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fall 2005 9/19/05 11:03 AM Page 25
Katrina roars; Austin Peay responds
By: DENNIE B. BURKE
Executive Director of Public Relations and Marketing
Sara Laughlin is one of the fortunate ones.
Although her family had to evacuate from
their New Orleans home, they got out before
Katrina roared through.
And, unlike many New Orleans residents,
she didn’t have to leave her dogs behind. All
three of them—Rodney, Winston and Jack—
made the trek northward with the family, who
took temporary refuge in Houston and then
in Baton Rouge.
When they realized they would not be able
to go home for many, many months, the family
headed to Clarksville, where her aunt and
uncle welcomed them.
Fall classes began at Austin Peay Aug. 29.
On that same day, Laughlin was set to start
her junior year as an elementary education
major at New Orleans’ Loyola University.
Little did she know that, a few days later, she
would become an APSU student—one of
thousands displaced by the hurricane.
Despite the sudden rerouting of their entire
lives, the Laughlin family feels blessed.
Although their home sustained significant
wind damage, it is still standing in one of the
few New Orleans parishes that was not flooded.
The family plans to return—but when?
They returned earlier this week to check on
their property—but local police quickly said
they had to leave by sun down—an enforced
curfew. But who would want to live there
right now any way?
Laughlin says, “There’s no electricity. No grocery
stores. No gasoline. It’s like a war zone.”
Now enrolled at Rossview High School,
Clarksville, her brother, Michael Jr., a senior,
and sister Jordan, a sophomore, hope to return
by December, but there are challenges.
Neither parent has a job waiting. April, her
mother, worked at City Park just outside of
downtown New Orleans. Laughlin knows that
City Park—still under water—will not be high
on the restoration list. “I worked there, too,
part time,” she says. “It’s so beautiful—one of
the four largest parks in the country. You
could fit all of (NYC) Central Park inside it.”
The law offices of her father, Michael, an
attorney, were located above Canal Place
Shopping Center where Saks Fifth Avenue
Department Store burned. Although his office
did not burn, it is inaccessible so, like thousands
of others, he, too, is seeking employment, perhaps
with a law firm in another city—at least, in
the short term. Until they can go home.
His daughter was one of seven displaced
students who, as of Sept, 9, 2005, have found
a new home at Austin Peay, and others are
Sanding outside her aunt and uncle’s Clarksville home, Sara Laughlin displays a photo of her family’s New
Orleans home after Hurricane Katrina, as her brother, Michael Jr., and sister, Jordan, hold two of the family’s
three dogs. Their mother, April, second from left, remains in Clarksville, too, while their father returns to
the Gulf area to start rebuilding his career as an attorney
expected to enroll in coming weeks.
Laughlin says she feels comfortable at Austin
Peay. Loyola University, a private Jesuit university
with 7,500 students, is about the same size
as Austin Peay’s main campus.
“Everyone here has been so nice,”
Laughlin says. “The first day of class, people
were giving me their e-mail addresses and
phone numbers and telling me to call if I
needed anything.”
But, then, isn’t that the Austin Peay tradition?
The day after the long Labor Day weekend,
APSU’s Admissions Office began receiving
inquiries from students enrolled in affected Gulf
Coast colleges and universities.
On the main campus, the faculty was asked
to allow students to enroll through the 14h
day of class. “At Austin Peay, we’re known
for working closely with all our students,”
McDonald says, “Providing help for these
displaced students is an extension of that.”
APSU also has a late fall term to offer
these students, since the APSU Center @ Fort
Campbell’s Fall II Term does not begin registration
until Oct. 3-7. Students who enroll for
Fall II can finish a full term in eight weeks,
so they can complete fall classes by
December 2005.
Displaced students also are inquiring about
APSU’s nine degrees that are offered fully online.
In addition to welcoming displaced students,
APSU reached out to the victims of
Katrina in other ways. As of Sept. 9, 2005:
• At the Sept. 10 football game, the athletics
department accepted donations of money
or nonperishable items for hurricane victims.
More than 1,200 pounds of food and
supplies and $660 were collected and
delivered to the local Red Cross.
• Students with the Baptist Collegiate
Ministries are going to volunteer in the
affected areas during Fall Break.
• Staffing a table in the University Center
lobby, members of the APSU Staff Support
Council collected bottled water and nonperishable
items, to be trucked to the
affected areas.
• The All State staff collected money for
relief efforts.
• The APSU Greek community raised more
than $2,100 for the victims of Katrina.
• Alpha Sigma Alpha and Sigma Chi collected
donations for the Red Cross relief efforts.
• APSU’s Office of Student Counseling
Services provided counseling for any students,
faculty or staff impacted emotionally
by the hurricane.
Other initiatives are ongoing.
Reach out and touch someone
The Internet Association Corp. is providing a link
on the Alumni Online Community Web site to
enable our alumni to share their thoughts and
reach out to fellow alumni in the areas devastated
by Hurricane Katrina.
You can post information and messages and invite
others to post and view messages by going to the
link,“Support of Hurricane Katrina Relief,” on the
Alumni Online Community. Any questions about the
postings should go to alumni@apsu.edu.
Austin Peay/Fall 2005
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