Excerpted from an article in the online version today's "Chronicle of Higher Education", titled "Colleges Hit by Katrina Will Share $80-Million in Federal Grants and Foreign Contributions"

Cash-strapped colleges and universities along the Gulf Coast will share $30-million in hurricane-relief donations from foreign countries, and are eligible to apply for $50-million in additional federal grants, the U.S. secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, announced on Thursday during a round-table meeting with university presidents in New Orleans.

The infusions of money were welcomed by colleges that have been struggling to maintain their enrollments and pay for repairs while they wait for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and battle their insurers in court (The Chronicle, August 16).

Of the $30-million in foreign aid, about $22-million will go to colleges and universities in Louisiana and the rest to those in Mississippi. (See table below.) That money is in addition to $30.8-million that the oil-rich nation of Qatar pledged in May to Louisiana State University, Tulane University, and Xavier University of Louisiana (The Chronicle, May 12).

. . .  The Education Department also notified each of the universities on Thursday how much of the $30-million in foreign aid they would receive. The largest amounts went to Xavier, with $5-million; Dillard University, with $4.6-million; and the University of Southern Mississippi, with $4.3-million. That university's beachfront campus in Long Beach was destroyed, along with other coastal research facilities and a marine-education center.

The distribution was based, in part, on applications that the colleges turned in outlining specific projects for which they needed the money.

. . .  Cecil D. Burge, vice president for research and economic development at the University of Southern Mississippi, concurred. "To put it in perspective, we're looking at $290-million in losses" throughout the university system, he said. That includes relocating a campus of 2,500 students to Gulfport.

 

Allocation of Foreign Funds
 


Institution

Amount

Louisiana


Xavier University of Louisiana

 $5,000,000


Dillard University

 $4,563,965


University of New Orleans

 $2,439,367

Delgado Community College

 $2,254,280

Tulane University

 $1,885,038

Southern University at New Orleans

 $1,858,557

Loyola University New Orleans

 $1,763,898


Nunez Community College

 $1,679,781

Our Lady of Holy Cross College

 $1,013,848

 
Mississippi

University of Southern Mississippi

 $4,322,894


William Carey College

 $1,801,580

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

    $968,916


Pearl River Community College

    $524,808


Jones County Junior College

    $125,000

 


TOTAL

$30,201,932

 
Figures may not add up to total because of rounding.


SOURCE: U.S. Education Department