URI Honors students raise funds for Katrina victims, encourage hurricane preparedness

1/29/08 - Two years after Hurricane Katrina, in a state that was not directly affected by the storm, the events of the hurricane and its aftermath can seem far away. Students at the University of Rhode Island wanted to change this perception when they hosted "A Night for New Orleans" at the end of last semester.

The students in the URI Honors Senior Seminar "Voices of Katrina" screened a student-made documentary at the Narragansett Towers and also hosted a panel discussion.

The event was organized entirely by the students and featured Cajun cuisine and jazz music, two major cultural contributions from the New Orleans area. All proceeds went to the Broadmoor Improvement Association, a grassroots neighborhood organization in New Orleans.

Students said that their professor, Judith Swift, taught the class in an open-ended manner that allowed them to plan the night as they saw fit.

"It was completely the brainchild of the students," said Rebecca Harlow, who took the class.

Harlow said the students met outside of class several times to plan the evening, with each student working on a specific portion of the event.

"It took a lot of planning, especially towards the end," she said.

Another student, Andrew McQuaide said that the planning "slowly evolved into this really unbelievable evening." He added, "We all realized that we have our own connection to New Orleans in one way or another."

McQuaide was responsible for organizing the evening's panel discussion, which featured Bernard Lafayette, director of URI's Center for Non-Violence and Peace Studies, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy Jeffrey Bratberg, sociology professor Donald Cunnigan and African and African-American studies department chair Cynthia Hamilton. The panel was moderated by Swift.

The "Night for New Orleans" also featured a short documentary about Rhode Island's hurricane preparedness created by students Astrid Drew, Chris Barrett and Jeff Albanese.

"We wanted to see how Rhode Islanders saw Katrina and whether they thought a disaster on that scale could happen in Rhode Island," Albanese said about the film.

He said that most people he interviewed were aware of the disaster but did not think a similar incident could occur in Rhode Island. Proving that this view is incorrect was one objective of the "Night for New Orleans."

"We wanted to make people realize that something like [Katrina] could happen in Rhode Island," Albanese said.

Isaac Ginis, a professor of oceanography at the URI Bay Campus who was interviewed in the film, said that a hurricane can reach Rhode Island from the Bahamas within 24 hours. The city of New Orleans had a three-day warning before Katrina struck.

Ginis also said that a Category 3 hurricane naturally hits the Northeast coast approximately once every 60 years. The last hurricane of this size to hit Rhode Island struck in 1954, making the state overdue for another large storm.

"Part of the goal of the evening was to get people prepared," Albanese said.

Albanese and the other students also interviewed then-Director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, Robert Warren, who said that emergency preparedness begins on a local level.

Students said they consider the night to be a success but would have liked to see more URI students present. Harlow said that the event's date on a reading day and adverse weather conditions may have kept some students away.

"All in all the people who came seemed to really enjoy it. It was very informative for everyone including we students," she said.

McQuaide said that this event has inspired him to attend more student-run programs.

"I didn't always go to all the events that we have so I'm going to make a stronger effort to go to these student-initiated events," he said.

Students from the honors seminar also credited their professor, who has been nominated for a teaching award, with creating a positive experience.

"It was a fabulous class. I never felt overwhelmed," Harlow said.

Albanese said, "Professor Swift really inspired us to do something for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We realized that Rhode Island is in the same boat as New Orleans.