It was business as usual Monday for researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, except for the addition of hundreds of displaced medical students attending classes in the conference center and classrooms.
Pennington officials agreed to let the New Orleans LSU Health Sciences Center hold classes in the building until the HSC’s facilities are cleaned up and repaired, which is estimated to take at least six months.
Almost all of the students enrolled for the fall semester before Hurricane Katrina hit are still enrolled and taking classes, said HSC Public relations director Leslie Capo.
If the HSC did not continue operations this fall, it would have been detrimental to both the LSU System and the state, Capo said. The centers in New Orleans and Shreveport educate an estimated 70 percent of the state’s practicing health care professionals.
“If we had not been able to do this, our faculty [who teach students and treat patients] would have had to leave the state,” Capo said.
“Virtually overnight we’ve doubled our accommodations,” said Alan Pesch, assistant director of communications at Pennington.
There were about 600 faculty and staff at Pennington before relocation. After Katrina, about 620 HSC students and faculty were added to Pennington.
“We’ve about stretched our resources,” Pesch said.
Pennington officials are requesting $2.5 million in grant money to teach and house HSC students over the next eight months.
Displaced medical students said they are adjusting to their new learning environments.
Joan Hunter, second-year HSC medical student at Pennington, said her first test in practicing medicine was scheduled for the day Katrina hit New Orleans.
“It’s a very strange transition,” she said. “We have to play catch-up and keep up with all the new material.”
Hunter said she hopes to make up postponed clinical studies in the spring.
“I lived off campus, but we had a foot of water on the first floor of our apartments,” she said.
Hunter, thinking she would return to campus in three days, only evacuated with her computer and personal review sheets. She still does not know the condition of her belongings.
“It’s been very stressful,” she said. “We had our first day [Monday], and I was considering whether I wanted to stay in medical school.”
Students originally from Baton Rouge said they found the transition easier.
“For me it hasn’t been bad because I’m from here,” said Brian Green, second-year HSC medical student. “Obviously it’s a bit of an adjustment to be 24 and living with my mom again.”
Green said displaced students have found temporary housing with fellow students and “host families” in the area.
“The biggest thing over the past month was our uncertainty,” Green said. “We thought we’d lose the whole semester.”
Four hundred trailers will soon be placed on LSU properties for the temporary housing of students with families. And the HSC has secured a ship to be docked at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to house students and hold classes.
Contact Chris Day at [email protected]