As Hurricane Isaac quickly approached, the University made plans to cancel classes and open the Student Union as a hurricane shelter.
According to Brandie Toups, director of the Student Union, the potential of the Union being used as a shelter for on-campus residents was brought up at the Emergency Planning Committee meeting on the Aug. 26.
On Aug. 27 all residence halls remained open, but students were encouraged to return home to be with their families.
The Union had 32 mattresses already stored and housing and residence life transported another 100 mattresses to the ballroom in trucks.
“I joked with people that I wanted to Google ‘how to run a shelter’ because it is just not something we do on a regular basis,” Toups said.
On Aug. 28 around 2 p.m., approximately 128 residence hall students, faculty and staff who remained on campus were relocated to the Union. Residence halls and La Maison du Bayou were checked for any lingering students.
Glenn McNeese, marine biology junior from Lafayette, said although he stayed to work, he would have stayed on campus either way.
“The students who had no choice but to stay either lived too far away to evacuate, or their home was hit harder than campus,” McNesse explained.
Matshediso Malope, marketing junior from Botswana, said he stayed because it was impractical to leave. Although this was his first experience with a hurricane, he has seen similar weather conditions.
“It did not make sense to buy a $2,000 ticket to go home for one week,” Malope said. “I wasn’t traumatized or anything.”
“We designated the ballroom as the sleeping area, but we trusted the students to go into other parts of the union as well,” Toups said. “They were allowed to go in the game room to play games or the common area of the union to study. We played movies throughout the day and had cable TV until the cable went out.”
Toups explained that Hayward Guenard served as the entertainment director coordinating the movies and games.
Sodexo also served students three meals each day with an evening snack.
Andrew Schlesinger, mass communication senior from New Orleans, said Sodexo served amazing meals for students throughout the time in the shelter.
Schlesinger also said the Union did not have power for about 10 hours, but the power outage was barely noticed because the Union had lights and air conditioning the entire time with a generator.
Schlesinger is a resident in Zeringue Hall who chose to stay on campus for Isaac.
“I evacuated in 2005 and it was just too much,” Schesinger said. “I knew that being on campus I could go back to my room whenever the storm was over.”
Kiala Singleton, family and consumer science senior from Houma and head resident in Scholars Hall, said although it was not mandatory, she wanted to stay to help with the shelter.
“We were allowed to bring pretty much anything that was allowed in the residence halls,” Singleton said.
 “I thought I was going to hate it, but everyone got along really well,” Singleton said. “The only bad part was not being able to take a bath for two days.”
Toups said the students were patient and respectful adults, which led to more privileges than in previous hurricane situations.
“I really believe we made the students comfortable and put their needs as our priority to make them feel as comfortable as possible considering the circumstances,” Toups said.