College students must play a major part in the rebuilding of New Orleans, a hurricane recovery activist told an audience gathered at Dillard University to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
“Students learn to be civically engaged if they are civically engaged in college,” said Marcus Littles of the Louisiana Disaster Relief Foundation.
Dillard President Marvalene Hughes told those at the forum that students are eager to be part of the recovery efforts. “Students are required to have 140 units of community service hours completed upon graduation,” Hughes said. “Since Katrina, students have asked to take that limit off because they know they will exceed that.”
About 300 residents, students and activists filled Dillard’s Lawless Memorial Chapel in New Orleans to participate in a recent forum to focus attention on the conditions still facing the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. The event featured activists who discussed such issues as affordable housing, quality education and environmental safety.
“The federal government should take over the responsibility of redeveloping and repairing this infrastructure, getting these schools rebuilt, getting these clinics back in and getting these libraries back up,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
Community organizers expressed concern at the forum about lack of progress in the rebuilding of the entire Gulf Coast region. Groups of business, civic and entertainment organizations expressed those concerns to government officials.
But Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., said the recovery is not just a state and local problem.
“We want to make sure people across the country understand that this is a national issue because of the incompetence of the administration, after the storm,” he said.
According to Jefferson, 58 of 128 schools are open in New Orleans and the New Orleans school district is about $60 million in debt.
Jefferson also announced that about 60 percent of New Orleans residents have returned, up from about 50 percent this time last year.
College students comprise a significant part of the returning population. Administrators report that enrollment has climbed to between 60 percent and 75 percent of pre-Katrina levels at most of the New Orleans universities.
“As college students we have a large voice,” said Christopher Stewart, a Dillard senior political science major from Dallas.
“Being active around Hurricane Katrina projects is a way we can help rebuild and improve the communities in which we attend school every day.”