tmax_march2006

Volume 36 No. 2
March 2006

THIS MONTH AT XAVIER

Archives / IN THIS ISSUE:

St. Katharine Drexel
is Remembered

AJC Visits Campus for Donation and Dialogue

XU Students Share
Business Saavy

Carter and Bastian Named UNCF Alumni of the Year

At XULA, Francis (is) an 'Indefatigable Fighter'

XavierWrites

Xavier in the News

St. Katharine

Miss XU is Crowned

Honoring the King Legacy

UNCF Scholar

Convocation

Jazz Concert

Alumni at UNCF Banquet

AJC Delegates on Campus

XavierWrites

Students

Tiffany Humes, a junior biology/pre-med major from Canton, Mich. (Canton High) took second place in the Louisiana Association of College Composition Writing Competition (Undergraduate Research) 2005, for her paper on August Wilson's Fences.

Alumni

Warner Saunders ’57, co-anchor for NBC5 News in Chicago, Ill, has earned a Chicago Emmy Award for team excellence in covering a breaking news story. He now has 19 Emmys on his shelf.

Faculty/Staff

Dr. Jose Bautista (business) gave his expert analysis of the economic impact of Katrina on the city of New Orleans and what it will take to return to pre-Katrina status on RadioEconomics.com

Dr. Thomas Bonner, Jr. (English) spoke on the role of Xavier University and local HBCUs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at a special symposium on disaster recovery at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Ronald Dorris '72 (African American Studies/English) was Keynote Speaker for the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Observance at Bloomsburg University.

Dr. Nicole P. Greene (English) had an article, “Cajun, Creole, and African American Literacy Narratives,” published in the fall issue of Multicultural Perspectives, the official journal of the Association for Multicultural Eduation. She also had a second article on Hurricane Katrina published in the Dec. 17 issue of The Tablet, the international Catholic weekly.

Katheryn Krotzer Laborde's (English) "Concrete Mary" and "St. Joseph's Day" have been included in the Hope and Heritage Foundation's Countdown to Mardi Gras/Katrina Ya Ya project, a series of recorded narratives and photographic essays that celebrate the unique culture of New Orleans. Her short story, "And They Shall Be One Flesh," is featured on Southern Gothic Online.

Dr. Carmen Villegas Rogers (Languages) had an article, "Improving the Visibility of Afro-Latin Culture in the Spanish Classroom," accepted for publication in the September issue of Hispania.

Pharmacy White Coat Ceremony

First-year College of Pharmacy students Arian Lemon (McDonogh 35 High) and Mary Cambre (Belle Chasse High) of New Orleans sign their professional oaths at the annual White Coat Ceremony during which the neophyte students received their first professional uniform - the white jacket - symbolizing ethical practice and signifying the beginning of their professional pharmacy educations.

(photo by Irving Johnson III)

St. Katharine Drexel Remembered on 51st Anniversary of Her Death

This month marks the 51st anniversary of the death of St. Katharine Drexel, the founder of Xavier University and Xavier Prep, as well as the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament religious order.

She was the 19th century equivalent of an American princess, born into the privileged family of a wealthy Philadelphia banker and philanthropist. She could have lived her life in the lap of luxury, oblivious to the suffering of others. But instead, throughout the 1890’s and the first half of this century – long before taking up the cause of racial equality came into vogue – St. Katharine was at the forefront of efforts to improve the lives of others.

During these decades shadowed by the segregation and degradation forced on Blacks – combined with the dispossession, relocation and betrayal of Native Americans – the name of St. Katharine Drexel shone out as a beacon of hope. St. Katharine was at the forefront of efforts to educate African-Americans and Native Americans with an eye toward helping them to develop their own leadership and self-determination. Her schools were always open to all faiths; and the nuns who followed her lived among the poor they served.

Katharine Drexel was born in 1858 to wealthy Philadelphia banker and philanthropist Francis Drexel and his wife Hannah, who died a mere five weeks after giving birth. Her father remarried two years later. It was from her parents – revered for their own generosity and charity to the less fortunate – that St. Katharine learned early the lesson of stewardship and responsibility to the poor.

Early on, St. Katharine indicated her intent to establish a bureau to distribute her wealth to Indians and Black missions, and to enter a cloistered religious order. But instead, during a trip to Rome with her family, she accepted the challenge of Pope Leo XIII and established a brand new order – the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament – which went on to found and staff schools and centers in the inner cities of the North and East, the Indian reservations of the west and across the Deep South.

Despite the many obstacles placed in their path, including strong opposition from whites, by 1942 the Sisters were operating black Catholic schools, convents and mission centers in some 13 states. So extensive was her influence in the Black, rural areas of New Iberia, St. Martinville and other Acadiana parishes that she is often referred to as the “Patron Saint of South Louisiana.”

