Tulane University students and faculty members play big roles in post-Katrina New Orleans recovery
Voice of America
September 1, 2010
As New Orleans looks back to the tragedy the city experienced after Hurricane Katrina five years ago, local officials and community leaders are giving special praise to the role played in the recovery by one of the city's crown jewels - Tulane University. Tulane President Scott Cowen is determined that the university remain involved in rebuilding a city he says is irreplaceable.
Tulane University was just starting its fall semester when Hurricane Katrina struck five years ago and flooded 70 percent of the main campus. Many people feared that Tulane, one of the most prestigious private universities in America, might take a year or more to re-open. But University President Scott Cowen was determined to get faculty and students back as soon as possible and Tulane was up and running for the next semester.
In a VOA interview, Cowen said students not only came back to study, but they have also continued to help restore the stricken city .
"They volunteer, every year, hundreds of thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of hours, to the recovery of this city. We have, at any moment of time, literally 200 or 300 faculty, working on various projects in the city with their students," he said.
