printable versionGuest students from the Gulf Coast reflect on their quarter spent on the Farm
BY MICHAEL PEÑA
Dillard University student Stephanie Woods sits in the lounge at Toyon Hall, a favorite place of hers to study.
Tulane student Aimee Custis sits in front of one of the many campus fountains she was fond of.
In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, universities around the country took in an estimated 100,000 displaced students from the Gulf Coast region. At Stanford, 26 undergraduates from Tulane, Loyola, Xavier and Dillard universities attended class over the fall as guest students, while the Law School admitted five graduate students from Tulane Law School. Most of the undergraduates—about 20—also came from Tulane. More than half of the undergraduates call California their home state, while a handful hail from Gulf Coast states.
"We are lucky that as a private institution we had some flexibility in accommodating students in such a unique situation," said Julie Lythcott-Haims, dean of freshmen and transfer students. "I know that if and when the Bay Area were to face a natural disaster of this magnitude, I would want other universities to do the same for our students, should they be temporarily displaced."
As the quarter comes to a close and their stay ends, a few of these guest students from the Gulf Coast reflected on their time at Stanford:
Stephanie WoodsWhile surfing the web for colleges she could attend this past fall, the Dillard University senior paid special attention to Stanford for two reasons—one, her brother raved about his experience after graduating from the Farm in 1998. Two, she saw a black studies course taught by history Professor Clayborne Carson, who also directs the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute.
So she applied, was accepted and enrolled in Carson's Introduction to African and African American Studies course. Stephanie Woods, an English major, said the historically black college she normally attends in New Orleans offers similar classes. But the chance to study under someone as accomplished as Carson was too good to pass up, she said. "I just thought it would be a great experience."
Woods also took two English courses and plans to graduate in June with an English degree. Woods initially thought about temporarily attending a university in the upper Midwest because she has an older sister in Ohio. In the end, however, she heeded the advice of her brother, alumnus Leslie Woods (MS, Mechanical Engineering, '98).
"I've experienced so much while I've been here," said Woods, who grew up in Houston. "Sometimes you have to take chances, and sometimes you just have to do things for the experience."
She was housed in Eucalipto here at Stanford, while back in New Orleans, she had lived off campus. Now she is unsure where her next home will be. She said she has prepared herself, emotionally, for a New Orleans that might still look like the disaster area she sees on TV every day. But she remains optimistic.
"I'm looking forward to going back," Woods said. "After being there for three years, I feel it would just be incomplete if I didn't get my degree from there."
Gabriella Bluett-MillsOnce the quarter ends, Gabriella Bluett-Mills will leave Stanford and may have a shot at getting right on board a cruise ship—one of Tulane University's solutions for temporarily lodging students and staff whose on-campus homes were destroyed by flooding. But the Bay Area native seems just a tad tired of floating around.
Bluett-Mills was one of 16 students who fled from New Orleans to a friend's fraternity house in Memphis, Tenn., two days before Hurricane Katrina touched down. In mid-September, she found herself in a new home that her mother had recently purchased in Palo Alto. Bluett-Mills grew up in Redwood City, but her familiarity with the area didn't stop her from taking full advantage of her homecoming.
Bluett-Mills, who is double majoring in cell biology and Spanish, enrolled in four courses this quarter. In particular, she said she enjoyed observing children at Bing Nursery School for one class, as well as taking a Hum Bio course called Health Care in America. "I'm actually glad I had a chance to take classes this quarter," Bluett-Mills said. "It kept me going. It fulfilled a couple of requirements that I need to graduate."
Tulane doesn't offer a class like Health Care in America, Bluett-Mills said, adding that she enjoyed the lively interaction between the professor and students. Outside the classroom, she found Stanford students to be much more campus oriented than those at Tulane. There, she said, students tend to venture off campus more.
While in the Bay Area, Bluett-Mills spent most of her down time off campus—mostly helping her mother set things up around the new home. Once Bluett-Mills returns to Tulane, she will have to get used to a new home away from home as well. She said her on-campus apartment was among those that took in waist-deep waters.
Two rented cruise ships docked on the Mississippi River will serve as temporary housing for several thousand of Tulane's displaced students and employees. But Bluett-Mills said she would prefer to live back on campus. Her plan is to return to Tulane sometime in the beginning of January, "once I find out where I'll be living."
Aimee CustisAimee Custis, a junior at Tulane, received the evacuation order two days before Katrina struck, and at the time, her first thought was that she would get to enjoy another "hurrication"—a common term on the New Orleans campus that alludes to the frequent false alarms during the stormy season.
But the warning proved to be no bluff. Custis arrived at Stanford almost a month later—on freshman move-in day—and took classes toward her political science major, plus others that will satisfy core requirements.
"If I had taken a semester off, I wouldn't be able to graduate on time," said Custis, who arrived here with her boyfriend, Brad Marshall, another undergraduate from Tulane that Stanford admitted as a guest this fall. "It was vital for me to come."
Custis was housed in Naranja, where her room—as well as other student fees—was covered through assistance from the Financial Aid Office. However, in order to cover other expenses, she has put in "an enormous amount of time," she said, on the sales floor at the Ann Taylor store in the Stanford Shopping Center.
Custis said she was grateful for the opportunity to take classes not offered at Tulane, such as Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. As a former architecture major, Custis said she was in awe of Stanford's buildings. Off campus, she attended a San Jose Ballet performance with a Stanford student majoring in dance. Mostly, though, Custis stayed in the dorms.
Custis said she is looking forward to returning to Tulane and already has registered for next semester, and a condensed summer semester after that. Her dorm room was on the second floor, so damage was minimal.
At some point, she said she intends to join the Peace Corps in order to help impoverished nations economically and otherwise. Of course, she concedes, that type of work can now be found much closer to home.
