By Andrew Coen
Samantha Peitler of Inwood was one of six local students who were forced to attend other colleges during the fall 2005 semester but decided to return to New Orleans while much of the city was still being cleaned up and looks forward to returning after the summer. "I decided to go back to Tulane because it was my first-choice school, and I wanted the opportunity to live in New Orleans, especially after a major disaster," said Peitler, who spent last fall at the University of Delaware. "I knew it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Peitler, who graduated from Lawrence High School last year, was preparing to begin her college career at Tulane University when the hurricane struck last August, during the college's move-in weekend. Her decision to head back to Tulane in January after being forced to leave the Big Easy four months earlier was not an easy one. But Peitler felt that it was necessary to return, and she and several other Tulane students from the Five Towns did their part to help out in the ravaged city.
And knowing that the rehabilitation of the city is far from finished, she still feels that way.
Peitler, fellow Lawrence graduates Jeff Tankel, Aaron Turenstein, Ian Kaiser and Daniel Berke and Hewlett High School alumna Carly Weinberg were determined to return to Tulane in January for the spring semester, less than five months after Hurricane Katrina rendered New Orleans uninhabitable. Lawrence High graduate Jamie Rothman, however, did not return, transferring instead to the University of Maryland.
Tulane President Scott Cowan said in a phone interview on Friday that he is extremely proud of students like the six Five Towners and the commitment they have demonstrated to the university and the city. Cowan said that beginning this fall, public service will become a requirement for graduation, a way to both help rebuild New Orleans and teach the students life lessons. "I think the students of Tulane have distinguished themselves as no other college students in the United States have distinguished themselves," Cowan said. "It has been extremely gratifying."
Many people feared that the city would never be the same, but Peitler took part in several organizations at Tulane that were involved in a program called Outreach New Orleans. "The devastation was a little overwhelming at first, but I really looked forward to doing community service, because I volunteered throughout high school and was eager to help," said Peitler, who has also become active in university life as an orientation coordinator and resident advisor. "It's really unbelievable to be the first freshmen class to return to Tulane after Hurricane Katrina."
Tankel, who spent his fall semester at the University at Buffalo before deciding to give Tulane another shot early this year, said that most of the students in his dorm were up by 9 a.m. on weekends to do community service. "There was a ton of spirit," said Tankel. "You feel like you're a part of history."
Tankel, a star tennis player at Lawrence, had planned to try out for the Tulane tennis team, but as a result of major budget cuts in the wake of the hurricane, the program was scrapped, along with numerous other sports. But Tankel said he is still extremely happy about his decision to return to Tulane for his second semester of college. "I felt I would have been missing out on a great thing," he said.
Weinberg, the lone 2005 Hewlett High School graduate who had planned to attend Tulane before Hurricane Katrina hit, enrolled at New York University for the fall semester. But despite her parents' concerns, she decided to return to New Orleans in January. "There was never any doubt in my mind that I would be back at Tulane as soon as it re-opened," Weinberg said. "My parents and younger brother had been stuck in [New Orleans] during the storm for about a week, and even so, they knew how badly I wanted to be there and how important it would be to me to be a part of the rebuilding effort, and so I was back there in the spring."
Students said that the Tulane campus and parts of the city - particularly the tourist areas like Bourbon Street - were in great shape last semester, but the outskirts, like the Ninth Ward - were still devastated. "I think it's just as good as ever as far as where Tulane is," said Berke, who spent his first semester at the University of Miami. "When I speak to people, I say not to listen to what's going on in the news.
