LSU Medical School Gets Creative

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/10/21/
katrina.med.school.ap/index.html

Louisiana State University Medical School has taken a most creative approach to “returning to normalcy” in post-Katrina Baton Rouge. They are housing students on the FinnJet, a Finnish ferry currently in the Port of Baton Rouge. While five hundred members of the faculty, staff, and student body camp on the ferry, class has been re-established in a nearby movie theatre prior to the matinee shows.

The Medical School realizes the importance of these future doctors as aids in long term hurricane relief. Such realizations lead them to the decision to take drastic and indeed innovative steps to reinstate class. Such a move exemplifies the ideal of putting the pieces back together. It acts as an example of what all organizations should be doing as the recovery effort continues.

My question is why is it that a university can have so much initiative, while our government recovery lags slowly on? I understand that the scale is much larger. I also realize that many people have been placed in homes and schools in Texas. But it seemed that such moves sailed forward at a painstakingly bureaucratic pace. It is my greatest hope is that our current government, as well as the general public will take notice of LSU’s resourceful and timely approach to the ongoing recovery effort. Maybe they will acknowledge the efficiency of LSU’s efforts and apply such methods accordingly in the future.