Not everyone in the senior class will be able to walk across the stage on May 9 to receive their diploma.

As of April 24, the “Katrina class,” as some refer to it, will have 476 students graduate on May 9. This leaves 68 seniors who will take summer classes and 114 who will receive their diploma after the fall semester.

Shane Hennessey, mass communication senior, will not participate in the May graduation.

“I didn’t go to school during the Katrina semester, so I have to catch up,” he said.
Hennessey said he believes the school didn’t give students enough time to figure out a plan of action.

“It was a bit rushed and that was my main problem,” he said. “I had offers from other schools, but it was too rushed.”

Hennessey said it does not matter that he will not have a ceremony in December after he finishes his studies.

“It doesn’t bother me, but I can definitely understand the frustrations of those for whom this is important,” he said.

Angella Monroe, mathematics senior, is another student who will not graduate on time. Monroe was a part of the computer science major that was eliminated. Monroe said she went to the University of San Francisco for her Katrina semester, since it was near her home in California.

Monroe accepted the situation, even though she was not very happy with transferring. She said this experience taught her a lesson she will never forget.

“Katrina made me realize that tomorrow is never promised and that you should never take things for granted, because you never know what the future will bring,” she said.

During the process, Monroe said she noticed a lack of organization by the administration.
“It was very unorganized in what occurred during Katrina, trying to find out where we could go and what they were going to charge us and how our classes would count,” she said.
Once she arrived back at Loyola, she had to come up with reasons why the credits she took at San Francisco should count. She said she also found that her department had changed drastically.

“It seemed like the entire computer science program changed after Katrina so it was kind of the administration’s fault I’m graduating late,” she said.

Jason Root, music industry business senior, is one of the students who  able to complete his academic requirements in four years, in part because he went to Arizona Sate University for some time.

“Luckily the hurricane didn’t affect my studies. I went to Arizona State, because I live in Arizona, and took the core requirements and luckily was able to transfer those credits to Loyola,” Root said.

When Root transferred to Arizona State University, he had to start from scratch. While he knew some of the students there from his high school years, he had to get used to a new school and a new way of doing things. Root’s major made him return to Loyola as soon as he could.

“You can’t get this major anywhere else, and the people that teach it here are absolutely amazing. I wasn’t about to lose my faith in the school and the department just because of a natural disaster,” he said.

While Root said he has always been involved in community service, he saw this as an opportunity to help rebuild New Orleans.

“This allowed me to do something for others and follow the Jesuit ideal of being a man for others. The hurricane impacted me in a positive way,” he said.

Root said he sees this class as the reason Loyola remains open.

“If in that semester and that year the people that didn’t come back, Loyola wouldn’t be as it is today. If we hadn’t come back what would they have had?” he said.
Student Government Association President Cade Cypriano said he believes the class of 2009 was a great one.

“Many students received national honors, students being named to state gubernatorial committees and they gave an overall rising stature to the student profile,” the political science senior said.

“The students that came here to be a part of the class of 2009 made a true commitment, not only to the university, but to a revitalizing community, that desperately needed the students,” he said.

Eduardo Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected].