Hurrican Katrina blows students to CSUB

By Jaclyn Loveless

They consider themselves among the lucky. Schitara Willis, Matt Kurtz and Brad Dillon are three of about a dozen students CSUB enrolled after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf Coast last year.

The entire CSU system was given permission by the Chancellor's Office to readily admit hundreds of students. The state gave the universities a great deal of flexibility with regard to transferable credits and financial aid in getting the students admitted last September. Out-of-state fees were waived and all displaced Katrina students were treated as California residents.

Now months later the students are hard at work rebuilding their lives and are focused on their future.

• Schitara Willis, an 18-year-old double political science and criminal justice major, is busy dealing with somewhat typical college life. She's currently on the track and field team, holding a part-time job on campus and carries a full load of classes. She is also trying to play catch up with her bookstore debt. "When I first got here they let me put everything on an account," she said. "I want to make sure I pay them back." All that aside she's happy.

Willis came to CSUB with a couple outfits, an "old laptop" and a few textbooks after evacuating her Dillard University dorm room in New Orleans.

The freshman was convinced she wasn't going to make it after all she had been through. "I told my mom I thought something was going to happen to me because of the hurricane coming," she said. "Then the bus that was taking us from Dillard to a shelter caught on fire." The Sacramento native later came down with the flu while spending a week sleeping on the floor in an overcrowded shelter.

"I don't feel too bad about losing the material stuff," she said. "Some people lost their homes. I'm lucky."

Her situation got worse when during the fall quarter she flipped her car on Highway 99. Willis was pinned in her seat for about 45 minutes before she was rescued by firefighters. She escaped with minor injuries. And later with the help of CSUB officials, Willis was able to secure another car.

Her entire ordeal has been overwhelming but she remains positive. "I'm really tired. Emotionally tired," she said. "I cried maybe a day or two but I try to remain optimistic. I realize that this is a rough time but it will pass. I figure if so many people do all they can to make my stay better I can hold my end of the deal and make it work."

Willis plans to finish up her undergraduate studies at CSUB and make a permanent home for herself in Bakersfield.

• Brad Dillon has finally got all his financial aid sorted out. But after dealing with Hurricane Katrina, evacuating his home, relocating to Bakersfield and trying to locate scattered friends, it's a minor detail.

Dillon was attending University of New Orleans and first hesitated before finally deciding to evacuate. "It felt different and it was coming right for us," the New Orleans native said. His wife, from whom he is currently separated, had picked up their son and evacuated to Houston. He spoke with his parents who live in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie and they told him they were going to leave the city. "When they said 'lets get up and leave,' that was all I needed." Dillon immediately left for Lafayette and hit heavy traffic.

He finally landed at CSUB and is grateful. "Rita (Gustafson, CSUB records manager) called and left me a message within 24 hours of me contacting her," he said. "It was easier for me to register here than it was back home." He is also thankful his family and friends are safe.

Dillon now resides with family members in Bakersfield and is no stranger to California. He was a marine stationed at Camp Pendleton for nearly three years.

The junior finance major plans to graduate from CSUB and is working on getting his real estate license. "The staff at CSUB are the greatest," he added. "I've been fortunate."

• Matt Kurtz, a 21-year-old senior studying finance and marketing, has been "overloading his schedule at CSUB to stay on track to graduate on time."

For the past three years the Bakersfield native had been attending Tulane University in New Orleans. He was used to the hurricane evacuations, having been evacuated four times in the last four years.

But when the evacuation for Hurricane Katrina was ordered it was chaos. Kurtz said the call was made just two hours after freshman check-in on Aug. 27. "Some people had just moved in and didn't have a ride," he said.

Kurtz decided to return to Bakersfield to continue his education while New Orleans and Tulane were rebuilding. "Cal State's been great," he said. "They welcomed me with open arms."

He returned to his home in New Orleans in mid-October to assess the damage. "We were lucky. We live on the second story in a house so we didn't have any water damage."

Kurtz completed the fall quarter at CSUB and has since returned to Tulane to complete his studies. He's not sure where he'll end up but, "I think maybe somewhere on the West Coast. Earthquakes are less frequent," he laughed.