DIGEST TOP 10 YEAR-IN-REVIEW

The fall 2005 and spring 2006 semesters were filled with dramatic new headlines that touched, inspired and changed the hearts and minds of many Southern University students, faculty and staff.
Whether it was destructive storms that washed ashore the ignored problems of the south, or the death of a civil rights icon, this past school term proved to be an unforgettable year to many in Louisiana and the SU system.
 
10. Katrina damages the “black vote”
Hurricane Katrina brought about an economic strain to the U.S. and Louisiana budgets that has affected the cost of gas and energy for many of the state’s residents. But the strain the storm has placed on the political landscape of the state’s Crescent City has dominated the headlines these past months.
“Hurricane Katrina took a scab off the wounds that had been festering in Louisiana for some time,” said Dr. William Arp, a political science professor at Southern.
It has been reported that the storm displaced between 45 to 65 percent of the city’s 300,000 registered voters, which led political activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, in partnership with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and his Rainbow PUSH coalition, to spearhead a rally and march to postpone New Orleans’ April 22 mayoral elections.
Jackson, and local leaders, argued that to hold the elections would be in violation of guidelines set forth in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Jesse was merely responding to blacks being eliminated from the political process,” Arp said.
Arp said he applauds Jackson for taking a stand, but the move remained ineffective since the city did hold the elections as scheduled with 22 candidates vying for mayor.
 
9. B.R. population swells “after the storm”
In the days following Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana’s capitol city became a haven for many evacuees in the New Orleans, and surrounding areas, trying to escape the storm’s wrath.
Before the storm, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the city’s metropolitan area had a population of about 400,000. Baton Rouge took in nearly 200,000 New Orleans’ evacuees after Katrina.
Soon, the city’s streets were flooded with cars and lines at the gas pumps, and it was clear that the city’s supply could not meet the residents’ demands forcing early closures of gas stations and stores.
The city even saw a influx from New Orleans’ business, that have migrated into the capitol city to set up shop, pumping much needed blood into the heart of the city’s waning economic pulse. Today, although the lines at the pump have disintegrated, traffic remains thick and congested. Apartment complexes and homes can’t be built fast enough to meet the demands of more people, displaced by Katrina, ready to settle down permanently in the “red stick” city.
 
8. SU Board appoints new system president
On March 11, 2005, Dr. Ralph Slaughter was appointed by The Southern University System Board of Supervisors as the system’s president following the voluntary resignation of Dr. Leon Tarver in June of the same year.
It took the board approximately eight months to narrow down the pool of 23 applicants before selecting Slaughter.
Slaughter is a 1974 graduate of Southern who previously served as system vice president for administration and management, and coordinator of the State Farm Bayou Classic.
 
7. Two football games cancelled, Bayou Classic relocates to Houston
The Southern University Athletics Department also suffered financial strains from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita when school officials were forced to cancel two of the football team’s scheduled games last season.
The first game, against McNeese State, was scheduled for Sept. 3, but was cancelled due to Hurricane Katrina, and the team’s second home game against Albany was also cancelled weeks later due to Hurricane Rita, which hit the Louisiana-Texas border on Sept. 24.
According to the university’s Athletic Director Greg LaFleur, the cancellations of both games were precautionary measures.
“The first game didn’t effect us revenue wise,” LaFleur said. “The game against Albany did because it was a home game.”
LaFleur said that there was an estimated lost of $250,000 from the Sept.24 cancellation of the Albany game which did cut into the university’s profits that year because the university depends heavily on the successful play of five home football games.
Much to the dismay of many students, faculty and Southern alumni, the 32nd annual State Farm Bayou Classic, which has always been played in the New Orleans Superdome, had to be relocated to Houston last year due to damages sustained at the Superdome due to Hurricane Katrina.
“Things went well in Houston,” LaFleur said “Everything went well, considering.”
LaFleur said the university signed a two year contract with Houston, so if the Superdome is not ready by the proposed Nov. 1st date, the game will return to The Reliant Stadium again next year.
 
