Hurricane Katrina Relief Funds

Terms of the Macy Foundation endowment preclude the use of funds for “bricks and mortar,” but the acute needs following the 2005 hurricane spurred the Board to find ways to help. After consideration of options, Tulane requested a contribution to help provide health professional students at Xavier University, a historically black institution with which they are interacting closely, with the facilities and services needed to remain in New Orleans and continue their studies.

The Macy Foundation contribution is helping Xavier students to attend classes at Tulane, either to fulfill existing degree requirements or to augment their studies with courses that had not been available at Xavier. (That university has not been able to provide a number of pre-storm services, including library access, computer labs and academic counseling, due to the extensive storm damage). Since Xavier is the foremost historically black college in its training of future health professionals, this award supports a major theme of the Foundation’s funding.