Maroon

              The Loyola MAROON Volume 71 No. 1 Loyola University New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 August 28,1992 Semester opens to Andrew's wrath In the eye of a hurricane, the sky is blue, the sun shines, the grass stretches its wet stalks to the heavens. In the eye of Loyola, however. Hurricane Andrew left many images, some aweinspiring, some terrifying. Students, staff, faculty, and administration alike presented their images within the eye of Loyola. Images ranged from a university president spending the night in a women's residence hall, to a Loyola student's family barely surviving a tornado that destroyed their house, to the members of the Loyola community who camped in a sports facility to wait out the storm, to a group of students heading out the Houma, La. to care for the less tortunate victims ot tne storm. As the eye of Loyola watched for the hurricane that could have been, strange things happened during the hurricane that was. Administration gets good reviews For Loyola administrators, the hurricane was a time of long hours, queer lodgings and quick decision making. Overall a long, unexpected party. While Monday's blazing sky showed little of the tumult that would hit Loyola the next two days, Vincent Knipfing, vice president for Student Affairs, had a decision to make. The National Weather Service had just issued a hurricane warning in effcct for most of the Gulf seaboard, including New Orleans. After consulting the registrar's office and other department heads, he came to a decision. Close the school. A memo was sent out around to every department bearing the fateful news. Faculty, students and staff burst around the school try ing to finish tasks that they thought they had another day or two to complete. For the Rev. James C. Carter, S.J, university president, it was a familiar decision. Living in a city below sea level bnngs familiarity. "We have very elaborate emergency procedure for this sort of thing," Carter said. "I doubt if many institutions are as well prepared as we are." He said Loyola has a hurricane that hits every six years or so like Halley's comet, causing downed trees and canceled classes. This time the downed trees were few. He said Loyola's damage consisted mostly of rampant power outage and leaking water. Interesting casualties of the storm were two small solar panel from one of the several arrays of panels perched atopßiever Hall. The panels were never found, probably stolen. The canceled classes, also will never be found, stolen irrevocably by the hurricane. "I don't think it's going to be possible to make those classes; that's not the way we've ever done it before," Carter said. In all, two Loyola days were canceled, with registration being pushed back to yesterday and the first day of classes starting today. Watching the industry of Loyola residents and staff alike during those days, it would have been hard to describe the proceedings as a day off. Over 50 Loyola employees sacrificed long hours to help out during the storm. "Our people—from Student Affairs, Res. Lifeandondown— all really pitched in and did a remarkable job taking care of the personal needs of the students," Carter said. Students as well stayed busy as the storm approached. Cabra Hall residents had to evacuate their rooms and stay in a makeshift shelter set up in the Recreational/Sports Complex because Loyola could guarantee regular meals from the outage prone Broadway campus that was bereft of power for much of the hurricane. Marriott dining services provideddinnerearlyTuesday before Hurricane Hall—Biever Hall men of 2-South pitch camp outside their rooms during a Hurricane Andrew power outage./ Photo by Clay Hellner Mercy granted; Loyola wins bidding war By David Miss Staff writer What does two dollars buy you today? It might buy a pack of cigarettes, a beer or two hours on a parking meter, but in a fierce bidding war between Loyola and Tulane, it will buy Mercy Academy, the former girls school located on the comer of Calhoun and Freret streets. "Had we bid $2 less, we would have bid too little," James C. Carter, S. J., university president said at the Presidential Convocation on August 19. He was speaking figuratively, however. Carter announced the day before that, Mercy Academy will be purchased for $2.1 million in an agreement between Loyola and the Sisters of Mercy. The act of the sale will take place in October as the technicalities of financing fall into place. "We have not bought it yet," said Carter. He went on to add that the building, constructed in the late 19305, will be used to house operations displaced by the new library, but not until construction of the library begins. "We needed space very badly and it was a now or never opportunity," Carter said in a later interview. John Eckholdt, Vice President of Business and Finance, fielded questions during the convocation about the fine details of where the money is coming from to finance the purchase. Eckholdt said that a $200,000 bond was used for a down-payment, taken from interest put into the plant fund, which is set up to finance repairs and maintenance on campus. The $1.9 million dollar debt will be paid off in a term of five years at 7 percent interest, or $133,000 a year. Does this mean that the students will have to cough if) the money? "Not exactly," says Carter, who plans to go out and raise the money from donations, not dip into one of the three funds holding Loyola's capital. All three funds are independent of each other: a current fund which receives money from tution, gifts or endowments, an endowment fund with exists only to generate interest to go into the current fund, and the plant fund which serves the needs of the Physical Plant If students were asked to supplement the actual cost of purchase, which according to Carter is unlikely, the maximum charge per student would be about $20. Carter said the building will be "mothballed" for the time being. Keeping the building intact was not part of the purchase agreement, but might be done because of the great cost that would be involved in tearing it down. Expected renovation costs could be close to $600,000 for asbestos removal, roof repair and the installation of male bathrooms among general repairs. "Why don't they just expand this monstrosity? More parking would be great for this campus," said communications sophomore Marc Cestelio as he pulled his car into Loyola's parking garage adjacent to the Mercy property. The actual function of the Mercy building will be belter known when "we know when the federal money is coming," President Carter said. He was referring to the estimated $25 million needed to build the new library. There is no timetable for the construction of the new library yet and the selection of architects is proceeding. Did we get the building because we are a Catholic school? "The sisters that live here were very anxious for Loyola to get that property," Carter said. "We knew they (the Sisters of Mercy) were going to be very serious in negotiations," Carter went on to say. Holy Name grammar school and Tulane were bidding for the property along with Loyola. Holy Name had the first chance to buy the property yet held up the sale because it was unable to raise the needed down-payment and had to forfeit the bid. But even Loyola has space problems. "Even the acquisition of the Dominican Campus didn't solve our (space) problems," President Carter said. He plans to possibly raise the standards and room for some cramped departments, such as Visual Arts. See Andrew/ page 7 Inside this week... Basin Foundation throws beach bash. See story page 12