Displaced students all over the country will now face a new dilemma. Should, and, moreover, do they want to return to their respective schools next semester. On Monday, students in kindergarten through sixth grade returned to Benjamin Franklin Elementary, making it the first Orleans Parish public school to open its doors since Hurricane Katrina.
Universities and colleges in New Orleans are set to reopen in January for the spring semester. But how many students will return?
Tulane says over 80 percent of its students have already re-registered for the spring semester when the University is scheduled to reopen. Loyola University recently started registration for the spring and reported more than half of their students have re-registered. However, no one will know the exact number of students that will actually return until January.
After Hurricane Katrina, colleges across the country took in an estimated 18,000 displaced New Orleans students according to The Advocate. New Orleans schools are in dire need of their students to return and pay tuition.
The fact that students are needed to fill these New Orleans schools once again doesn’t stop the reality that some students just don’t want to go back. The same story goes for thousands of New Orleans residents that have also said they don’t want to return to their city.
Some students just want to stay where they are. Jessica Parker, a displaced student from UNO said, ” I don’t really want to go back to UNO because there are too many bad memories in New Orleans. Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but for now I’m happy where I’m at.”
Not all students, however, feel the same as Parker. Amy Dangerfield, a student from Xavier said, “I miss the small campus life that Xavier gave me, although I know many of the students are facing a tough decision. I hope everyone returns. I miss my school.”
Student governments at Virginia, Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, have passed resolutions calling on their schools to be more flexible in allowing New Orleans students at least a chance to apply to transfer in the fall.
Displaced students will be given the opportunity to apply in the fall under normal conditions that would apply to any transfer student.
Colleges are very wary of just letting displaced students enroll for the upcoming semester because the temporary situation would allow students an unfair advantage to trade up to a more prestigious school. Plus the schools made an agreement to New Orleans schools that when they were up and ready they would send their students back.
I know many displaced students who have become involved on our campus and feel they have accomplished a lot here. A natural disaster has pushed them into the arms of different schools and surroundings and has created a new home for them. They have created a new network of friends and family here. Some students have now become comfortable with their new accommodations and are not so willing to give up a long deserved since of normalcy in their life.
Many freshmen that are displaced never really had the opportunity to witness what college life at a New Orleans school is like so some can argue that you can’t miss what you never had.
I can sympathize with both sides, so I cannot really say whether I feel students should or shouldn’t go back. If students want to stay where they are then they should take all the necessary steps needed to stay at that university. However, I don’t feel the universities are obligated to accept students who don’t meet their requirements because this would make it unfair for those students who have tried and failed to get into colleges like Harvard.
All the worries about parking, traffic and housing that were high on students complaint list quickly fell in the background of other petty complaints.
If displaced students do decide to stay, they will be welcomed with open arms. I have become accustomed to my new friends from New Orleans schools. I’m use to seeing them at different campus meetings and events and in my classes. If they decide to leave our University, at least for me, they will be greatly missed.