Warm Welcome
As I sat dejected by the catastrophic damage done
by Hurricane Katrina and the news that Tulane University had canceled the fall semester, a beacon of hope came from Lafayette.

Because a good friend is a ’Pard, I decided to look at Lafayette. No other school provided the response that Lafayette did: from my first call to the admissions office it has been welcoming and trouble-free. I was stunned at how easy they made it. Admissions wanted me to arrive 24 to 48 hours after the phone call. I reached Easton Saturday, Sept. 10, and by Sunday afternoon I had my dorm, class schedule, email address – basically everything. The registrar helped me choose courses that would meet my requirements at Tulane, and the school even provided some flex dollars! Lafayette administrators put bureaucracy behind them
in this time of need.

The response goes beyond the administration. The students have done tons to help all of us affected by the hurricane. As I walk around in my Tulane sweatshirt, nearly every other person asks me, “How is it going?” Classmates let me borrow their notes for the first two weeks I missed. I’ve made several new friends and hope to connect to even more.

I have been extremely impressed with the students’ outreach. I bought Mardi Gras beads to raise money, played in the charity dodgeball tournament, and took part in the candlelight vigil. The fundraisers and awareness-builders have been quite successful.

Without Lafayette’s support, the five students displaced by Hurricane Katrina would be out of school, and our future plans would be on hold. Lafayette has allowed us to stay on track academically. If all schools are as responsible and welcoming as Lafayette, the future bodes well for the students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Ben Lee

Excerpted from the October issue of Campus Community Connection, the newsletter of the Landis Community Outreach Center.

Resurrecting New Orleans
I was pleased, though not surprised, to see the outpouring of support from the Lafayette community for victims of the hurricane disaster. I am, once again, proud of the college.

I am one of many local leaders struggling with the long-term challenge of resurrecting one of the country’s most unique and vital cities. Our YMCA is focusing on assisting New Orleans in bringing back to life its recreational program, including school-age child care, across the city. The mayor’s decision to lay off 50 percent of the city work force will hit the recreational staff particularly hard, and many city employees who fled will not return anyway.

I have been in conversations with the mayor and city council and am working on a partnership to complete this part of the city’s recovery. I’m raising funds and alerting institutions with which I have connections of the need for volunteers to staff facilities and programs once they are up and running. Financial support is welcome, but I also thought students may be interested in short-term volunteer opportunities over the next 12 months.

Please feel free to contact me for more information.

Darrell E. Johnson ’71
New Orleans, La.

The writer is president and CEO of YMCA of Greater
New Orleans, (504) 339-9622.

Read about Lafayette’s response to the hurricane disasters here.