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For further information contact:
George Soule, Carnegie Corporation, 212-207-6344
Karen Celestan, Dillard University, 504-816-4800
Mike Strecker, Tulane University, 504-865-5210
Warren Bell, Xavier University, 504-520-75684
Carnegie Corporation Commits $14 Million To Revitalize New Orleans’
Intellectual Infrastructure In Wake Of Hurricane Katrina
Grants to Dillard, Tulane, Xavier, Teach for America emphasize
education as critical element in the building of a new economy
New Orleans, LA — September 19, 2007. Vartan Gregorian,
President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, announced today that
the foundation has committed $14 million to help New Orleans build
and retain the intellectual capital necessary to participate and
succeed in the global knowledge economy. The Corporation’s
investment in the city’s intellectual infrastructure—its
institutions of higher education and K-12 teacher pool—is
intended to underscore the importance of education to the city’s
economic revitalization.
Carnegie
Corporation has awarded grants of $2 million to Dillard University,
$5 million to Tulane University and $4 million to Xavier University
of Louisiana. The grants are one of the largest commitments of private
funds to support higher education in post-Katrina New Orleans. Each
of the universities incurred significant hurricane-related damage
and losses and will use the new funds to focus on development, retention
and hiring of displaced and new faculty; recruitment and retention
of new students; resumption of critical strategic planning initiatives;
and ensuring the availability of adequate financial aid.
A $1
million grant to Teach for America, the national corps of recent
college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural
public schools, will help the organization to triple the size of
its New Orleans teacher corps over the next three years.
Today’s
announcement of grants by Carnegie Corporation follows a $2 million
grant announced in June 2007 to the Broadmoor Improvement Association
for the reconstruction, restocking and refurnishing of the Rosa
F. Keller Library and Community Center, a building that serves as
the historic Broadmoor neighborhood's learning, cultural and civic
hub.
“New
Orleans’ universities are a powerful engine of intellectual,
cultural and scientific innovation and growth for the city and the
nation,” said Vartan Gregorian. “Today, more than ever,
New Orleans needs this engine to prepare students to think conceptually
and perform competently in business and the professions, and to
prepare a technically skilled workforce capable of contributing
to the city’s long-term economic vitality.”
“Dillard,
Tulane and Xavier represent tangible manifestations of the recovery
of New Orleans. They also are powerful symbols of the extraordinary
value that the city and the nation place on human intellect, culture,
education, learning and knowledge,” said Richard W. Riley,
former U.S. Secretary of Education in the Clinton Administration
and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Corporation.
One of the strongest signs that New Orleans’ universities
are regaining their strength is the increase in the number of matriculating
freshmen. Dillard enrolled 260 freshmen in August, compared with
185 last year and 150 in August 2005. Xavier’s freshman class
has increased by 45 percent to 671 students this year from 447 last
year. And Tulane’s freshman class of 1,332 is a 51 percent
increase above last year’s incoming class of 882.
All
three universities supported by Carnegie Corporation have been back
in operation for many months, yet each continues to repair and replace
physical infrastructure and human capital, a process that will take
years.
With
its funds from Carnegie Corporation, Dillard University will recruit
17 faculty members in three critical areas: Education and Psychological
Studies, Social Sciences and the Humanities. Hurricane Katrina not
only devastated the campus but led to the departure of more than
half the student body. In spring 2006, the university established
temporary classrooms, administrative offices and housing at a local
hotel. Dillard’s campus in the historic Gentilly neighborhood
re-opened earlier this year.
“Colleges
and universities are crucial to the city’s post-Katrina restructuring
effort. Higher education will equip women and men to contribute
to the creation of a boundless and successful future for both the
local and global community,” said Dr. Marvalene Hughes, President
of Dillard University. “Dillard’s academic excellence
and deep dedication to New Orleans is evident in our students’
public service and the contribution of the school’s graduates
to the revitalization of the city and region in areas raging from
medicine and government to law and the arts.”
Support
from Carnegie Corporation will contribute to Tulane’s renewal
efforts, which include a re-dedication to building a world-class
educational and research institution, and an emphasis on better
understanding and participating in the growth and development of
the city’s urban communities. Faculty, students and staff
at Tulane, as at other institutions of higher education in New Orleans,
have been deeply involved in rebuilding and recovery on their respective
campuses and within the broader community.
“By
attracting students and researchers from across the country to live
and work in New Orleans, by providing the forces for one of the
largest volunteer efforts in our nation's history and through their
critical scholarship and research, New Orleans universities—among
the first institutions to re-open after Hurricane Katrina—are
proving to be the economic and intellectual underpinning of the
city's recovery,” said Scott Cowen, President of Tulane University.
“New Orleans universities are playing an unprecedented role
in the recovery of the city in a manner never before expected of
institutions of higher education.”
Xavier’s
$4 million grant will allow the nation’s only historically
Black, Catholic university to recruit new and retain current faculty
while also ensuring the availability of adequate student financial
assistance. The school’s storm-related losses exceeded $90
million due to physical damage, lost tuition and scholarship revenue—a
devastating sum for a school with an endowment of $52 million. The
loss was compounded when the U.S. government froze Xavier’s
financial aid accounts, thus removing its primary source of revenue.
“The
tremendous support from Carnegie Corporation will allow Xavier to
continue to attract and educate deserving students,” said
Norman Francis, President of Xavier University. “Additionally,
it will allow us to attract and retain key faculty, while embracing
the many initiatives that are critical to the continued recovery
of our neighboring communities. Higher education can—and must—serve
as a catalyst in the city of New Orleans' path to recovery.”
By
2010, Teach for America plans to nearly triple the 130 corps members
currently serving in Greater New Orleans. The planned increase of
teachers dedicated to serving in the region will both broaden and
deepen the impact on student achievement and the overall education
system, ultimately leading to a stronger, more vibrant New Orleans.
“In New Orleans, we have an unprecedented opportunity—because
of the commitment and vision of local leaders and of philanthropists
and educators nationally—to build an excellent and equal public
education system that serves as the foundation for a prosperous
and thriving city,” said Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach
For America. “We are committed to doing everything we can
to support this effort because of the tremendous needs and the possibility
of creating an exceptional school system that serves as a model
for the rest of the country.”
Vartan
Gregorian added: “To sustain this city, we need schools with
quality teachers who are equipped to prepare their students—especially
low-income, historically underserved groups—to graduate with
the academic preparation required to gain admission to, and succeed
in college. The types of jobs that will help revive this city—and
offer decent livelihoods to its people—will be far more technical,
requiring substantially higher levels of literacy and mathematics
for problem solving. To benefit from and contribute to a growing
knowledge-based economy, young people must be prepared for higher
education.”
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to
promote "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding."
For more than 95 years the Corporation has carried out Carnegie's
vision of philanthropy by building on his two major concerns: international
peace and advancing education and knowledge. As a grantmaking foundation,
the Corporation will invest more than $85 million this year in nonprofits
to fulfill Mr. Carnegie's mission, "to do real and permanent
good in this world." The Corporation's capital fund, originally
donated at a value of about $135 million, had a market value of
$2.5 billion on September 30, 2006.
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