Sheppard Family News

(Copy of an email Kathy sent out last week.)

Hello Everyone,

Some of you have been asking me, "what is it like living in new
Orleans?", and so I thought I'd give you all a run down of what it really is like down
here (and for those who have not really considered the question, well, I
hope that you at least find what I say somewhat interesting).

To begin, it is wonderful to be back at my home university. There is a
lot of excitement in the air, the students are all happy to be back and to see
old friends, and the campus looks pretty good. With each day, there are new
stores and restaurants that are opening back up, or they at least have signs
that say "opening soon." people are coming in and out of the city to work on
their houses and many have now completed the grunt work on their homes and
are now waiting on insurance to help them do the finishing touches.
as there is always good news, there is always the reality to a situation, and at
times it can be bad. Stores, such as grocery stores or Walgreen, are
few and far. Most of the students go to the wal-mart about 15 minutes from
campus, but even there we wait in line for about 30 min to an hour to check out. A
lot of our facilities on campus are not open (such as coffeeshops or food
stands).

Also, there are no mail carriers--well, I take that back, I think that
they are delivering once a week, but we go to the post office to pick up our
mail. And oh, I don't expect any packages or any other sort of mail to be sent to
me, but please do not send any to me because I most likely will not get it.
Tulane, my university, is also having some problems. During the hurricane, a lot
of their resources were damaged (for the library alone, they lost $15 million
worth of resources), and so they will not be able to fund a lot of programs that
tend to have expensive research and facilities, so they will be cutting
engineering as well as many phd programs, and they continue to cut faculty. I know
that the university doesn't want to do these things, but what I can configure
from the decisions made is that they rankly don't have the money at this time,
and they may not have it until a few years later. Many of these decisions don't
affect me as a student, except for one, which is that the university will be
restructuring itself entirely and so it will be eliminating the coordinate men
and women's colleges. It's a bit complicated, but basically for students at
Tulane university, all women of arts and sciences are enrolled at newcomb
college of Tulane university and all men at Tulane college of Tulane
university. The changes thus mean that newcomb college will disappear,
and so it is the end of the nation's first coordinate women's college--how
that affects me is that I am now on a committee that will present a proposal
to the president of the university on how to preserve the traditions and
endowment of newcomb college ($36 million is a lot of money). There will be a lot
of decisions and changes at my university during the next few months so we
will see how it goes...

okay, I know that this email is quite long, but you may now be asking,
"well, why do you stay in new Orleans if life is not quite normal but rather a
bit bizarre and inconvenient?" yes, it's true that my neighborhood still
has damaged homes and fewer people, and yes, it still somewhat bothers me
to see the markings on homes of when they were searched and how many people
were found alive or dead. Yet, in spite of all that, I enjoy being in new Orleans
during this time because it takes people being there to help being back. The
reason for scarce open stores, no mail service, etc. is because there are not
enough people here to do he jobs--many most likely want to be here, but they
can't because they have no home. In sum, it may not yet be a normal, typical
American city with all the conveniences that we Americans enjoy (and
take for granted), but there is an optimistic and joyous attitude that exists
among those here, and with each day, the city keeps on improving.

I apologize if this email was a bit too long for you, but thanks for
listening.

Love,
Kathy