Fraternities and Sororities in New Orleans Post-Katrina
 

I was wondering if anybody new the status of any GLO in NO for the Spring Semester for Organizations from UNO, Loyola or Tulane. I am a member of Lambda Chi Alpha and was Initiated at UNO in '02, but I transfered to UL-Lafayette at the begining of this fall before the hurricane. I'm not really sure about my initiated chapters status yet, but I will let u know asap.

I dont know about UNO Zeta, but IHQ may know. I think the UNO House was above the water line.

I know that some of the Schools are reopening such as Tulane.

Good Luck Bro and lets us know what You find out!:)

I know a girl who is a KKG at Tulane and because her room was on the bottom floor, lost EVERYTHING! She went to my school for the semester, but she hated it and couldn't wait to go back to Tulane.

Aint Nothin Like The Big Easy!:)

Same thing In the KC Paper about someone who went to Un. Mo!

I had a KKG from Tulane in one of my classes last semester too. She seemed so sad ... Tulane must be a fun place (or maybe Tech is just really horribly boring).

I can't really speak for NO, but I was just down in Hancock County Mississippi (about an hour from NO), and wanted to say everyone I met was in pretty good spirits. I'll be headed back to volunteer over spring break. If anyone else is interested in arranging a trip PM me and I can get you in contact with someone and some info.

It could have something to do with the tragedy that had occurred, friends/family lost and separated, personal belongings lost and life sent into an upheaval very suddenly.

I think we have two chapters in the stricken area -- Southern Mississippi and S. E. Louisiana (not really sure of those), but in any event both were spared extensive damage.

The Delt Central Office immediately began a "Delts Helping Delts" campaign to help not only the chapters but individual members who might have been affected by the storm.

When I was at home in NOLA over Christmas I noticed that the Delts are back in their old house on Broadway so I'm pretty sure you have a chapter at Tulane.

ETA: Beta Xi chapter is at Tulane

ETA: You have a chapter at Southern Miss (Zeta Chi) in Hattiesburg and they are doing fine. My sister just moved from Hattiesburg to FL this week and after Christmas when I was with her we drove down fraternity row at Southern...

I understand that, but she (like many of the Tulane students we had here) weren't native Louisianans (is that a word?), so I guess I didn't expect it to have as longterm an emotional impact on them as it did.

Thanks for the info. I thought we did, too, but it wasn't listed on an interactive map I found on our website and I didn't want to give wrong information. The headlines about chapters affected and Delts Helping Delts have been taken off the site at this point -- or at least not easily found.

If I have some time, I'll try to drill a little deeper.

The Alpha Delta Gamma fraternity house at Loyola-New Orleans burned down yesterday. The fire is being investigated. No one was hurt, but the guys who were planning to live there will have to find a new place to live.


http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/i...3431313930.xml

(Yes it's Alpha Delta Gamma fraternity, a national fraternity with historically Roman Catholic roots.)

New Orleans Universities Reopen to Students
 

New Orleans welcomes back college students

Universities open their doors— as well as trailers and hotels for classrooms

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:35 p.m. ET Jan. 16, 2006


NEW ORLEANS - With their energy, optimism and free-spending ways, college students could be just what this struggling city needs right now.

New Orleans is reopening for business as a college town, though on a reduced scale. Musician Wynton Marsalis was scheduled to welcome back students at a concert Monday night at Tulane University, and classes at Tulane, Xavier and Southern Universities start on Tuesday. Loyola and Dillard started last week.

Many classes will be held in trailers and hotel conference rooms while campus repairs continue, and overall enrollment is considerably lower than it was before Hurricane Katrina.

Still, more students came back than initially feared — including 88 percent at Tulane. While no one believes college students can single-handedly revive New Orleans, few can imagine how the city could ever come back without them.

“I think they’re looking for us to help rebuild,” said Alicia Figueroa, a Loyola University junior from Miami, stepping off a Loyola bus tour Saturday of the city neighborhoods hardest hit by the flood. “I feel like just by being here, we’re giving a hand to the city. Even just going to the Winn-Dixie and buying groceries, that puts money into the city.”

