Page 128 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

7

Collaborating With a Community
College in Post-Katrina new orleans

organizational and Personal Reflections

Rick Daniels

Introduction

What follows is a description of one of the most powerful experiences
in my professional life. Perhaps the telling and sharing of this story
will enable certain lessons to be made visible to others concerning the
undertaking of collaborating with organizations that experience cata-
strophic disaster. This is the story of my relationship with a community
college located in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the immediate after-
math of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and which extended until the early
part of 2008.

Background

To create a meaningful context for this story, it is important to provide
a bit of background. The community college, prior to the storm, served
approximately 12,000 students, operating from four geographical loca-
tions located within the city and the immediate surrounding areas.
The college incurred tremendous loss of physical infrastructure, losing
approximately 40% of its classroom space after the storm. Except for a few
online classes offered by faculty members, who were at the time physically
displaced, the college was basically closed but had its sights on becoming
operational for the upcoming semester in January 2006. What was critical

97