Higher Education and Rebuilding from Disaster

The devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast in 2005 has left a lasting legacy. Since that infamous summer, numerous funding initiatives have supported strategies for relief and rebuilding in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. While there is still much to be done to rebuild, the region is also very much confronted by its longer term future. What happens after initial attempts to rebuild have taken place? The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund has been faced with this question, as it has been providing financial and technical assistance to help the region advance.

Any region emerging from disaster must strategically consider how to leverage existing and potential industries for economic development. As Marga Incorporated’s work has demonstrated, higher education is increasingly a critical industry for economic and community development, as colleges and universities bring intellectual, human, and economic capital. They not only educate and train; they also employ and infuse their surroundings with economic resources. The Gulf Coast is certainly no exception in its wealth of institutions of higher education. In fact, this region may depend more than ever on its colleges and universities for its long term development. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund has been well aware of this circumstance.

The Fund has been providing funding to help colleges and universities in the Gulf region restore their physical, technological, and human capabilities. Due to Marga Incorporated’s growing track record of working with institutions of higher education to craft mutually beneficial strategies for development, the Fund requested that Marga help enhance the progress having resulted from its funding to institutions of higher education in the Gulf region.

Marga has been conducting an assessment of the capacity needs of these institutions, and developing a long-term strategy for technical assistance. Marga will ultimately match resources and technical assistance providers with the various colleges and universities that have been receiving funding from the Fund. The long term sustainability of the region could be well served by a robust higher education industry. Philanthropic/higher education partnerships such as the alliance between the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and a wide range of colleges and universities in the Gulf region exemplify the type of collaboration that is required in order to tackle the extensive challenges that natural disasters leave behind. Marga’s catalytic role can help the Fund and the institutions of higher education maximize their resources to strengthen the entire region.