Rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward

Students and faculty are continuing collaborations with citizens of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and others to advance the ambitions of L9W, devastated by Hurricane Katrina, to rebuild as the first carbon-neutral community in the country.

Working with Gladstone (Fluney) Hutchinson, associate professor of economics, and David Veshosky, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, students have joined forces with leading community organizations, the Center for Bio-Environmental Research at Tulane and Xavier Universities, the Department of Business at Xavier, local and state officials, and local entrepreneurs on ways to facilitate L9W’s vision of creating a green economy.

“The initiative is inspired by Imagining America’s call for member institutions to participate in the recovery of New Orleans,” Hutchinson says. Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life is a national consortium of colleges and universities committed to public scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design. Hutchinson defines public scholarship as “knowledge-making through a collaborative co-learning approach about, with, and for diverse publics and communities.”

Katie Reeves ’10 has been the student leader of the initiative— one of several current efforts under the umbrella of the College’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project (EEGLP)—since it began in fall 2007. The team’s expertise reflects a variety of academic interests. Reeves has two majors, economics and business and a self-designed major in bioenvironmental science. Jackie Egan ’09 double majored in economics and business and government and law. Nick Oliver ’10 is an engineering studies major with a minor in architectural studies and a starting defensive back on the varsity football team. Kavinda Udugama ’09 majored in electrical and computer engineering.

President Bill Clinton saluted the New Orleans project at the inaugural Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) University Conference last March. The team is using a CGI grant, awarded in September, to provide seed-funding for L9W efforts. Sound systems and chairs were contributed to the Lower Ninth Ward Village organization to facilitate “democratic renewal forums” that foster interaction among residents and help build the social capital and creative entrepreneurial spirit the community needs to implement its redevelopment aims. With the Lafayette team’s collaboration, citizens, organizations, and officials in L9W planned to mark the nation’s birthday on July 4 with a democratic renewal forum to celebrate what has been accomplished so far in the recovery, redevelopment, and rebirth of their community. The funds also are supporting urban gardening and farming projects of the Lower Ninth Ward Urban Farming Coalition.

Lafayette’s collaborations in L9W also include work on the proposed St. Claude Deep Green Lifestyle Center, a development encompassing retail stores and social activities, and discussions aimed at facilitating the availability of solar panels for use in construction and rebuilding projects. The efforts are supported by the College’s Robert F. Hunsicker Fund for the study of entrepreneurship.

Hutchinson says the EEGLP challenges undergraduates “to become global citizens, to recognize themselves as part of a bigger whole,” and the collaborations in L9W exemplify “how students can use their disciplinary knowledge and creative human capital in a partnership with the localized knowledge and experience-based human capital of community residents to solve problems relating to well-being and democracy while strengthening the residents’ capacity to act as agents of their own development.”

The Lafayette team is preparing proposals for presentations at Imagining America’s annual national conference in New Orleans in October.