FYI
Professor E-K. Daufin, Ph.D.
Department of Communications
Lectures, Performances, Workshops,
Consultation:
http://home.earthlink.net/~daufin
The Mars & Venus Diet & Exercise
Solution: http://ekdaufin.isagenix.com
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Monday, October 31, 2005
Hurricane-Ravaged Xavier U. to Cut Its Faculty and Staff by More Than Half
By KATHERINE S. MANGAN
Faced with staggering cleanup costs after Hurricane Katrina and the likelihood
that fewer than half of its 4,000 students will return, Xavier University of
Louisiana laid off more than half of its faculty and staff members last week as
it prepared to reopen a much smaller campus in January.
In addition to cutting 58 percent of its full-time faculty members and 53
percent of its staff members, the
"This is a devastating action for a close-knit community such as Xavier,
but the tremendous financial challenges we face post-Katrina forced us to make
difficult decisions," said Calvin S. Tregre, senior vice president for
administration. The layoffs will save $5.8-million this academic year for
Xavier, the nation's only historically black and Roman Catholic university.
Xavier officials estimated it would cost them more than $90-million to rebuild
the campus, pay additional financial aid to students whose parents lost homes
and jobs in the hurricane, and recover from the loss of tuition and other
revenues for the fall 2005 semester.
Classes, which were abruptly canceled just before Katrina slammed into the
Even though Tulane's campus was spared any serious physical damage, it has also
had to lay off hundreds of faculty and staff members in the wake of Katrina
(The Chronicle, October 24). In fact, most of the colleges and universities
hardest hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have either announced layoffs or are
expected to do so by the end of the year.
Layoffs and program cuts were also being debated over the weekend at the
Southern University System's
It is unclear how many can be rebuilt, but in the meantime, the university has
asked federal authorities for up to 100 trailers to serve as temporary
classrooms in January, and hundreds more to house displaced faculty members. On
Saturday and Sunday, chancellors and vice chancellors of the system's five
campuses met to prepare pared-down budgets to present today to Gov. Kathleen
Babineaux Blanco.
The governor, a Democrat, has asked state agencies to plan for budget cuts of 5
to 10 percent. A 10-percent reduction would cost the Southern University System
$8.2-million.
Xavier officials had held off as long as possible before announcing cuts,
hoping more hurricane relief would be coming, Mr. Bell said. But with the end
of the year looming and people moving back into ruined neighborhoods, the
university wanted to give them time to find other jobs or homes.
After determining that the university faced a financial crisis, Xavier's
administration terminated the contracts of all 246 of its faculty members, many
of whom had tenure. It then hired back 103 of them.
The 143 who were terminated will receive medical benefits, but no pay, through
the end of December. They were told that some might be rehired once the
university had a better idea of how many students would be returning in
January. "That's the big question," Mr. Bell said. "On our
campus, we're a beehive of activity, but that isn't necessarily the case
throughout the city. Some parents may decide the city isn't up to speed."
Both Mr. Bell and the university's president, Norman C. Francis, live a few
blocks from one of the levees that broke, and their homes are gutted and
unlivable. Both have been frustrated by the pace of repairs in much of
Many of the faculty members who were laid off were in Xavier's
mass-communications program, whose television gear and other electronic
equipment were ruined when their first-floor storage rooms were flooded.
Xavier, which sends more black students to American medical schools than any
other college in the country, will continue to make a priority of programs in
science, Mr. Bell said.
In selecting the professors to rehire, the university retained more than 90
percent of the faculty members in its highly regarded pharmacy program, which
graduates the most black pharmacists of any program in the country. "We
know the retention rate for those students is going to be high," Mr. Bell
said. "Many are second- and third-year students, and they fought like hell
to get into the program, and they aren't about to drop out."
Overseeing it all will be a man who will have plenty on his plate. Xavier's
president, Mr. Francis, has served as president of Xavier for 38 years, longer
than any other sitting college president. In addition to leading Xavier's
resurrection and his own house's reconstruction, the 74-year-old president is
heading a 24-member statewide commission charged with overseeing statewide
reconstruction.
The commission, which was appointed by the governor, will work closely with the
17-member "Bring New Orleans Back" commission appointed by
Copyright © 2005 by The Chronicle of Higher Education