Xavier University News August 2010 Remembering Katrina, Looking Ahead: 5 Years Later New Orleans LA - There are some anniversaries we celebrate because they conjure up wonderful memories, and there are other anniversaries people commemorate simply because they want to remember what they endured and survived. August 29 is one of the latter for New Orleans residents, and for institutions such as Xavier. On that fateful date in 2005 - five years ago - Hurricane Katrina came ashore and dramatically changed things not only for New Orleans in general but for the nation's only Historically Black and Catholic university. But five years later, the Xavier campus is fully recovered physically - growing in fact. Enrollment at the highly regarded HBCU powerhouse remains solid. And while many important capital projects around the "Big Easy" continue to languish five years after Katrina, that is hardly the case at Xavier. The Xavier campus reopens for the Fall 2010 semester with a brand new wing opening at the College of Pharmacy. Meanwhile, pilings are already being driven for a world-class chapel to be erected in honor of the university's founder Saint Katharine Drexel and, nearby, a previously idle building is being transformed into a new Student Services Center. Elsewhere, modular housing units - replacing university-owned houses in the neighborhood that were damaged during the hurricane - are going up in several locations, while a new 111-capacity parking lot has been completed near Xavier South on the corner of Howard and So Clark and Dixon Streets. Across campus, multiple major renovation projects are underway to renovate the university's Art Village and to upgrade offices housing several academic departments. And a new Convocation Center is next up and already on the drawing board. The most visible of these campus improvements is the Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion. Under construction since 2008, it is expected to be ready for partial occupancy in early fall, with the official ribbon-cutting scheduled for October. Connected to both the Library Resource Building and the existing College of Pharmacy building, the new Pavilion faces the campus' I-10 boundary to the north. Once completed, the five-story, 60,000-square foot addition will allow the University to sustain its increased enrollment growth while drastically improving the overall quality of the academic programs and research endeavors. All of the new high-tech teaching labs, as well as two large auditorium-style lecture halls - each capable of seating as many as 200 students - will be housed in the expansion. The building will also hold teaching and research laboratories, a mock pharmacy skills laboratory and a Drug Information Center. It would be an understatement to suggest that building a free-standing religious chapel on campus has been an elusive dream for most of Xavier's history. A chapel was actually included in (then) Mother Katharine Drexel's original blueprint plans for the Xavier campus in the late 1920's and it has been mentioned as an upcoming project in nearly every university strategic plan for the past 80+ years. That dream, however, is finally about to become reality. Test pilings are already been driven, the close to 200 permanent pilings are expected to be in place with-in the next two weeks. The 11,000 square foot structure, designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli, will be situated next to the pharmacy addition right alongside the Interstate-10 Expressway bringing motorists to and from downtown New Orleans. Like the other buildings on campus, the chapel's exterior will be made of limestone. Its domed roof will be made of copper with a large cross located strategically at its crest that architect Pelli joked "will be visible from the airport to the river..." adding that "...people will see this cross and know it is the chapel at Xavier University." A construction fence has also gone up around the old St. Joseph's Residence Hall facing Drexel Drive, signaling the beginning of gutting and transformation of the dated 40-year old building into a new energy efficient Student Service Center. When completed, the three-story building will house the Student Health Center, the Counseling Center, as well as the reading and writing labs and various other student-oriented offices. It replaces the Old Student Center - yet another victim of Hurricane Katrina. Construction projects always infuse a certain amount of vitality to the campus - and with enrollment expected to remain consistent and healthy at 3,000+ students as Xavier reopens for another academic year - the university remains confident and focused on the future. Still when such anniversaries do occur, it is sometimes helpful to look back at where you've been and how far you've come. You can view the story of Xavier's recovery in a 6:00-minute You Tube video entitled "After Katrina: Rebuilding Xavier" HERE<http://www.youtube.com/user/xunews> or check a the 2006 view book which is still available ONLINE<http://www.xula.edu/institutional-advancement/RebuildingXU.pdf>. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/meeting-form.html for the October 24-26, 2010 HBCU Library Alliance 4th Membership Meeting and the "Conference on Advocacy" pre-conference in Montgomery, AL. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.