Students say NO to N.O.

AP ^ | 11/28/2005 | AP

[HawaiianGecko]

Some New Orleans college students don't want to return

The Associated Press

Stephanie Swisher is settling in nicely as a freshman at the University of Virginia, enjoying classes, Naval ROTC, club volleyball and football Saturdays.

		Amy McClendon, a Tulane freshman from Amite, La., ended up at Harvard University after Hurricane Katrina.
		Bizuayehu Tesfaye, AP

Things are going so well, in fact, that she would rather not return to Tulane University in New Orleans — the school she had expected to attend until Hurricane Katrina struck.

"The argument that everyone's giving me is that I'm a freshman so I've never known Tulane, I need to give it a chance,'" she said. "My argument is, why should I have to?"

But Swisher probably will have to give Tulane a chance. Despite her wishes — and a 600-signature petition she helped organize — Virginia is sticking by the conditions under which visiting students were admitted after the hurricane: they must return when their school reopens. And Tulane is scheduled to reopen Jan. 17.

After Katrina, colleges around the country took in an estimated 18,000 displaced New Orleans students. Now, the New Orleans schools desperately need those students to return next semester and pay tuition.

Exactly how many will return won't be known until January. Tulane says 80% of its students have already re-registered. Loyola University, which received little damage, just started registration and can only say more than half for now. The situation will likely be more dire at schools like Xavier and Dillard, which are poorer and suffered more storm damage.

Some students simply want to stay where they are, particularly freshmen who never got attached to their original schools.

Student councils at Virginia, Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, have passed resolutions calling on their schools to be more flexible in letting New Orleans students at least apply to transfer.

Officially, those and other colleges are saying no, wary of breaking their promises to other schools or, in some cases, of letting students use the situation to "trade up" to a more prestigious school.

Of course, students won't truly be forced to return; host colleges can simply refuse to let them transfer there next semester. But there's nothing to prevent students from withdrawing from their New Orleans schools and trying to transfer next fall like anyone else.

So the question becomes, if students are determined to transfer, why force them to return to New Orleans at all?

That's what Amy McClendon, a Tulane freshman from Amite, La., who ended up at Harvard after a brief stint at Louisiana State University, is wondering. She wants to stay at Harvard but will have to return to Tulane and take her chances applying for transfer next fall (Harvard does not let any visiting freshmen apply to transfer). That would mean going back to be a new freshman — for the fourth time.

"I don't want to have to go through it again," she said. "All my friends are here."

Another Tulane student at Harvard, Julie Hall, was so disheartened by conditions in New Orleans on a recent visit that she's applying to transfer to a third school, Wellesley or Washington University. Five of the seven Tulane freshmen at Harvard want to stay there, she said.

"I'm sympathetic to the (New Orleans) schools," said Hall, who says she has made great friends and been a crew coxswain at Harvard. "At the same time, it's my education and I should have the right to go where I want."

Neither she nor McClendon had applied to Harvard out of high school.

The situation has placed college administrators in a bind.

"We're sort of in this moral, ethical dilemma here," said Esther Gulli, chief of staff to the vice chancellor for student affairs at Berkeley, which has been counseling displaced students on their options. "These students have been through a great deal here, and obviously they're just trying to look for a little consistency in their lives. But our agreements with their schools were, when they were open and ready for business we would send their students back."

Swisher, the Tulane student at Virginia, said New Orleans was a big reason she chose Tulane, but the city isn't the same. And despite Tulane's assurances, she says she won't have some opportunities she was counting on, like a Swahili class she had planned to take. At Virginia, she wants to play with her volleyball team, whose games start next semester.

Richard Whiteside, Tulane's vice president of enrollment management and dean of admission, says only about 5% of Tulane students have withdrawn so far, and more than 90% of freshmen have said they plan to return.

"If somebody's going to be extraordinarily unhappy coming back, we don't want them to come back," Whiteside said.

Still, he still wants other colleges to stick by their promises not to poach.

"I really believe, if students come back for a semester they won't leave again," he said. "New Orleans really gets into their DNA."

 

 

 

 

[HawaiianGecko]

	"I really believe, if students come back for a semester they won't leave again," he said. "New Orleans really gets into their DNA." I wonder if he is talking about Toxic Sludge getting into their DNA?

 

 

[SteveMcKing]

"New Orleans really gets into their DNA."

How very well reasoned. Irrefutable, really....

[ncountylee]

Welcome to the party, pal.

[kinghorse]

No worries dear. The panicked democrat machine down in those parts doesn't want you back. But they would like in absentia voting for their base. Can you believe that sh^^$t?

