The Washington Post published an article titled Amid Katrina’s Ruins, Black Colleges Survive:
Xavier University, the nation’s only historically black Catholic university, expected half its 4,100 students would return this semester; instead 3,110 are back on its restored campus, surrounded by uninhabitable houses and boarded-up shopping centers.
Until I read this article, I hadn’t thought about the fact that 3/4 of our students are back, but only about 1/3 of the city’s residents have returned.
I think Loyola had a similarly staggering number return. I still think that these colleges reopening is a very important event in the saga of post-Katrina New Orleans. I am often told that I am out of my mind for allowing my son to return. *sigh*
Not to belittle them, but their schools are open and if they want jobs they are there for them, they don’t seem to be having a lot of trouble finding places to live, and they don’t have to worry about anyone but themselves.
The remainder of the population have more things to think about than the students – job, schools, daycare, housing, healthcare, taxes, etc., etc.
To be a student again…