While the UW administration has been heavily criticized in the past few weeks by talking heads, pundits, and college columnists (including this writer) for its handling of the felonious professors' debacle, it deserves praise and commendation for its hospitality and generosity towards college victims of Hurricane Katrina.

In New Orleans alone, there are five universities: Tulane, the University of New Orleans, Xavier, Loyola and Dillard. At least one member of each university is now currently enrolled as a Madison undergraduate.

According to the American Council of Education, at least 100,000 students have been affected by the disaster. Schools from coast to coast have allowed thousands of students enrolled at universities in the Crescent City to attend their institutions. At Madison alone, 100 students have been accepted.

Though some schools have asked Katrina victims to pay reduced amounts to satisfy tuition, last Friday the Wisconsin legislature, working together with the UW, voted to waive all tuition fees. An entirely unprecedented move, it is obviously the correct one.

When first publicly deciding what sort of aid the UW would offer, the administration thought of extending in-state tuition to those affected by the hurricane. Yet this plan was correctly scrapped. Making hurricane victims pay any amount for tuition would have been cruel and insensitive.

Students attending hurricane-ravaged schools had already committed to paying tuition and will have to do so, though their schools are currently submerged in water. To a Tulane student paying $32, 946 in tuition for a school he or she won't even attend, having to pay an additional $6,220 for in-state tuition here would be an unfair burden. Room and board is also a cost that the student will have to cover.

The generosity and kindness that UW and a handful of other universities and colleges across the country have shown has been remarkable and they should all be commended. Yet, it remains to be seen what will come of those afflicted by the hurricane not enrolled in a university in the Big Easy. Those who have called New Orleans home for forty or fifty years. Those who are mainly destitute, uneducated, and disenfranchised.

Victims of generations of racism, prejudice, and corruption in the Bayou State, a majority of those displaced never had the opportunity to further their educations, gain meaningful employment and become productive members of society. Though some claim that New Orleans is a diverse, racially tolerant paradigm for America, most whites fled to the suburbs as the consequences of decades-old intolerance and oppression became apparent. That is why most of those that we see afflicted are African-American; the suburbs were located on higher, more stable ground, while those in the inner city were closer to bodies of water.

Right now, the Bush administration finds itself in a heated struggle with Louisiana over where to house those without homes. While the state would like to place them on secluded military bases, the Bush administration wants to create housing within a mile of where people originally lived.

For once, I must agree with the Bush administration. Though temporary housing at military bases would be adequate as governmental agencies repair New Orleans, Louisiana should work with the administration to create permanent housing that will attract middle-class and lower-class families together. Through constant contact with those who value education, hard work, and community, those most accustomed to a life of witnessing, or even partaking in, crime and violence will be able to see that another world exists. A world where violence and bloodshed aren't the daily norm.

As the long and arduous process of aiding Hurricane Katrina victims begins, the federal government should look to the generosity of countless universities across the nation, including UW. In doling out funds to those in need, it would be wise to think long and hard about the type of New Orleans we wish to recreate. Discarding the segregated, crime-infested, and corrupt old Orleans would be a good place to start.

Josh Moskowitz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.