St. Katharine’s presence was also felt in urban New Orleans, where the Sisters not only opened a Catholic high school and several elementary schools, but also established Xavier – which was to become the capstone of her educational system.

It is estimated that St. Katharine – who during her lifetime shared the annual income from her father’s trust fund with her two sisters – gave away more than $20 million.

The stresses and strains of building a nationwide network of schools for black and Indian children were hard on St. Katharine. The heavy workload and awesome responsibilities that she shouldered for more than a half-century finally took their toll in 1935 when she suffered a near-fatal heart attack. For 20 years she was confined to the infirmary at the Motherhouse in Bensalem, Pa., where she is said to have spent most of her waking hours in prayer and meditation. She died in 1955.

St. Katharine was officially canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in October of 2000 by Pope John Paul II. During a rain-soaked canonization ceremony that drew tens of thousands to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II said that her life brought about “a growing awareness of the need to combat all forms of racism through education and social services.

Only the fifth American to have been canonized and only the second American-born Saint, she is now in the select company of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, Rose Philippine Duchesne, Bishop John Neumann and Mother Elizabeth Seton.

Relief Fund Gets Support from Afar

President Norman Francis is all smiles as he accepts a check for $100,000 from American Jewish Committee delegate Brian Siegal during the organization's visit to the New Orleans area, while VP for Institutional Advancement Adrienne Brooks applauds a $50,000 gift presented by Bro. Tyrone Davis, representing the Archdiocese of New York. (photos by Irving Johnson III)

American Jewish Committee Visits City / Campus for Donation and Dialogue

Representatives of the American Jewish Committee paid a visit to New Orleans and the Xavier campus to donate $100,000 to the University’s rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina and to engage in dialogue with affected students and faculty/staff.

"The fact that the American Jewish Committee would support a black Catholic college is a symbol of how people of different faith and race can come together in the wake of a disaster like Katrina," said Carla Harris, who announced the gift during a benefit concert for Xavier at Lincoln Center in New York on Saturday evening. Harris was chair of the concert, sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York's Office of Black Ministry.

The check presentation and campus visit was part of the AJC's New Orleans Relief project – an initiative to support the hurricane-ravaged community – which brought a group of thirty young Jews from across the country to New Orleans to meet with residents and government officials and to help in city clean-up projects.

President Norman Francis accepted the donation at the International House Conference Center on Camp St., while more than two dozen XU faculty/staff members and a variety of students shared their experiences with AJC delegates following a tour of the campus two days later.

This is the AJC’s second visit to the city. Last December, AJC Executive Director David A. Harris delivered checks totaling $575,000 from the organization's Katrina fund to Dillard University, St. Clement of Rome Catholic church, and two synagogues, Congregation Gates of Prayer and Congregation Beth Israel.

AJC, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, has a proud tradition of responding to humanitarian crises. Over the years, AJC has contributed millions of dollars in relief and reconstruction projects, benefiting people of diverse racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds in the U.S. and around the world.

Passing It On
	Tevya D. Reid, a junior business management major from Toronto, Canada, talks to his MAX high school group about entrepreneurship as part of a new service-learning project initiated by the Business Department. (photo by Irving Johnson III)

Students Share Entrepreneurship Knowledge with Young Students

Learning to start a business from the ground up is the goal of a new service-learning project between Xavier students and a local high school. Business students from are working with high school students this semester as part of a service-learning project to teach entrepreneurship.

XU students are working with students from St. Augustine, St. Mary’s Academy, Xavier Prep and Redeemer-Seton, now all part of the MAX Campus located at the Xavier Prep location on Magazine Street.

Business professor and coordinator of the project, Dr. Louis Mancuso, says the Xavier students want to help the community recover from Hurricane Katrina and they are planting seeds to do so.

The MAX students will work in small groups with a Xavier student leader to create a business plan. The high school students will visit the Xavier campus for a resume seminar where they will also interview with the Xavier Business Advisory Council, and a business plan competition.

The high school class teacher is Curtis Lawrence, a social studies instructor and head basketball coach at Xavier Prep, who is a 1986 Xavier graduate. “I think this is a good experience for our students,” he said.

The groups first met at the high school during a class period and had a working lunch to get started on their projects. They will communicate throughout the semester.

Mancuso, who is Xavier’s Conrad Hilton Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship, is the director of the Entrepreneurship Institute at Xavier.

A minor in entrepreneurship was instituted last year. The Xavier business department recently received a $20,000 grant from Ford PAS (Partnership for Advanced Studies Experiential Learning) Program and a $5,000 Bernstien Grant to support the Entrepreneurship Institute.

Mancuso notes that students from any major can benefit from a minor in entrepreneurship. “Pharmacists, educators, so many different majors can use this minor,” he said. “Xavier has a rich history in music, pharmacy and the sciences, and with a background in entrepreneurship there’s no stopping them!”

