Colleges Take In Displaced Students

Eric Broussard figured that he was ahead of the game going into his senior year at Xavier University of Louisiana. Since he already had plenty of course credits, he mapped out a lighter class schedule, giving him extra time to work on his medical school applications.

“It was supposed to be the easiest year of my college career,” said Broussard, 21, a chemistry major from Culver City.

Now, however, Broussard is part of the diaspora of thousands of students from flood-stricken universities in New Orleans who have scrambled to enroll at campuses around the country to rescue their fall terms. Several hundred are settling in as visiting students for at least a semester at a flock of Southern California campuses.

Broussard landed at USC nearly three weeks after classes began for regular students. “It’s like falling asleep in class and waking up three weeks later. It’s tough,” he said.

Among the many host schools, USC has taken in about 120 students on a temporary basis. Loyola Marymount University in Westchester is enrolling more than 60 students, most of them from a sister Jesuit school, Loyola University New Orleans. Statewide, the California State University system said it has enrolled 127 students, and University of California campuses say they have admitted more than 300, although not necessarily to the students’ first choice of classes or programs.

Students arriving in Southern California appear to have come mainly from Loyola as well as Tulane, New Orleans’ leading research university, along with two of the nation’s most highly regarded historically black institutions, Dillard University and Xavier.

Although financial details remain to be worked out, private colleges generally are waiving their tuition if the displaced students already paid at their home schools. The Cal State system says it will drop out-of-state charges, and UC officials are reviewing fees on a case-by-case basis.

In all, Hurricane Katrina disrupted the educations of an estimated 75,000 two- and four-year college students in New Orleans, where many of the schools say they hope to reopen in some form in January.

For many who have made their way to schools in other parts of the country, it’s been a tough transition. Amid rushed evacuations, some left their computers and textbooks, and most of their clothing. Now they’re left wondering whether their belongings have been ruined or stolen.

Pablo Guth, a sophomore who last week started classes at Claremont McKenna College after evacuating from his native New Orleans, said one of the worst initial shocks was the lack of contact with friends from home.

“I’m sure they’ve gotten out, but I’d like to know what their plans are,” said Guth, who was enrolled at Loyola University New Orleans. “Are their families moving?”

The vast majority of new arrivals at Southern California schools appear, like Broussard, to be from the Southland.

Broussard had offers from various campuses. But the chance to save money on housing persuaded him to come to the Los Angeles area and live at home with his family.

As a senior applying to medical schools, he needs recommendations from Xavier, but some of the paperwork has gotten bogged down because of the school’s closing. By e-mail, though, he has gotten in touch with the pre-med director at Xavier, who is trying to help.

Another challenge is that Broussard couldn’t get in the same chemistry courses he was registered for at Xavier. So he is hustling to get up to speed in his challenging new neurology class and with the rest of his workload at USC, including research in a chemistry lab.

Yet Broussard describes himself as grateful for the way so many colleges have opened their doors, and he is reluctant to fret much about the upheaval in his life. People at USC, he said, have been helpful, with professors urging students to share their notes with the newcomers and making efforts to line up extra tutoring.

“A lot of people have lost their homes. They don’t know where they’re going to work,” Broussard said. “I feel lucky just to have been able to get out.”

Michelle Smith, who was in her final semester at Tulane, considers herself lucky too. Her family is from Morgan City, a community about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans that was spared the worst of Katrina’s wrath.

What’s more, Smith, who is interested in a career in entertainment law, already was planning to apply to law schools in Southern California. She decided to accept an offer to do her final semester of undergraduate studies at Loyola Marymount and was able to move in with friends in Hollywood.

Still, the transition hasn’t been easy. She totaled her car while driving through Texas on her way to California. And thoughts of the tragedy in her native state are always on her mind. She said the elderly parents of her father’s best friend were killed.

The switch to a new school has been tricky too. “It’s like I’m a freshman all over again, trying to find classes and getting into them and not knowing anyone,” Smith said.

Still, Smith doesn’t like to dwell very long on the inconveniences. “I have an opportunity. Some people have nothing at all,” she said.

Camille Evans, an 18-year-old from Inglewood, had just begun her studies at Dillard and was flush with enthusiasm after spending 2 1/2 weeks on campus. “College is just a great experience,” Evans said. “From meeting new friends to meeting new teachers -- it seems like I’ve been there forever.”

Evans will now spend her fall term at Pepperdine University and, while she expresses gratitude for the Malibu school’s help, she says she was eager to study outside California and at a historically black college. “I wanted to discover something new, to find out about myself among my own,” Evans said.

When Dillard officials started organizing the school’s evacuation, Evans left behind most of her clothing, her computer printer, jewelry, glasses and high school senior memory book.

“When they told us there was a hurricane, we looked outside -- and, of course, for most people from California, it was like, ‘What’s a hurricane? It’s sunny outside.’ I wasn’t comprehending, and I didn’t even know what to pack.”

Evans and her new Dillard friends keep in touch by e-mail, and they often joke that they “have to hate” their new schools so that everyone will return to New Orleans. Provided that Dillard and the city bounce back, Evans said, “I’ll go back in a heartbeat.”

Leading higher education associations have urged schools to admit the displaced students on a visiting basis, in hopes that they will return to their home campuses when they reopen.

Still, if the recovery stalls, Evans says she would be interested in Tennessee State University in Nashville, where some of her Dillard friends have relocated for the fall.

“They’re saying TSU is sort of along the lines of Dillard, and I just really love Dillard,” Evans said.