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Two Years After Katrina

Photos and text by Drew Daniels
Black College Wire

Drew Daniels Senior Warren Dyer avoids the construction at Xavier University.

Students who decided to return to Dillard and Xavier universities and Southern University of New Orleans are beginning the school year amid the noise and bustle of rebuilding, hopeful that the campuses are getting back to normal, if such a state is possible two years after the devastating blow of Hurricane Katrina.

Buildings tagged with orange spray paint, tractors digging around pipelines, and streams of yellow caution tape greet students returning after summer break to campuses turned into construction sites.

Drew Daniels Dillard University seniors Dunte Brown, India Brown, and Brittany Blanton discuss the financial aid and clearance process in Hartzel Hall, an all-freshman girls dormitory turned into offices after Hurricane Katrina.

Drew Daniels Dillard University senior Emmanuel Galloway moves back into DU Gardens, campus housing, after returning from summer vacation.

The storm left Dillard under as much as 10 feet of water and caused more than $400 million in damages. After having classes at the New Orleans Hilton, students are back on campus for the second year. Several buildings remain closed and under construction. In recent months, the administration moved back onto campus from the downtown location.

Drew Daniels Dillard's Student University Center after restoration from water damage.

Drew Daniels Construction work continues at Dillard University.

Drew Daniels Fellowship outside Xavier University Center on the second day of class.

Xavier is steadily continuing to rebuild, and campus buildings are reopening. Several school construction projects are still under way and expected to be completed soon.

Drew Daniels Faculty, staff and students attend classes in mobile portables due to the relocation of the Southern University at New Orleans campus.

For students at Southern University of New Orleans, classes have been relocated to modules near the lakefront campus while construction on the original campus is starting. Most of the original campus is still under construction. Because of a lack of funding, administration, faculty and students are not able to use any of the original facilities.

With students returning to campus for the fall semester, school officials say construction during the school year will be reduced for safety reasons.

Drew Daniels, a student at Dillard University, is layout and design editor of the Courtbouillon. To comment, e-mail .

Posted Aug. 29, 2007