Violence in the City Deters College Recruiting

Violence could deter students, colleges warn
Make neighborhoods safe, neat, officials urge police and city

Thursday, January 11, 2007
By John PopeStaff writer

Besides the potential for physical harm posed by the wave of violence that has swept over New Orleans, local colleges and universities are worried that it also might hurt their attempts to recruit and retain top-flight students, teachers and administrators, leaders of those institutions said Wednesday afternoon.

Although none of the most recent killings has occurred on a campus, "I consider it dumb luck," said Ron Gardner, a vice chancellor at the LSU Health Sciences Center.
"I don't think there's a big difference between what happens in the city and what's happening on our campuses," he said.
The violence is especially damaging to schools trying to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina because people far away regard the crime as pervasive and, consequently, are loath to move to New Orleans or send their children to school there, school leaders said during a 90-minute meeting at Loyola University to discuss the issue with City Council members and law enforcement officers.
"If the kids aren't here, the city is going to have huge economic difficulties," said Deborah Stieffel, Loyola's dean of admissions and enrollment management. "We owe it to our parents and ourselves to ensure we're taking care of students."
If, somehow, the institutions can get people to move to New Orleans, the rewards will be great, Councilman Oliver Thomas said.
"Our greatest challenge is who we keep in this . . . city," he said. "If we keep folks, guess who our advocates and salespeople are?"
College representatives urged the city to step up the police presence on their campuses and to do a better job of repairing streetlights. Neighborhoods near Dillard University and the University of New Orleans need to be revitalized to make them less bleak and forbidding, representatives of those institutions said.
"I need to be able to convince parents when they get off the interstate and are driving along Elysian Fields, they'll see a live campus," said Ron Maggiore, UNO's dean of admissions. "They need to feel safe."
It's tough on the students who have returned, said Deanie Brown, Dillard's senior executive officer.
"Everything that has been identified (as a problem) is magnified for us because we sit in the devastation," she said. "Our students, in terms of retention, are frustrated. They want everything back together quickly. They say, 'I want to feel like a regular college student.' "
Although officials pledged to do as much as they could, they said their jobs aren't easy because budgets are tight and personnel levels are down.
"We're in a post-Katrina environment where all the elements of the infrastructure have been destroyed," New Orleans Police Department Capt. Michael Pfeiffer said. "We're overstressed. We go from one crisis to the next."
The most recent serious crime on a local campus occurred in October, when a UNO student was strangled in his dormitory room. No one has been arrested in the case.
At Wednesday's meeting, law enforcement officers urged university representatives and students to get involved in neighborhood groups to extend the feeling of community and safety beyond the campus.
"If you're going to a neighborhood meeting, . . . you have more strength as a neighborhood voice than by yourself," Pfeiffer said. "Problems will be addressed more quickly because officials will have to explain the outcome."
Joseph Boyd, Xavier's vice president for student services, said he urges students to increase their sense of safety by being more vigilant on campus.
"I tell them that everybody who comes through campus with a book bag doesn't always have books in that bag," he said.
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John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3317.