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Katrina relief efforts include helping Dillard reopen, welcoming jazz musician to campus
by Eric Quiñones · Posted January 4, 2006; 04:06 p.m.
Efforts by members of the University community to aid victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita are continuing both in the Gulf Coast region and on campus, while an upcoming concert will feature a major New Orleans jazz figure who has brought his talents to Princeton following the disaster.
Princetonians are playing a key role in helping Dillard University resume classes this month and committing to other hands-on relief efforts in the region. These are among many campus initiatives undertaken following the hurricanes, including raising funds to aid victims and welcoming displaced students and scholars. One campus visitor, New Orleans pianist Wilson "Willie Tee" Turbinton, has been serving as a guest lecturer in the music department since October and will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, in Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall.
Dillard assistance
Dillard, a historically black institution, was forced to shut down for the fall semester due to extensive damage to its New Orleans campus. It is scheduled to resume classes Jan. 9 at a downtown hotel and various campuses around the city. Since September, Princeton and Brown universities have been working with Dillard officials in a variety of areas -- from donating computers to providing critical administrative support -- to help restore operations and assist in long-term planning.
"The response from employees who have provided ideas and expertise in all kinds of areas has been very gratifying," said Karen Jezierny, Princeton's director of public affairs, who has been coordinating the University's participation in the partnership. "While Dillard is reopening in temporary quarters and substantial work remains over the longer term, the efforts of Princeton's community members have been a major source of support for this historic institution to get back on its feet."
Princeton will honor Dillard's president, Marvalene Hughes, at its Jan. 16 Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremony in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. Hughes will be recognized for her leadership of Dillard, where she assumed office as president just two months before Hurricane Katrina struck.
In supporting Dillard's reopening, departments across the University have made numerous contributions:
- Academic officials are assisting Dillard in evaluating its academic curriculum, starting with its science curriculum.
- The University's surplus property program has reserved 30 desktop computers to be donated for use in either administrative offices or student computer clusters at Dillard.
- The facilities department has offered hundreds of suites of dormitory furniture -- including beds, desks and dressers -- as Dillard seeks to rebuild its New Orleans campus.
- The Office of Human Resources is extending employee assistance services to Dillard faculty and staff through Princeton's employee assistance provider, CareBridge Corp., and providing other support as Dillard reviews its employee policies and procedures.
- The Office of Communications is managing day-to-day updates of Dillard's Web site and has helped implement key design and navigation changes.
- The Office of Government Affairs is assisting Dillard's advocacy efforts in Washington, and Princeton has supported initiatives to encourage additional federal aid to educational institutions affected by the hurricanes.
- The Office of Risk Management has worked with Dillard's legal counsel to establish insurance claims and work with property and risk insurance carriers.
Jezierny also noted that the University's commitment to Dillard prompted similar partnerships between the Princeton Public Library and the New Orleans Public Library and between the Princeton business community and New Orleans business leaders.
Hands-on efforts
In addition to the Dillard partnership, Princeton employees and students continue to plan trips to areas affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to help in the rebuilding process.
Recognizing the need for sustained assistance in those areas, Princeton has extended until Aug. 31 its Humanitarian Relief Effort Policy, which provides two weeks of paid leave for employees to volunteer with agencies working in the Gulf Coast such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army. Eleven employees have taken advantage of the policy to devote their time and skills to projects ranging from home rebuilding to supplies procurement to animal rescue.
"Whether taking advantage of this policy to travel or helping from afar, we appreciate Princeton employees' strong and ongoing support of those in need," said Lianne Sullivan-Crowley, vice president for human resources.
For the upcoming intersession break, the Student Volunteers Council is organizing trips to Mobile, Ala., and Abbeville, La., to continue the group's efforts to aid residents in those areas.
During fall break, 20 undergraduates traveled to the Gulf Coast to help rehabilitate homes and clean up hurricane damage in conjunction with Volunteer Mobile Inc. in Alabama and the United Way in Louisiana. Students worked alongside homeowners on tasks such as cleaning out mold-infested furniture and ripping out ruined floors and walls.
"Both groups worked a total of four days and had quite a bit of interaction with the community through meals and alumni in the area," said junior Aitalohi Amaize, who is coordinating the trips for the Student Volunteers Council. "Many of the students enjoyed the trips immensely and have applied to go again."
On-campus activities
The continuing efforts build on numerous hurricane relief initiatives on campus since early September. As previously reported, in the fall semester the University temporarily enrolled 23 visiting undergraduates and five graduate students from affected schools. Tuition was waived for the visiting students, who also were provided with housing and financial aid. Also this fall, 15 visiting faculty members joined various academic departments under special programs to provide funding, offices and housing assistance for scholars from Gulf Coast institutions.
In October, pianist Turbinton -- a lifelong New Orleans resident who lost his home to Katrina -- took up temporary residency in the music department as a visiting lecturer. A renowned jazz and rhythm-and-blues pianist, Turbinton was invited by the department to lecture, perform and work with student musicians. Before departing Princeton later this month, Turbinton will present a free concert titled "An Evening With Willie Tee" on Jan. 10.
In addition to their trips to the Gulf Coast, Princeton students organized a variety of on-campus fund-raising events and discussions about the tragedy, while working to help assimilate the visiting students.
For more information about hurricane-related efforts at Princeton, visit www.princeton.edu/main/news/disasterrelief/.
