Warped wooden floors and ruined desks have been stripped out of Xavier University’s main campus building. Its 4,000 students are scattered across the nation. Half the faculty and staff have been laid off.
The nation’s only historically black and Roman Catholic college, which expected to be celebrating its 180th anniversary this year, was battered to the brink of financial collapse by Hurricane Katrina.
To the point where some were in favor of petitioning the Pope directly for aid.
Peterson’s lists Xavier as
[…] a four-year, private, coed, liberal arts institution affiliated with the Catholic Church founded in 1915 by Blessed Katherine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. It is the only predominantly black Catholic-affiliated university in the Western Hemisphere and one of only a few historically black institutions with a college of pharmacy.
Beginning as a college preparatory school, Xavier soon developed a normal school curriculum for teachers and, in 1925, established a college of arts and sciences. The College of Pharmacy was conceived in 1927, and in 1932 the Graduate School was established. In the years to follow, Xavier continued its growth by adding residence halls for men and women, a student center, and a modern library. Its modern and gothic facilities are situated on 27 acres in the heart of New Orleans.
Xavier was established to provide education and training to blacks. It now encourages a pluralistic environment for the ultimate purpose of helping to create a more just and humane society. It continues to pursue this mission and to provide each student with a liberal and professional education.
In 1987, the institution made international history when Pope John Paul II chose Xavier as the site of his address to the presidents of all Catholic colleges in the United States. Xavier has been featured in Changing Times magazine as one of the “little known gems in higher education,” in Kipplinger as “a better educational value than many schools with national reputations,” and in U.S. News & World Report as an institution that “bucks the odds” in preparing African Americans to excel in math and science.
But then came Katrina on August 29, 2005. Xavier University was flooded with water up to 8 feet deep. Its students were finally rescued after several days of being islanded in dorms with no food or water or facilities.
Administrators estimate losses at more than $90 million in storm damage and lost tuition and scholarship revenue, a devastating sum for a school whose endowment is only $52 million.
Xavier was forced to lay off or place on unpaid leave 396 of its 784 faculty and staff. That included terminating 78 faculty members, a third of Xavier’s professors.
The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament taught me in elementary school and in junior high. If you were got into a parochial school for black children in pre-integration New Orleans, you were subject to a higher standard of discipline and rigor beyond that of the segregated public schools. You were supposedly placed on a faster track toward a better education and a better job.
Dillard University, the other HBCU (historically black college or university) fared little better.
Dillard University, another historically black New Orleans college with 2,155 students, also had to lay off about half its faculty and staff. It estimates its losses at $400 million.
Since 2001, more than 350 Xavier graduates have been enrolled in medical schools. Xavier also claims to have graduated one of every four of the nation’s black pharmacists.
Up to a third of the black students enrolled annually at Emory University Medical School in Atlanta come from Xavier, said Dr. Bill Eley, an Emory associate dean.
“While we all want to increase the number of African-American doctors, we are constantly searching for qualified applicants. And Xavier has been a key part of meeting that need,” Eley said.
Both Xavier and Dillard plan to hold classes in January.
Yet both have huge deficits, and have had to let go of critical professors and teachers. Dillard’s students are continuing at neighboring Tulane and expects half of its student body to report back.
Why continue to have historically black colleges and universities? Because there is still a need for them among blacks and other people of color. Moreover, many white, Latino, Asian students are also matriculating at these colleges who will take them when other colleges won’t. They are also closer to their homes.