[Daus]

Neither she nor McClendon had applied to Harvard out of high school.

Hmmm.. Let me guess why... Possibly because the only way they could have gotten into Harvard was if a Hurricane destorying New Orleans? :)

[ClearCase_guy]

"I should have the right to go where I want."

Is that how College Admissions work? I wanted to go to MIT. But I didn't. I think my rights were violated.

[sam_paine]

Are your clunky frame graphics really necessary to highlight your point? Does FR really need to look more like DU?

[CSM]

The situation has placed college administrators in a bind.

"We're sort of in this moral, ethical dilemma here," said Esther Gulli, chief of staff to the vice chancellor for student affairs at Berkeley,

---

Yep, morals and ethics are always something that puts Berkely staffers in a bind.

[Redbob]

Having visited New Orleans over the Thanksgiving weekend, that was one of my greatest fears - that some of it would get into my DNA, or my respiratory system...

The place is an absolute PIT! The devastation must be seen to be believed - the TV reports can't begin to give a picture of the absolute wasteland that large portions of N.O. have become. Yes, Tulane is in one of the few remaining nice areas, but why would ANYone bother?
It's like saying the Green Zone is a nice area of Baghdad!

Driving around New Orleans at night, you're struck by how little of the city yet has electricity.
Friends who live in Fauberg Marigny ("Marigny neighborhood") are constantly dealing with power outages of several hours duration even now, and trash is piled 6 feet high along the sidewalks even in the "good" areas! Even in the supposedly "cleaned-up" downtown!

Meanwhile, back in Jamaica, Mayor Nagin is holding press conferences...

[Sthitch]

I always thought that NOLA was a pit before the hurricane hit. But I can understand why someone would want to attend UVa over Tulane, it is a better school that is harder to get into.

[Steely Tom]

Same story posted yesterday. Different source and headline, admittedly.

(steely)

[HawaiianGecko]

	I imagine Jim provided the use of html for purposes different than you humoring yourself with with attacks on Freepers. BTW: it's not frame graphics ;)

 

 

[TXBSAFH]

"I really believe, if students come back for a semester they won't leave again," he said. "New Orleans really gets into their DNA."

So do many deadly diseases.

[NonValueAdded]

Still, he still wants other colleges to stick by their promises not to poach.

RICO conspiracy? What is that monopoly term, "combination?" Does that apply? In a "right to work" state, two or more individuals cannot conspire to prevent a person from getting a job ... would this apply in a "right to study" situation? I can understand the schools requiring these students to properly apply for transfer in, but to deny admission solely on the basis of a "promise" should be actionable.

[Redbob]

"But they would like in absentia voting for their base."

Hah!
Their greatest fear - and it's openly expressed! - is that a White will be elected mayor in the upcoming elections!

New Orleans has gone from a 66% black population to 20%, literally overnight.

Oh, and my guess is the unemployment has gone from 12 - 15% down to the single digits - NEGATIVE!
"Help Wanted" signs are everywhere - on the tube, on lampposts, on shop windows.
(Interspersed with signs saying "Store relocating after being looted")

[Redbob]

(The silly formatting IS a waste of bandwidth; you can take the advice offered, or ignore it and become a legend in your own mind...)

[alloysteel]

There is still no viable reason to rebuild New Orleans, certainly not as it existed before August 2005.

Like Pompeii and Herculaneum after the eruptions of Mt. Vesuvius, the city of New Orleans lies buried and uninhabitable. A new city may arise there, IF there is a reason for one to exist.

There is a need for a terminal and port facility there, because of the enormous amount of traffic up and down the Mississippi. Barges and freight cars have to be loaded and unloaded when exchanging cargos with ocean-going vessels, petroleum supplies are received and either refined there, or are sent by pipeline elsewhere. Somebody has to be there running the port. They need housing. They need community support for themselves and their families. Other amenities of the community will grow OUT of these basic facts of life.

But you can't just build slum housing, and put in casinos, and have a reckless, wide-open, free-wheeling 24/7 Mardi Gras going on year around. And still call it a city.

Even Las Vegas has to maintain the streets and make sure the lights go on.

[wyattearp]

Right now they are getting a Harvard or University of Virginia education, while paying Tulane tuition. I suspect that THAT is what they are trying to keep.

[clintonh8r]

As a Tulane alumnus I'm saddened that it seems the university will never fully recover from Katrina. The school's endowment is not large and it depends on current revenues (tuitions and research) to operate. Regardless of some remarks here, New Orleans was a great place to go to college, and Tulane was once a great university.

[pepperhead]

I agree his formatting sucks. I usually just skip whatever he says because of it.