Message from the President: I Have to Make it Happen

Black Collegian, Oct 2005

Dr. Marvalene Hughes - President, Dillard University

TBC: Tell us about the damage Dillard sustained.

Dr Hughes: Dillard University is located very close to the levees that broke, and as a result it incurred considerable damage. As a matter of fact, we remained under water for several weeks. Only one building on the entire campus was not covered with water on the first floor; Lawless Chapel is the only building that did not incur major damage. Even our newest buildings sustained damage. Much to our chagrin and shock, three buildings burned down completely, and several buildings at the back of the campus, on the lowest terrain that we have, cannot be restored. We are in the process of determining which buildings must be demolished, where we will rebuild them, and what we can do to really master-plan Dillard in the future - in a way, that represents a new Dillard University.

TBC: How much is the estimated damage?

Dr. Hughes: It is hard to estimate at this time. We have more than 200 employees on campus engaged in this process of remediation and clean-up. For the most part, cleaning up of the grounds has occurred. Remediation has meant going into buildings, determining the level of damage, trying to dry the floors and provide some ventilation to avoid mold, to protect against or contain it. They are doing this to every single building on campus. Once remediation is complete, the next critical stage involves the assessment by architects and engineers to determine the possibility of restoration and reconstruction of these buildings.

TBC: What are your immediate plans to get Dillard back on its feet?

Dr. Hughes: They include a memorandum of understanding with Tulane University to share some of its space for the second semester and, if necessary, the first semester of 2006. We will schedule many of our classes at Tulane facilities, and determine with Tulane what we can do as partners to locate residential space for our faculty, staff, and students. That really is the biggest challenge for all of us: finding residential space for the members of our campus community who return to New Orleans. Given that we have the months of November and December, we hope that some of the second and third floors on Dillard's campus may be in sufficient condition and environmentally acceptable to be used for classrooms in January. We believe this is possible. So we are proceeding under the assumption that we may be able to operate on both the Dillard campus, to some extent, and the Tulane campus.

TBC: How has the interruption impacted this year's graduating class?

Dr. Hughes: Severely! I have had some very tearful moments with students who cannot believe - after all of their life's dreams in selecting this university and succeeding to the level of being seniors prepared to graduate - that they may not be able to graduate from Dillard. Those are the students who are so bonded to the campus. I am working on whatever solution possible to ensure that they receive their degrees from Dillard University and can march down the Avenue of the Oaks - those students who have spent their lives aspiring to have that moment of magic. I have to make it happen. If my campus is environmentally safe, they will march through the Avenue of the Oaks for commencement.

TBC: How will they be able to complete the requirements for graduation?

Dr. Hughes: Our students are someplace taking a full semester now. We have created a plan that will enable them to receive two full semesters between January and June. Now, it will take a lot of condensing of time, and the expansion of days and weeks. The accreditation association has assured us that our plan is adequate.

TBC: Is your faculty in place?

Dr. Hughes:: Not really. We have clusters of people in place. Some are in Atlanta; some are at other universities that are accommodating them to allow them to do the important work that they should be doing as scholars. There are actually some organizations helping as well. I was really moved last week by the extension of special privileges for four or five of our faculty members by the National Institutes of Health, who which invited them to Washington, D.C. to use space in the NIH while preparing to write special grants. These are the kinds of things that we have been working on to open doors and seek privileges for our faculty, staff and students.

TBC: What are your most immediate needs?

Dr. Hughes: Getting money to restore the university. If there were big developers who would come to New Orleans and just say, get oui of the way and let us develop your campus, I wouldn't need the money But, I need money to restore my campus, and I need to re-attract our students to New Orleans and to Dillard University. Now importantly, from my perspective and observation as a very short-time citizen in New Orleans, if Dillard is not up and operational very soon, the surrounding community will not have the economic anchor that it should have. I have on my recent visits viewed Dillard as the economic engine to get this community up and operational again, because there is no livelihood around there now. So, to the extent that we can get our 2,000-plus students and 400 employees on board, we can, as economic donors, affect the future of that community. I am also very concerned about how to engage our students, through service-learning, in contributing their time, energy, and resources to redeveloping the neighborhoods around us.