “Students cannot just be
contained in their college bubble.”
Dillard President Marvalene Hughes told those at the forum that students are eager to be
part of the recovery efforts. “Students are required to have 140 units of community service
hours completed upon graduation,” Hughes said. “Since Katrina, students have asked to take
that limit off because they know they will exceed that.”
About 300 residents, students and activists filled Dillard’s Lawless Memorial Chapel to
participate in the Aug. 28 forum as part of the week-long commemoration organized to focus
attention on the conditions still facing the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. The event
featured activists who discussed such issues as affordable housing, quality education and
environmental safety.
“The federal government should take over the responsibility of redeveloping and repairing
this infrastructure, getting these schools rebuilt, getting these clinics back in and
getting these libraries back up,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. “I believe that the
federal government should do what it is designed to do.”
Community organizers expressed concern at the forum about lack of progress in the
rebuilding of the entire Gulf Coast region. Groups of business, civic and entertainment
organizations expressed those concerns to government officials.
“We will not rebuild a stronger region unless we take additional steps to ensure quality
housing, jobs, and education are new commitments,” said Dominique Duval-Diop, senior
associate for PolicyLink, a nonprofit organization promoting economic development in the
Gulf Coast.
But Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., said the recovery is not just a state and local
problem.
“We want to make sure people across the country understand that this is a national issue
because of the incompetence of the administration, after the storm,” he said.
According to Jefferson, 58 of 128 schools are open in New Orleans and the New Orleans
school district is about $60 million in debt.
Jefferson also announced that about 60 percent of New Orleans residents have returned, up
from about 50 percent this time last year.
College students comprise a significant part of the returning population. Administrators
report that enrollment has climbed to between 60 percent and 75 percent of pre-Katrina
levels at most of the New Orleans universities.
“As college students we have a large voice,” said Christopher Stewart, a Dillard senior
political science major from Dallas. “Being active around Hurricane Katrina projects is a
way we can help rebuild and improve the communities in which we attend school every day."
Also of Interest
Drew Daniels, a student at Dillard University, is layout and design
editor of the Courtbouillon. To comment, e-mail Black
College Wire.
Posted Aug. 31, 2007 |
