Beginning the spring semester, Howard University will extend its benevolence to a select few of the returning displaced Hurricane Katrina students.
"As of today, January 18, 34 of the 150 visiting students have registered with us for this semester," said Dr. Alvin Thornton, Associate Provost. "I don't expect it to go any higher than 40 students."
With the return rate falling far below half, Thornton said the rest of the administration have done exactly what they were sequestered to do.
"At the end of the fall semester, 108 students were registered and 31 percent are returning to Howard this spring," said Thornton. "Everything that we did was designed to get them back to their schools."
"If you look at the schools from which they came, there was essentially eight of them and of all of these eight, thankfully, in some form have or will reopen in January."
The return of some students to Howard University for Spring 2006 is no surprise to the administration.
"We certainly anticipated some remaining students for various reasons," Thornton said. "For one, it is a great place to be and the eight recovering universities could not accommodate all returning students."
Gregory Allen a sophomore biology major and former Xavier student said he had two important reasons to come to Howard after Hurricane Katrina.
"I came to Howard because next to Xavier Howard University came 2nd in placing Black students in medical school and my twin brother goes here as well."
Allen added that few of his Xavier friends intend to return.
"I talked to a few friends who are very excited to go back but most of my friends are planning on continuing their education elsewhere," he said.
Thornton said he was happy with the Howard students' involvement with the visitors.
"I am proud of how the students accommodated them in a special way in which they didn't have to," said Thornton.
Planning for the future the Provost along with the remainder of the Howard administration, have made plans to lighten the load for those displaced students.
"They will be provided tuition and fees and get funds from outside sources to help them with personal effects," he said. "And people are still reaching out to help, like the South African Embassy who recently donated $306,866."
Thornton said the University played the role of ensuring "stability and support for the rest of the semester so that they could return Home."
The most important message that Thornton felt was sent out by all the attempts made by Howard to assuage the situation as much as possible was that, "at the end of the day, every student matters, but, in particular, there is a special importance in graduating black students from college."
"'Saving those kids goes way beyond the 100 or something kids it is saving, it shows that we cannot loose these kids, as a community we cannot afford to let any of them get lost," said Thornton.
From this example Thornton hopes that, "the nation will be better committed to making sure underrepresented students are given the tools to matriculate through college."
Akeyla Brown
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Friday, January 20th 2006 at 6:51PM
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