University Provides for Displaced Students, Teacher

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   After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the University of Arkansas at Monticello received eight displaced students and one displaced teacher.

   "These students were provided tuition, fees and books," Chancellor Jack Lassiter said. "The counseling center has also worked with these students and students already enrolled who have homes in the area impacted. This assistance included counseling, email and telephone access to contact family members still in the gulf coast area."

   The Spatial Information System’s faculty and students assisted the Federal Emergency Management Agency with mapping the area for recovery efforts.

   "Several of the student organizations also assisted with the feeding of the displaced individuals and gathered donations and items to give to the evacuees," Lassiter said. "Many of the displaced individuals in the community have used our computer labs for communication needs and to apply for FEMA assistance."

   The university’s lone displaced teacher, Leila Bouleguenafed, joined the staff after evacuating from New Orleans, where she worked at Dillard University as a Foreign Language teaching assistant. She spent nearly a week in a gymnasium at Centenary College in Shreveport, before Mark Spencer, the dean of Arts and Humanities, drove there and brought her to UAM.

   "I was familiar with the Institute of International Education because it oversees the Fulbright program, and I made arrangements last spring to bring a Fulbright teaching assistant to Cameron University to teach Mandarin Chinese," Spencer said.

   After the disaster from Katrina, a plea for help went out from IIE to administrators who hosted Fulbright and non-Fulbright international teaching assistants because teaching assistants placed with universities in New Orleans would need to find new host schools or return to their own countries.

   "I asked Chancellor Lassiter whether we might be able to ‘adopt’ a displaced teaching assistant, and he said we should definitely try," Spencer said. "I then notified IIE in New York, saying UAM would host a teaching assistant, and IIE responded that they were still seeking a placement for a non-Fulbright teaching assistant from France."

    UAM provided Bouleguenafed with a dorm room, a meal ticket, a $400-a-month stipend and a tuition waiver so that she can take English literature courses.

   In the Spring, she will teach two French classes: Intermediate French II, and French Civilization and Culture. This Fall she will assist Carol Trana, who is teaching Elementary and Intermediate French courses; in addition, Bouleguenafed will be a guest speaker on campus and in the community.

   "We’re very excited about the ways in which her presence will enrich the educational experiences of UAM students and faculty," Spencer said.

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