Students returning sooner than other residents

An estimated 65,000 students attended New Orleans colleges before the storm, and about 40,000 lived in the city, according to the 2000 census. Because the overall population will probably return more slowly than the students, New Orleans will be even more of a college town than before.

Not only is Tulane the city’s largest employer, but the return of its students will boost New Orleans’ population 20 percent, President Scott Cowen said.

In the short run, businesses from bars to bookstores should see a much-needed revenue boost. In the long run, the city hopes they will stay after graduation as a skilled work force.

“It’s hard to imagine a major city growing and thriving without having universities,” said Tim Ryan, an economist and chancellor of the University of New Orleans. “They will really give a breath of new life to the city.”

For now, though, it takes a leap of faith to imagine a thriving college life on several of the campuses.

The neighborhood around Tulane and Loyola is relatively vibrant, but Xavier, the country’s only historically black and Roman Catholic college, is in an area of mostly abandoned homes and stores. Dillard, near the London Avenue Canal breach, was so badly damaged that it will not reopen there until at least next fall. Even then, it will almost certainly be an island of life in a sea of empty neighborhoods.

Revitalizing New Orleans' energy
The school presses ahead, insisting that, somehow, a vibrant neighborhood will grow up again around the campus.

“There is a wonderful thing that happens around a campus, and it is almost inexplicable,” said Brown University President Ruth Simmons, a Dillard alumna who has been working closely with the school since the storm. “It is very hard to find a campus that is not surrounded by a viable community.”

There is some worry that, despite all the talk of a new ethos of public service, students living in the better-off neighborhoods will retreat to their own bubbles.

“They come back and expect it to be, ‘Uptown New Orleans, let’s have some fun,”’ said Kevin Caldwell, busily serving drinks Saturday to dozens of football-watching Tulane students Saturday afternoon at a bar near campus. “That ain’t what Uptown New Orleans is about any more. Uptown New Orleans is about rebuilding a city.”

Caldwell said he was pleased to learn Loyola was taking students on bus tours of the most heavily damaged parts of the city.

“They’re welcome back, but they’ll have to be tolerant, because we’ve been here 4½ months” struggling to rebuild the city, he said. “They have to remember that.”

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2006 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10879702/

That's great. I really hope they all are successful in re-opening.

So many of the high school seniors that we know who were planning to apply to Tulane changed their minds because of the uncertainty of it all. I know many graduates and relocated students were in full force at many admissions information nights around the country.

I'm new - but I noticed this thread, and thought that even though it's old, I could provide some helpful info. I'm a student at Tulane, and I'm the Sweetheart of the Delt chapter, Beta Xi, here. As of today, the area of the city where campus is is in excellent shape, and Tulane's been back in school for 3 semesters after the semester closure. During the closure, the men of Beta Xi - about 40ish actives in all - scattered to host schools around the country including UCLA, Mizou, Stanford, Washington in St. Louis, BU and UT, to name a few. But, although Tulane only retained about 85% of its student body (really an outstanding number), not one Delt failed to return! Their shelter on Broadway also sustained minimal damage, and very few items that were left in the house were damaged (if any at all). Their chef, Lynn Honore, lost her home, but it has since been rebuilt, in part thanks to philanthropic work on the part of the brothers. This year's rush has been a bit difficult (as this year's freshman class is substantially smaller) but proportionally to the number of rush participants, the chapter did well. Several of the recent alumni (post-Katrina reopening graduates) are still in the area, and many are still active in helping the chapter program and grow. The school is in great physical shape, but I don't know how long it will be before our freshman classes resume sizes comparable to pre-Katrina.

If anyone has any questions about the city or Tulane or Tulane greeks, I'd be happy to answer! I'm not affiliated myself, but I've been chapter sweetheart for 2 years now (ours is a yearly thing) and am pretty well-versed in the goings-on around campus. Hope that helps!