Xavier students participating in this semester’s entrepreneurship service learning program are:

Alexandra Ajanaku, junior, business management, Lagos, Nigeria; Loren Labbe, senior, business, Kenner, La.; Kameron Moore Mitchell, freshman, business management, Oakland Calif.; Sharita Farmer, senior, business management, Chicago, Ill.; Tevya D. Reid, junior, business management, Toronto, Ontario - Canada; Damein Jones, senior, sales & marketing, Leesville La.; Joshua Miles, junior, business management, New Orleans; Brenna Cooper, junior, psychology major with a business minor, Pacoina, Calif.; and Kellie Sanchez, junior, marketing, New Orleans.

UNCF Honors XU Alums of the Year

XU National Alumni Association President Joy Joseph ’60 (left) congratulates Frederick Carter ’69 and Holly Bastian ’85 after they were honored by the UNCF as Xavier’s 2006 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year and Young Alumnus, respectively, at the annual NAC/NPAC conference held in Dallas, Texas.

(photo by Earl Mitchell, Jr. '60)

Carter and Bastian Named UNCF Alumni of the Year

Frederick Carter ’69 and Holly Bastien ’85 were honored as the University’s most outstanding alumni at the United Negro College Fund’s (UNCF) annual NAC/NPAC anniversary Conference held in Dallas, Texas.

Carter, pharmacy manager with the Target Corporation, was selected as the UNCF Outstanding Alumnus of the Year by the Xavier University National Alumni Association Bastian, a physician and assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, received the UNCF Young Alumnus Award.

Carter is the past president of the Chicago Alumni Chapter, while Bastian is the president of the Birmingham Alumni Chapter.

Chronicle of Higher Education Feb. 10. 2006 Issue	NOTES FROM ACADEME Copyright © 2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

At Xavier University of Louisiana, (Francis is) an 'Indefatigable Fighter'

By KATHERINE S. MANGAN

New Orleans - Five months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and crippled the university he has presided over for 38 years, Norman C. Francis gazes out at the tall cluster of buildings that rise, triumphant, from the rubble of surrounding neighborhoods.

"For us to come back after sitting in seven feet of water for three weeks gives hope to the rest of the community," says the 74-year-old president of Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation's only historically black and Catholic university.

Hope is something Mr. Francis doles out generously these days as he meets with students, faculty members, higher-education leaders, and state and federal policy makers. Despite being knee-deep in overseeing repairs and recovery at Xavier and at his own house, he agreed in October to serve as chairman of the 26-member board of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a statewide reconstruction-advisory group.

Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco recruited him while he was living with his extended family in Grand Coteau, La., scrambling to resurrect his university, and shuttling three young grandchildren to and from school each day.

Some Xavier employees privately worried that he was overextending himself at a time when the university desperately needed his full attention. But others reasoned that the high-profile position would allow Mr. Francis to tap into his network of political contacts and bring attention and money to the university. In any case, the president decided he was up to the task.

"The governor visited me late one Friday night at my house in exile and said 'I need you — the state needs you,'" Mr. Francis recalls. "I hesitated at first, but just like when I was drafted into the Army, I saluted and said I'd do it. She knows I'll be as straight as an arrow. I have no hidden agenda."

Since then his days and nights have been a blur of meetings, speeches, travel, and, during the few moments when he and Blanche, his wife of 50 years, can break away, contemplation of whether to rebuild the gutted remains of their once-stately home.

Mr. Francis, whose 38-year tenure at Xavier is the longest of any sitting college president, is no stranger to leading in times of crisis. He accepted the job as president of his alma mater on April 4, 1968, the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

"The shock and hurt on campus were deafening," he recalls. "It was as though everyone had lost a close member of the family. Everyone felt completely helpless."

Since then he has helped elevate Xavier from a small Catholic university into a nationally recognized powerhouse that sends more minority students to medical schools and graduates more minority pharmacists than any other university in the country.

Elegantly dressed in a navy double-breasted suit; crisp, white dress shirt; and red-and-blue-striped tie, Mr. Francis gazes out at the sea-green roofs and tinted windows of campus buildings that are a striking sight from a nearby expressway. "People call us 'the Emerald City,'" he says with pride. Then he describes what it was like to abandon the university he has nurtured for nearly four decades.

Shortly before Katrina struck, he evacuated to a downtown hotel before being rescued and taken to Baton Rouge. After that he headed to the area where he grew up and still had family, outside of Lafayette.

"We were all traumatized when we had to leave. We kept thinking this wasn't real — it was just a bad dream," he says quietly as he surveys the campus from a balcony off a sixth-floor boardroom.
About 350 students stayed behind in a high-rise dormitory with several-dozen staff members and security officers until they were bused to safety.

In addition to campuswide flood and wind damage, the storm destroyed a newly installed floor in the university's basketball arena.

