In his report on the state of HBCUs affected by Hurricane Katrina, Blakey said Gulf-area HBCUs “didn’t get the kind of a share that they needed given the damage that was inflicted, particularly at Dillard and SUNO [Southern University at New Orleans] and to a lesser extent, at Xavier.”
Although funneling education funds directly to the affected states streamlined the emergency appropriations process on the federal level, Blakey said Gulf-area HBCUs were at a particular disadvantage when it came to receiving a share of the federal funds.
Private institutions like Dillard were hurt because policy-makers placed a higher priority for public funds on public institutions, he said. And the formula used to incorporate private institutions did not provide the funds the HBCUs needed to rebuild damaged buildings. The future of SUNO, he said, remains uncertain in the wake of Katrina.
“The documented fact [that] there [are] about 19 academic degrees being terminated obviously is going to change the entire character of SUNO,” Blakey said. “And the question of its survivability as an independent entity and as a baccalaureate-degree institution is open right now.”
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