New Orleans colleges have 'long way to go'

0 Comments | USA TODAY, March, 2007 | by Mary Beth Marklein

NEW ORLEANS -- A mystery odor still emanates on occasion from parts unknown. And chapel renovations aren't quite finished.

But athletics have returned, and so has some nightlife. And expansion plans that had to be delayed are moving forward.

Xavier University, mired in up to 5 feet of water after Hurricane Katrina, looks more like a campus than a disaster area these days, and that is nothing short of a "miracle," says president Norman Francis.

Others say there's more to it than that. In a city where the slow pace of recovery has frustrated everyone, leaders of higher education in particular deserve praise for taking "decisive action," says Walter Isaacson, vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a state coordinating body created after...