Maroon

              The Maroon A LOYOLA TRADITION SINCE 192 3 • "FOR A GREATER LOYOLA" Vi Vol. 88, NO. 2 ONLINE EDITION AT LOYOLAMAROON.COM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3. 2010 HAROLD BAQUET/University Photographer Loyola triumphs in midst of disaster By SAM WINSTROM Assistant News Editor Five years following the storm that destroyed New Orleans, the university is as strong as ever Hurricane Katrina hurt everyone and everything, but according to University President the Rev. Kevin Wildes S.J.. Loyola is a stronger university than ever because of it. After the hurricane had passed Wildes was given a mandate by the Board of Trustees to balance the budget. "We're like most universities, our economics are pretty straight forward," Wildes said. "We're tuition driven and our biggest costs are salaries. So one of the biggest things 1 had to do was reduce the overall cost." A major move taken to help balance the budget was putting a hiring freeze into effect. "If a faculty or staff member had left we froze those positions," Wildes said. "We weren't doing any new hiring." Certain programs Loyola offered before the hurricane were cut as well. "Sometimes what something like Katrina does, is it forces you to refocus yourself," Wildes said. Programs such as physics were temporarily suspended after the storm, but others such as broadcast journalism and elementary education remain missing from the curriculum. Seventeen faculty members were fired after their programs were terminated. Of those 17, 11 held tenure. In an official report put out by the American Association of University Professors Loyola is accused of, "...gross disregard of its own applicable policies and of the Association-recommended standards with which those policies comport." The AAUP is holding Loyola in violation of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure as well as the universities own tenure policies. Eight lawsuits have been brought against the school, seven of which have been settled outside of court. The final professor waiting for their trial is Mary Blue, former broadcast communications professor. Her court date is set for Nov. 8. Loyola is currently still on the A AUP's censure list of it's violations of tenure policy. Loyola upgrades hurricane evacuation following storm By PRECIOUS ESIE Senior Staff Writer Events five years ago proved that an update to the university's evacuation plan was crucial. Loyola University New Orleans had no evacuation plan prior to Hurricane Katrina. If a storm hit, students who lived on campus would stay in their residence hall, along with student affairs staff members. Those who lived in Cabra Hall would evacuate to the University Sports and Recreational Complex. "Staff members in student affairs... would come to campus and would, in a sense, take care of the students that were here," Robert Reed, assistant vice president of student affairs said. This plan, however, changed months before Katrina came to New Orleans. In early 2005, Reed, who, at the time, was director of Residential Life, said student affairs staff members, deans and the president of the university met with Walter Maestri, who, at the time, was director of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish. Maestri presented the worstcase scenario if a storm hit New Orleans. "When he made that presentation, we were then right before Katrina. We started pursuing the possibility of evacuating and working with the Red Cross," Maestri said. Because of the concern of flooding, the Red Cross would not open a shelter south of Interstate 12, Reed said. Student Affairs made arrangements to evacuate to Lousisana State University's Student Recreation Complex, but the Red Cross commandeered the space for the disabled. Loyola students, faculty and staff who planned to stay on campus during the storm had to evacuate to Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La. "Katrina was the first time we evacuated from the campus," Reed said. "We never thought about the possibility of not coming back in two or three days and the power being out for almost 30 days." Those who evacuated with the university spent three days at the Baptist church. Katrina-class graduate returns to the city he fell in love with By CRAIG MALVEAUX News Editor Only days before Hurricane Katrina swept through all of New Orleans leaving the city and its surrounding areas under water, Duncan Pray, A' 10, took his first steps on campus. Like any other blistering day in August, the sun shined brightly in the sky as Pray checkedin to his new home on the honors floor in Buddig Hall. Later that day, he met some other musicmajor students like him and eventually settled into the city of New Orleans, thousands of miles away from his hometown in Wisconsin. All week, Pray and the other freshmen on campus participated in orientation events, which Pray thought would be the beginning of a great first year of college. But when Saturday moming came, everything changed. Pray received a phone call and on the other end of the line, his parents informed him of a storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, heading straight for the city. "There's this little storm that's coming and it looks like it may be coming your way," his parents said. "Do you want us to come pick you up at the airport and bring you home?" see RECOVERY, page 5 see STUDENT, page 6 see EVACUATION, page 5 or a P at enrollment numbers, see page three. MAROON DIRECTORY: CRIME WATCH, page 2 | LIFE & TIMES, page 7 | SPORTS, page 11 | EDITORIAL, page 14 | NEWS TIPS: 865 3535