Amid their own difficulties, Waters and others wonder, and worry, about the future of New Orleans’ historically Black universities. He says many of his students wouldn’t be in college at all if it weren’t for SUNO.
Dr. Linda Carroll, a professor of Italian, has taught at Tulane since 1981. She notices a disturbing trend as New Orleanians begin to return to their homes.
“With the return rate to the city more heavily White than African-American, I’m very concerned about the loss of population,” she says. “The HBCUs cannot pay their employees without tuition coming in. There could be a tremendous infrastructure loss, and the prospect of that makes me very sad.”
Caston-Pierre, meanwhile, wants to do whatever she can to further education opportunities for Black students. She hopes it will be back at Dillard. “Even when I was an undergrad, [Blacks] had to form our own support system. Hopefully, students can identify with my background and realize they, too, can become a Ph.D. if they wish,” she says.
Yet for some faculty, the crossroads at the end of the school year may not include much than a glance at New Orleans. For Burse, who has resumed job-hunting in earnest, the city might already be in the rearview mirror. Depending on what happens, she might return to her New Orleans apartment at semester’s end to continue sending out résumés and making calls. At least there, her mom can help care for her son and she might spend less on daycare. But with so few jobs of any kind in the city, “Maybe this is a calling,” Burse says, “that I need to be somewhere other than New Orleans.
“All I know is, the clock isn’t stopping.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