In late October, with spring enrollment figures uncertain at best, and physical-damage estimates climbing to $35-million, Mr. Francis announced the layoffs of more than a third of the university's faculty and staff members.

The cuts stunned faculty members and led to rumors — unfounded, according to the administration — that the president was taking advantage of an excuse to rid the campus of faculty critics. Michael Homan, an untenured assistant professor of theology, says he still doesn't understand why his job was spared when his department chairman, who had tenure, was laid off.
"Two of my best friends are no longer here, and it's very hard," he says. "But I wouldn't want to be the one having to make those tough decisions."

Mr. Francis followed through on his commitment to reopen the campus in January, even though that meant many faculty and staff members would be living in trailers and hotel rooms, some elevators wouldn't be working, and some ground-floor classrooms would still be unusable.

"We're a model for destroying the myth that young people and minorities can't succeed in science," the president says. "I figured there would be things we'd have to tweak and things that wouldn't work perfectly, but surely, we had to come back."

The decision on whether to rebuild his home, a two-story brick house that sat a stone's throw from the breeched levy at the London Avenue Canal, wasn't as easy. Armed with a flashlight, he scoured the house for photographs, plaques, and memorabilia, but found that little had survived the punishing floodwaters.

The Francises have no intention of rebuilding until they have some assurance that the levees that failed in their backyard won't give way again.

"I've put it behind me," he insists. "Material things aren't important. We have our lives and our family. It was like an epiphany to realize that that's all that really matters."

As he traveled around the city after Katrina, the images were heart-wrenching, he says. "The homes on slabs moved around like checkers on a checkerboard. When I saw them, I could have cried."

Mr. Francis, who has made several lobbying trips to Washington, makes no secret of his frustration with federal officials who, he says, have dragged their feet in coming to his city's and his university's aid. Although he is known for his gentle demeanor and ready smile, Xavier's leader is a force to be reckoned with when he is angry.

During a recent meeting of Louisiana government and education leaders, he suggested arranging a political road trip to the hardest-hit areas in and around New Orleans.

"If we took the president and all the members of Congress to New Orleans, to Lake Charles, to St. Bernard Parish, and to Plaquemines Parish, they could not come back and live with their conscience if they didn't respond," he says.

Mr. Francis credits his parents, a barber and a homemaker — neither of whom graduated from high school — with instilling in him a sense of pride and self-worth even as he was growing up in a segregated society. "They kept us from being bitter, and steeled our personalities to the extent that we weren't going to let outside forces determine our fortunes."

After enrolling at Xavier on a scholarship in 1948, he became, in 1955, the first black graduate of the law school at Loyola University New Orleans. He wasn't permitted to live in a law-school dormitory, so he worked in a freshman dormitory and lived there.

After law school, Mr. Francis served two years in the Army before being recruited to join Xavier's administration as dean of men in 1957. In 1968, after several administrative posts at Xavier and a stint as a civil-rights lawyer for the Congress of Racial Equity (known as CORE), Mr. Francis became the university's first lay president at age 36. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who had run Xavier since its founding in 1925, decided it made sense to allow one of the university's graduates to lead it.

Mr. Francis's influence has been felt far beyond the confines of his campus. Over the years, he has served as an adviser to several presidents, including Ronald Reagan, who appointed him to the national commission that in 1983 released "A Nation at Risk," the landmark call for educational reform.

Among the dignitaries he has met are Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, George Bush Sr., and Jesse Jackson.

William Arceneaux, chairman of the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, calls Mr. Francis "a dignified, indefatigable fighter for the university that he loves."
Mr. Francis knows he faces daunting challenges, but insists he never doubted his ability to juggle his new roles.

"I'm not naïve, and I know it's going to be difficult," he says. "But we have to keep the faith and believe it can be done."

Xavier in the News:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans area and Xavier have been the subject of continuing national media coverage. Here are a few examples:

Delaware Country Times - Starting over: College students head back to schools in New Orleans

FinalCall.com - One in four students not returning to New Orleans

NinerOnline - New Orleans students return to city

The Jewish Week - Mission Of Mercy

Louisiana Weekly - Post-Katrina Scholarships to XU Students

Individual faculty, staff, students and alumni have also been featured - and not always about the storm:

National Public Radio - SGA President Regina McCutcheon talks about the first day of classes on NPR's "All Things Considered"

Yale Daily News - Flickinger mentors youth, shares secrets of success (Sr. Grace Mary Flickinger, S.B.S., biology)

Natchez Democrat - First black Concordia voters led the way for others (Norman Francis)

San Antonio Express News - How badly was the Big Easy polluted? (Dr. Howard Mielke, COP)

The New York Times - When the Lower Ninth Posed Proudly (Ron Bechet, art)

If you have any comments about TMAX, or have some information you would like to submit for publication, please direct an e-mail to rtucker@xula.edu