Office of
Electronic Learning

In December of 2006, the Louisiana Board of Regents provided $53,581 in funding for Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, LA and McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA to build up their online course reservoir in the likely event of a future natural catastrophe. This project was in response to the devastation affect of Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita on the Gulf South. Both of these school’s were affected with McNeese having its semester retooled due to Hurricane Rita. The purpose of this project was to develop more completely online courses at these universities in order to continue serving students despite possible damage to the existing infrastructure at the schools in the future. These online courses could also provide a way for the students’ lost from the past storms to return to the classroom with greater ease.

McNeese State and Nicholls State are two of the most southern universities in Louisiana and are two of the most susceptible to storms from the Gulf of Mexico. The storms of 2005 proved how vulnerable higher education and the work force are to these natural disasters and how important it is for universities to persevere despite these interruptions. Following the storms that struck South Louisiana in 2005, thousands of citizens were uprooted from their homes and had their lives altered dramatically.  Among these were hundreds of college students, who either left their home institutions or dropped out completely. The workforce in southern Louisiana was also altered with many workers forced to either relocate or change careers.

The purpose of this project is to return these students to the classroom and get these employees back in the workforce. It is also aimed at building up an electronic reservoir of academic content in the likelihood of future storm related stoppages. This will be accomplished using distance learning technology along with educational experts from South Louisiana.  McNeese State University in Lake Charles was tremendously affected by Hurricane Rita. There was a 7% drop in enrollment from fall 2005 to fall 2006. The fall 2005 semester was the 14^th consecutive academic semester increase, and the fall 2006 semester had the lowest enrollment since fall 2002. The campus also suffered an estimated $30 million in damage to the campus and associated equipment. Currently, due to the damage to residence halls, on-campus student housing is above 97% capacity, therefore distance learning would also provide some relief to the housing situation. While Nicholls State University was not structurally damaged from the storms, the commuter school saw drops in its enrollment in fall 2006 due to the devastations from the storm.  While the overall enrollment was only down 1%, the university dropped 9% of its population from its five biggest feeder parishes that were directly affected by the storms.