HBCUs are doing their best to create a sense of normalcy for displaced students, but many are still uncertain about their academic futures.
As the floodwaters drowning New Orleans recede, they may well be swamping other HBCUs across the country as schools 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 displaced by Katrina, according to the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education’s HBCU Student Evacuee Program.
Many NAFEO-affiliated schools offered students immediate enrollment, tuition waivers and other forms of aid after Katrina. Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges also responded, telling NAFEO President Lezli Baskerville, “We’ll follow your lead.”
“These are institutions that are stretched in a number of ways, but all the presidents stepped up to the plate,” she says, because “the evidence shows that if students disconnect even for a semester, the likelihood of them returning is slim.”
But many students say their motivation to return to school is high.
“I can’t wait until Xavier reopens,” says Terry Richards, a senior majoring in political science at Xavier University of Louisiana. A summer intern on Capitol Hill in the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., Richards has simply extended his stay in the congressman’s office. He says he’ll wait until Xavier opens to complete his education — even if that means waiting a full school year.
