Spring Break
URI Honors students raise funds for Katrina victims, encourage hurricane preparedness
Robert Preliasco
Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: News
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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.
