Rebuilding black colleges

The Indiana Daily Student and other local and national newspapers have appreciably highlighted the trauma that New Orleans-based academic institutions have suffered recently. A front-page story in The New York Times, "Storms stretch thin safety net for black colleges" (Sept. 25), underscored the plight of Dillard University and Xavier University of Louisiana, the two prestigious black universities in New Orleans.\nBoth Dillard and Xavier universities have played major roles in America's post-slave trade South by being in the forefront of educating some of the best black pharmacists, doctors, educators, business executives and legal professionals. Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Revius O. Ortique, for example, is a 1947 graduate of Dillard University. Dr. Ruth Simmons, the current president of Brown University (an Ivy League institution), is a graduate of Dillard University. Civil rights leader and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, too, once attended Dillard University. There are many other Dillard University alumni who have held (and continue to hold) important national, local and international positions. \nThe aftermath of the two recent hurricanes is not a pretty sight. Reportedly, there is a pile of rubble on the Dillard University campus that is the result of some modular student homes being razed to the ground by fire. The university's book store is described in pathetic terms as a soggy morass of ruined books, backpacks and notebooks. \nIn the same city are Tulane and Loyola universities. Yet Dillard and Xavier universities reportedly "suffered far worse damage than their wealthier counterparts on higher ground and have tiny endowments, limited resources and students who are almost all dependent on financial aid" (The Times, Sept. 25).\nComparatively, both Dillard and Xavier, as battered academic institutions with unlimited usefulness, need a lot of help. While both historically black institutions have "restricted" endowments of about $50 million each, Tulane alone is reported to have no less than $745 million in its endowment. \nThe appeal is for empathetic onlookers and helpers to come to the assistance of Dillard and Xavier and, if possible, their richer, predominantly white educational counterparts. Assistance in the form of money, volunteer teaching efforts, books, skills and time will be appreciated. \nTherefore, while it is appreciated that students of Dillard, Xavier and other affected universities are being pitied and absorbed for temporary admission by educational institutions outside Louisiana, it will be worth the while of the affected institutions if help is extended to help rebuild them. Otherwise, in the end, graduates of these institutions, who are working hard at other institutions throughout the country, might painfully look back and euphemistically quote as part of their anguish the prophetic title of IU professor John McCluskey Jr.'s novel: "Look What They Done to My Song"