Evacuees with special needs have occupied Betsy Cheramie Ayo Hall since Hurricane Katrina neared the Louisiana coast, resulting particularly in the relocation of nursing classes and students.All sophomore and one junior lecture and lab nursing classes were moved in Beauregard Hall.

“Larry Howell, associate provost for academic affairs, has done a very good job in placing us in another setting in Beauregard Hall,” Sue Westbrook, dean for College of Nursing and Allied Health, said. “They got us everything we needed.”

All the equipment and supplies have been transported to Beauregard. According to Westbrook, Tom Bonvillain, director for academic computing, brought all of the projectors that were mounted on the ceilings in the lecture rooms and labs of Ayo.

“We have what we need to conduct business and that’s what we’re doing,” Westbrook said. “As soon as classes were able to start, we were rolling. We bought tables from Wal-Mart to improvise for the hospital beds; we brought our mannequins over there, and all of our supplies.”

The remaining junior and senior classes were held in Houma at the Duh building, according to Westbrook.

“We really couldn’t find space for all the classes in clinicals,” Westbrook said. “There’s a wonderful facility in the Duh building with everything students need. So the junior and senior classes were held there.”

As of Sept. 20, there were about 16 special needs patients left at the shelter, and there are currently none being housed there. A majority of the ambulatory patients were sent to Alexandria. Students were not able to use the shelter as their clinicals because the patients left before there was a chance to do so, according to Westbrook.

“We had plans on the docket, but we have to get students in the University lab teaching them before we put them with patients,” Westbrook said. “We were planning to use this site as a clinical site, like we send students to the hospital, but the evacuees left before we were able to do that. So they did not get involved with hands-on care. We had faculty that certainly assisted in the shelter.”

A few nursing classes assisted at the Houma Civic Center, while some nursing students did volunteer work at the special needs shelter even though it was not for a grade, Westbrook said.

Westbrook said she is not in a rush to move nursing students back to Ayo.

“(The students) are settled; they’re doing fine,” Westbrook said. “The equipment is where it needs to be. I don’t have a problem with letting it stay this way until the semester is over and in January move them back.”

The nursing department is “playing it by ear,” according to Westbrook. The classrooms that nursing students are using in Beauregard may be needed to place English classes where they were.

“If Ayo hall is back up and running and they want us to move back, we will,” Westbrook said. “Whatever causes the least disturbance to the students is what we’ll do. If everybody has adjusted to where their classes are, then we’ll just finish the semester this way. That decision hasn’t been made.”

According to Westbrook, Ayo must be cleaned before students return. All mattresses on the hospital beds will be replaced with brand new mattresses. The carpets and floors will be cleansed, and the building will be repainted.

“(Ayo) is one of our premier buildings, and we are committed to keeping it that way,” Mike Delaune, director of university relations, said. “We are going to restore it back to the condition that it was in.”

Mike Davis, assistant vice president of business affairs for procurement and physical plant operations, said that it is undecided whether the department of health and hospitals or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will pay for the replacement mattresses.

“We’re awaiting the exit of everybody,” Davis said. “The National Guard is still in there and so is a FEMA medical unit. The medical unit should be departing within a day or two, and the National Guard will probably be moved to another building.”

Davis said that once they are out of the building, a company that has been hired to clean the building will completely sanitize it.

“The students and staff have been wonderful,” Westbrook said. “Their attitudes have been good, and there haven’t been any complaints. They’re working under very unusual and unordinary circumstances, and they have all stepped up to the plate. It’s been challenging at times, and we’ll be glad to get our building back up and running for business as usual.