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Monday, September 19, 2005
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College Leaders and Associations Say Bush's Hurricane-Relief Proposals Aren't Enough to Rebuild
More Coverage: Articles about how Hurricane Katrina has affected colleges, plus photo galleries, an interactive map, commentaries, and other information.
Katrina Update: Announcements from colleges, associations, and government agencies.
Colloquy: Read the transcript of a live discussion with Scott S. Cowen, president of Tulane University, about his institution's efforts to recover.
Forum: Discuss the effects of the hurricane and exchange information.
Charitable aid: Coverage from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
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Leaders of some of the colleges hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina say that relief proposals offered late last week by President Bush and a key U.S. Senate committee would do little to help them rebuild. Meanwhile, several higher-education associations wrote a letter to lawmakers on Friday asking for $4.3-billion, with most of the money directed toward helping the devastated campuses recover.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced on Friday that the Bush administration would ask Congress, as part of a huge $200-billion hurricane relief package, for $227-million to help displaced college students and the higher-education institutions that have taken them in. The bulk of the money would be used to allow borrowers affected by the hurricane to defer payments on their student loans, and to provide $1,000 payments to colleges for each student they take in. The funds would be intended to help colleges meet the unexpected costs associated with educating those students (The Chronicle, September 16).
The proposal would not, however, include funds to help Gulf Coast colleges repair or replace facilities and equipment, or to encourage students and faculty members to return to those institutions once they reopen, as college lobbyists have urged (The Chronicle, September 14).
Higher-education lobbyists, particularly those at private colleges, were livid that their requests for direct aid to damaged institutions, and for incentives for students to re-enroll, had gone unheeded.
"It's outrageous," said Sarah A. Flanagan, vice president for government relations at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "They've done nothing to help colleges in the Gulf Coast to survive."
"Private colleges are among the largest employers in New Orleans," said Ms. Flanagan, whose organization was among those that sent the letter to Congress last week. "If you don't have a vision for the future of higher education in the gulf, you have no vision for the economic future of the region."
The letter was also signed by the American Association of Community Colleges and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, which drafted it.
As much as they were dissatisfied with the Bush administration proposals, the higher-education groups were even more unhappy with a bill (S 1715) that the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions introduced late Thursday night.
The bill, which calls for Congress to spend about $3.7-billion to help elementary and secondary schools and school districts recover, provides no additional money for higher education. Even worse, college lobbyists say, the Senate bill would require colleges temporarily closed by the hurricane to eventually repay to the government and to student-loan providers the federal student-aid dollars that their students have paid them this semester. In contrast, under the administration's proposal, colleges would be able to retain the money.
A requirement to return student aid would be a "catastrophe" for Xavier University of Louisiana, which desperately needs the money to rebuild, said Norman C. Francis, the institution's long-serving president. In an interview on Sunday, he estimated that if the Senate bill is enacted, the university will be forced to send back at least $10-million.
He noted that Xavier has an extremely small endowment, with most of the money tied up in restricted funds. "If I used our flexible endowment money to pay our personnel costs, I would wipe it out in four months," Mr. Francis said. "So it would be extremely hard for us to pay back student loans while trying to rebuild the university. We'd never catch up."
"It would be like going on an escalator, and trying to go up, while going down," he added.
Congress is expected to begin considering the Bush administration's hurricane-relief proposals this week, and college lobbyists are hoping that they can focus lawmakers on the tremendous needs of the 30 colleges in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi that were damaged by the storm.
Soon after learning of the administration's proposals, several higher-education associations sent the letter to lawmakers asking for $4.3-billion to help the Gulf Coast colleges rebuild.
The lobbyists -- who represent four-year private colleges and two-year public institutions -- are asking Congress for:
- $1.8-billion to make up for revenue lost by colleges that have been forced to close. The institutions would use the money to pay faculty and staff members this semester.
- $2.3-billion for grants the colleges would provide to encourage students and faculty and staff members to return to the institutions once they reopen. The grants would be worth up to $10,000, except that students could not receive more than the cost of attendance.
- $150-million to provide $2,500 payments to colleges elsewhere for each displaced student that they have taken in.
In their letter, the college groups say that these steps are necessary to save the colleges that have played a critical part in the lives and economies of the states and local areas that have been affected. "Institutions of higher education have long served as economic centers and stimuli for each urban and township area employing thousands of citizens," the letter says. "We need to bring back the students and the talented faculty pool and staff in order to bring back New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama again."
Mr. Francis said that the needs of his college and others in New Orleans cannot be overestimated. "I don't think it's fully appreciated what devastation has been," he said. "The bottom line is that we need national resources."
Background articles from The Chronicle:
- Bush Proposes Hurricane-Relief Package That Would Help Displaced Students and the Colleges That Have Taken Them In (9/16/2005)
- New Orleans Campuses Surface as Floodwaters Recede, but the Colleges' Futures Remain Obscured (9/16/2005)
- Mississippi Colleges Face Estimated Post-Hurricane Costs of $673.5-Million, State Officials Say (9/15/2005)
- Southern U. at New Orleans May Have to Rebuild From Scratch, at a Cost of $300-Million or More (9/15/2005)
- Higher-Education Officials and Senate Aides Discuss Colleges' Relief Needs (9/14/2005)