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Princeton campus community members have undertaken a wide range of relief endeavors following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including raising funds for aid to victims and welcoming displaced students and scholars to campus. One campus visitor, New Orleans pianist Wilson "Willie Tee" Turbinton, has been serving as a guest lecturer in the music department since October and will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, in Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall. |
Photos: John Jameson
© 2006 The Trustees of Princeton University
Willie Tee at the Carolina Beach Music Awards
Myrtle Beach, SC - November 13, 2005
Willie Tee & Steve Jarrell Inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame
Willie Tee & Steve Jarrell Inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame
Hurricane Katrina
November 2, 2005
Princeton is sometimes likened to a bubble—a place as peaceful as it is beautiful. This semester the bubble has become a safe haven for individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The magnitude of human suffering caused by the storm and flooding defies description, with tens of thousands stripped of their homes and livelihoods, and hundreds of their lives. Like colleges and universities across the country, Princeton has risen to the humanitarian challenge posed by this disaster, and I am pleased—though not surprised—by the creativity and generosity of our University community’s response.
Princeton was still basking in the warmth of the last few days of summer when Hurricane Katrina made its landfall on August 29. As its impact became apparent, Executive Vice President Mark Burstein convened a committee of administrators who could mobilize our institutional resources, not only on behalf of Princetonians and their families in devastated areas but also on behalf of affected sister academic institutions, particularly those in New Orleans. Our first priority was to ensure that all 71 of our students from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were safe and that they had whatever assistance they needed to travel to Princeton and embark on their studies. While many of these students had escaped the fury of Katrina, others had not, arriving with little more than the clothes on their backs. From toiletries to towels; from counseling to financial aid, the University responded to their immediate needs. While the experience of seeing everything you own disappear in a moment will not easily be forgotten, the spirit of one survivor, Lauren Bartholomew ’09, augurs well for the future. Speaking at a benefit concert in September, she declared, "I am still alive and will not let the dark side of Mother Nature deter me from continuing the life I once lived. I, along with many loyal residents, will return to the city we treasure and rebuild."
As we extended a helping hand to our own students, our thoughts also turned to their peers at hurricane-damaged institutions. In anticipation of the forthcoming expansion of Princeton’s undergraduate student body, we were in the unusual position of having a number of vacant beds in Henry Hall. Furthermore, classes were not due to begin until September 15—ideal conditions under which to bring evacuees to the University for a semester so that their education would not be interrupted. Still, time was of the essence, and over the Labor Day weekend, I joined a small but enthusiastic band of administrators in what can only be called an exercise in admission triage. Huddled around a bank of telephones in our Office of Community and State Affairs, we fielded more than 200 inquiries from displaced students and assembled as much information about them as we could from cell phone conversations, faxes, and information provided by third parties. At the end of the long weekend, we admitted 23 undergraduates and five graduate students to Princeton as visiting students, waiving tuition and providing accommodation for all.
The undergraduates have formed a close-knit community in Henry, complete with their own resident adviser, a student from Tulane University who would have filled this role on his home campus had Hurricane Katrina not intervened. Thanks to the warm reception they have received, including a successful "buddy" system that paired them with our students, our visitors are forging ties with their Princeton classmates, dining in our residential colleges, participating in the give and take of precepts, and taking advantage of extracurricular opportunities. One visiting senior in classics is beginning his Tulane senior thesis under the direction of Professor Robert Kaster. This outpouring of assistance is a prime example of Princeton at its very best.
In addition to helping individuals, we have made an institutional commitment to assist in the rebuilding of Dillard University, a historically black institution that suffered crippling damage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We are being joined in this effort by Brown University, whose president, Ruth Simmons, is both a Dillard alumna and a former vice provost at Princeton. Dillard, whose entire campus was submerged in at least six feet of water, and then saw a number of its historic buildings succumb to fire, faces enormous difficulties, not the least of which is communication. Like so many residents of New Orleans, Dillard’s staff has been scattered across the southern United States, where they face the dual challenge of reconstituting their lives and reviving their institution, initially from afar. One administrator, who was evacuated with her husband and two children by helicopter with no more than a bag apiece, has had to turn to her host community’s public library for computer access, which is why much of our initial emphasis has been on helping her and her colleagues communicate with one another and the world at large. In the months ahead, we stand ready to offer a wide range of support and counsel, whether that means conducting damage assessments, helping with contract and insurance negotiations, restoring waterlogged holdings in their library, or providing surplus furniture and computers.
This account does not begin to encompass the generous support of individual students, faculty, and staff who have organized benefits—from concerts to charity auctions—made donations, opened their homes, and, in some cases, traveled to hurricane-ravaged areas to share their expertise under a two-week paid leave of absence program created for this purpose. About a dozen displaced faculty have already come to Princeton to pursue their research, and thanks to the efforts of Professor of Music Scott Burnham, the sweet sounds of New Orleans will be heard on campus with the arrival of celebrated singer and keyboardist Wilson Turbinton (better known as "Willie Tee"), who hails from one of that city’s hardest hit neighborhoods. Hurricane Katrina has left its survivors with a staggering amount of work to do, but as our University community has amply demonstrated, the citizens of the Gulf Coast do not face this task alone.
S.M.T.
E-Mail: WillieTee123@aol.com
©2006 Wilson "Willie Tee" Turbinton Last Updated 10/30/2006 2:00PM EST
