Visit from Cabinet members is a good sign

Posted by Letters to the Editor
March 11, 2009 5:21PM

Re: "Obama aides vow to speed up recovery, " Page 1, March 6. Last week, two Cabinet members came to the New Orleans region to survey our recovery effort. They toured our campus with me at the request of our senior senator, Mary Landrieu.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing levee breaks significantly damaged all 11 buildings that comprise our Park Campus, including our University Center and library. We are still in a struggle to rebuild and have been operating primarily out of trailers on the SUNO campus. Thanks to Sen. Landrieu, I had a personal audience with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who oversees FEMA and can help spur our rebuilding and untangle our projects caught in the FEMA morass of red tape.

Without Sen. Landrieu fighting for us in Washington and making sure our recovery is under the administration's nose, the Secretary of Homeland Security would not have walked my campus with me. Accompanying Secretary Napolitano on our tour was Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who has the ability to help with our housing recovery across the region -- critical for all of our university communities.

Our full recovery, as a university more vibrant than before Katrina struck, is something that the Southern University System, its Board of Supervisors and I work toward every day for our students, faculty and SUNO community.

Our challenges are great, but the tour last week gives me hope that our new administration is taking sincere notice.

Victor Ukpolo

Chancellor

Southern University at New Orleans