Arkansas State University President Says Better Disaster Plans Needed
LITTLE ROCK
Arkansas colleges and universities should research how to take on extra students and faculty when other institutions are crippled by natural disasters, the head of Arkansas State University said earlier this week.
ASU President Les Wyatt said Hurricane Katrina’s effect on Louisiana and Mississippi schools could be a lesson for Arkansas higher education institutions.
“I think we need to look at how we would respond if a wide range of natural disasters were to happen to us,” Wyatt said at a meeting of the state university presidents.
Colleges and universities have disaster response plans in place, but the plans don’t specifically deal with where faculty and students would be placed in case of a disaster.
Many college students from the Gulf Coast region were displaced last year following Hurricane Katrina. In Arkansas, 282 students enrolled in colleges and universities in fall 2005 after they were displaced by the storm.
