As spring semester gets off to a normal start for Washington University students, students at Tulane University are just beginning to get reacquainted with their campus after the Hurricane Katrina disaster last fall.
According to Tulane’s Web site, the university’s “renewal plan” consists of such goals as “strengthening its commitment to building a world-class educational and research institution” and “implementing measures to ensure the university’s financial stability.”
According to student Stephen Frapart, a freshman who spent his first semester at Washington University, Tulane expected only about 60-70 percent of students to return but in fact received something closer to a 90 percent return rate.
Freshmen such as Frapart had to go through an orientation program similar to the one planned for last fall.
“[It was] essentially the same orientation they had pre-Katrina, but we never got to experience it,” said Frapart. “There was a lot of getting to know people at college.”
All students were also given the opportunity to participate in a student-wide community service project that consisted of helping damaged parts of New Orleans.
“Last Saturday they had this thing called ‘Outreach New Orleans’ [where about] 3,000 or 6,000 college students [including] 3,000 Tulane [students] volunteered in the New Orleans community,” said Frapart.
Frapart described his experience in the Lower Ninth Ward, the most devastated part of New Orleans.
“[It was] the hardest hit by Katrina,” said Frapart. “[It was] 17 feet underwater during the storm. We were assigned to a house, and we cleaned everything out.It was unbelievable; everything was damaged.”
Junior Mike Mullen, who also spent last semester at Washington University, has similarly noticed more community awareness around the Tulane campus.
“People are trying to help the city,” he said.
Mullen also said that a lot of extracurricular activities have become more focused on the effects of the Katrina disaster.
“The focus of a lot of the groups has changed a lot, probably for the better,” said Mullen. “I feel like a lot more kids are involved now.”
Tulane’s campus and housing for its students have also undergone changes. This semester, for example, members of the Tulane community will be living on a cruise ship.
“The cruise ship is only for people over the age of 21, for upperclassmen and for faculty from off-campus housing that was unsalvageable from the storm,” said Frapart.
Mullen, who hasn’t been on the cruise ship himself, does have a few friends who have been living on it.
“I haven’t really heard much about it,” said Mullen. “They don’t have drinking water, cell phone service or the Internet. It sounds like it sucks to me.”
Still, Mullen seemed to think that an altered living condition was one of the only negative changes about students’ lives at Tulane.
“All the landscaping and grass is dead, [but] other than that I feel like campus is just as busy as it was before,” said Mullen.
He added, “Everyone is really excited to be back. There is a lot of activity on campus.”
Although Mullen is happy to be back at Tulane, he does still take pride in his semester at Wash. U.
“I had a good semester,” said Mullen. “I made a lot of really good friends that were hard to leave behind, but I am really happy to be back at Tulane.Washington University was really accommodating.”
According to Steven Ehrlich, associate dean for University College’s undergraduate and special programs, the University took in about 90 students – 70 undergraduates and 20 graduate students.
Of those who were considered “visiting students,” three were admitted as transfer students.
In December, three other students were still awaiting an offer of admission pending first semester grades, and one other student was admitted to the University but decided to return to Tulane. Among these transfer students are one sophomore and several freshmen and juniors.
“[The students] were viewed in the same general criteria that any other transfer would be,” said Ehrlich.
Mullen and Frapart had different experiences when attempting to transfer credits they earned here.
“I actually took all the classes I would have taken at the architecture school [at Tulane],” said Mullen. “I’m not behind at all.”
In fact, Mullen’s situation has actually worked to his advantage.
“I’m actually going to be ahead because they are offering a summer semester for free for anyone who paid tuition for both semesters,” said Mullen.
Frapart has also had few difficulties.
“It turns out that [the Spanish class I signed up for at Tulane] was the same one I took at Wash. U., [and] once I figured out it was the same class I had to scramble to find the right class,” said Frapart.
Overall, though, Frapart is happy to be back at Tulane.
“After two days at Tulane it just picked up and I think I’m really settled here,” said Frapart.