Hard Lesson for Students, and Colleges

When Alex Tellers heard about hurricane preparedness during his freshman orientation last week at Loyola University of New Orleans, the 18-year-old from Pasadena didn’t pay much attention.

“I was aware there was a tropical storm in Florida, but I guess I was too excited about my first year in college, Tellers said. A disaster “was completely off my radar.”

It’s on his radar now, of course -- along with the rest of the nation’s.

Safely home in Pasadena, Tellers fears that the Jesuit university and its home city will need years to recover from Hurricane Katrina and the floods that followed.

For Tellers, as for thousands of others in colleges and universities in New Orleans, their campuses are now associated with tragedy as well as learning.

Almost all the students escaped serious injury, but many are left wondering whether recovery is possible at their flooded colleges, how much it will cost and how long it will take.

“Most of the campuses are under water, and the students, faculty and staff are scattered all over Louisiana or wherever,” said Edward R. Jackson, president of the Southern University system, in Baton Rouge.

Southern University at New Orleans is the second-largest of the five schools in the system, the only primarily African American university system to have multiple campuses, according to administrators.

The 3,500 students in New Orleans were in the middle of registration when Katrina struck. Most are commuter students, and the 22-acre campus is on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

“There’s upwards of 15 feet of water in that area,” Jackson said.

He said the university was doing whatever it could to ease the burden of those affected by the storm and its aftermath. About 500 storm refugees were given shelter in the fieldhouse on the Baton Rouge campus.

And the school opened its dormitories in Baton Rouge to several dozen families, all relatives of students, who fled New Orleans.

“Our first mission is to help the people,” Jackson said. “We’ve relaxed our rules.”

By Wednesday night, the school hoped to have a hotline in place for worried parents and others.

Students from New Orleans will be able to transfer to Baton Rouge or Shreveport.

Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs with the American Council on Education, an umbrella organization representing the nation’s colleges and universities, said no assessment was available yet of Katrina’s damage to Gulf Coast schools.

He said the affected area includes 15 to 20 two-year or four-year colleges in New Orleans, with an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 students.

Tulane University is probably the best-known, but New Orleans also is home to prominent historically black universities, including Xavier and Dillard.

Other schools include the University of New Orleans and a medical school campus of Louisiana State University.

Many had just been preparing to begin the new school year. In the wake of the storm, many officials could not be reached for comment.

“It’s not clear whether the schools will be able to open this fall at all,” Hartle said.

Along with restoring basic services such as drinking water, electricity and air-conditioning, Hartle noted that colleges may need major repairs in their computer systems and science labs.

Students from the New Orleans area might find it difficult to pay for school “because their family income has dropped to zero,” because of damage to local businesses.

However, Hartle said, he did not expect any schools to close permanently because of the disaster. Most colleges tend to have deeper financial reserves than most businesses, and federal officials traditionally have provided financial support in such situations.

“The schools we’re looking at, especially places like Xavier and Dillard, are not wealthy institutions,” he said.

“On the other hand, they’re not quite living paycheck to paycheck either.”

New Orleans colleges have played an outsized role in producing African American college graduates. According to Michael Lomax, president and chief executive of the United Negro College Fund, Xavier University sends more African Americans to medical school than any other campus in the nation.

Lomas, president of Dillard for seven years, said the Los Angeles area has more Dillard and Xavier graduates than any other metropolitan area in the country outside of New Orleans.

California is one of the top three sources of students for both schools, he said.

But some students from California say they may be forced to look elsewhere for their education.

Jake Kale, 19, Tulane’s sophomore class president who lives in Porter Ranch, has been calling other colleges and universities, trying to gain last-minute admittance.

“A lot are full,” said Kale, a Granada Hills Charter High School graduate. “Others say ‘Do your $70 application all over again,’ like we’re in high school again.”

He was scheduled to leave for Tulane and New Orleans on Sunday. When he turned on the television this week, he said he couldn’t believe the looting and flooding in the area of Canal Street, a place he had visited at least once a week.

Tellers is worried about his future but plans to stay at Loyola. A graduate of Loyola High School in Los Angeles, he hoped to major in English with a focus on writing. And, as a blues guitarist, he was drawn by New Orleans’ music scene.

“My heart is invested in that school,” said Tellers, who flew into Los Angeles on Monday night after spending two nights at a Red Cross evacuation center in Baton Rouge. “Now I’ve got to put life on hold.”

Lynda Tellers, a substitute teacher, said her son had to take out thousands of dollars in loans to pay for the private school education, despite a half-tuition scholarship. She said the family has paid for this semester’s room and board and $600 in textbooks. “That was his first-choice college, and he really loved it out there. But right now, realistically, it’s not the same city, and it won’t be for a long time.”

Jasmine Vassar, 19, of Pasadena is still in the South. She has been camped out since the weekend on the floor of the sports facility at Centenary College in Shreveport, La., with about 275 other students, faculty and staff from Dillard University.

The group boarded six chartered buses Saturday for the six-hour trip to Shreveport. En route, one of the buses caught fire, injuring no one but consuming clothing and other belongings.

At Centenary, the students found beds, clothes, Internet access and the warmest of welcomes, Vassar said. “They are our sister school, and they’ve treated us like a sister.”

Nonetheless, Vassar hopes to fly home this weekend. And if her school doesn’t reopen soon, she will reluctantly apply to others, she said.

A freshman, Vassar was in New Orleans for about a week -- long enough for a single visit to Bourbon Street.

Times staff writer Erika Hayasaki contributed to this report.