6. Rosa Parks dies at 92
The nation lost one of its beloved civil rights heroines Mon. Oct 24, 2005 when Rosa Parks, age 92, died in her home in Detroit.
Parks, helmed as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”, initiated a 381-day bus boycott in 1955 after she refused to give up her seat in the “whites only” section of a Montgomery, Ala. bus, and was arrested for it.
A funeral for Parks was held at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, and was attended by 4,000 people. Some of which being R&B singer Aretha Franklin, former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, U.S. Senator D-New York.
Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered Parks’ eulogy.
 
5. “Doc” makes final bow; Jackson named new band director
On Dec 31 2005, Southern University lost one of its treasured icons when Dr. Isaac Greggs decided to step down as band director for the university’s marching band, “The Human Jukebox.”
Greggs, a Shreveport native and Southern graduate, had a 36 year tenure at Southern where he was affectionately called “Doc”. He led the acclaimed marching band since 1969 and is credited for transforming the band into one of “the greatest musical attractions in the world.”
The band’s former assistant director Lawrence Jackson replaced Greggs in January of this year.
Jackson, a former student and protege of Greggs, had served as an intricate part of the band’s administration for 15 years before his appointment as director.
 
4. SUNO devastated, relocates to Baton Rouge
The Southern University system took its share of hurricane damage post-Katrina when its New Orleans campus, SUNO, received major flood damage because of the storm, forcing the campus to temporarily close its doors and relocate to Baton Rouge.
“We were very appreciative of the hospitality we received from SUBR from top to bottom,” said SUNO Chancellor Victor Ukpolo. “Not many schools would dedicate their facilities for another school to operate in.”
Ukpolo credits the current success of SUNO to SUBR Chancellor Edward Jackson.
“We accommodated over 1200 students, accommodated the administration from SUNO, and we got through this thing,” Jackson said.
The campus, which was able to return to the Crescent City on Feb. 15, now operates on a temporary campus of trailers funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The students live in an off-site hotel and are shuttled onto campus daily.
 
3. Minidome opens doors as shelter for evacuees
The F. G. Clark Activity Center opened its doors to more than 600 people that were displaced by Hurricane Katrina last fall.
“SUBR was given the opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to help people and of course we’re very proud of the way our people came through,” Jackson said.
The Minidome was one of five Red Cross shelters in the East Baton Rouge Parish area. It housed at least half a dozen SUNO students and staff also displaced by the storm. Fear did ignite among the students of the SUBR campus who feared the presence of the evacuees would become a safety issue, but according to Jackson everything went according to plan.
“We didn’t have any major problems that we couldn’t handle,” he said. “It went very, very smoothly.”
The shelter closed its doors in early November.
 
2. Men and Women’s basketball win SWAC and face-off against Duke in NCAA
This year the Southern University men’s and women’s basketball teams made history when they each won their regular seasons, captured the Southwestern Athletic Conference and made appearances in the NCAA tournament.
Jackson said their victories made him feel like a “proud papa.”
“The men and women were just spectacular,” he said. “That has to be one of the highlights of the year.”
Although both were defeated in the first round by No. 1 seed Duke, 70-54 for the men and 96-27 for the women, both teams were still honored by the university on March 28 at the “Celebration of Champions” program outside the Smith-Brown Memorial Union.
Both teams were also presented with a resolution from the State of Louisiana for their exceptional seasons.
 
1. Katrina and Rita sends rippling effects throughout the U.S.
The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season set the record as the busiest hurricane season recorded in U.S. history with 28 tropical and subtropical storms, of which 15 became hurricanes. Two of the season’s deadliest storms, Katrina and Rita, have left behind scars that still shape headlines nearly eight months later.
Referred to now as “one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the U.S.”, Hurricane Katrina touched landfall on southeast Louisiana the morning of August 29 as a Category 3 storm. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, and it is estimated to be responsible for $75 billion in damages.
“The turmoil that the hurricane (Katrina) caused then, and continues to cause now in the personal lives of our students, faculty and staff will last for decades,” Jackson said.
Rita became the fourth most intense storm ever recorded, responsible for nearly $10 billion in damages to the U.S. Gulf Coast. It made landfall on Sept. 24 near the Texas-Louisiana border as a Category 3 storm.
“The destruction, of course, effected all of Louisiana,” Jackson said.

Douglas Toussaint