Former New Orleans Mayor and 1980 College graduate Marc Morial called on Penn undergraduates to volunteer their "time, talent and treasure" in helping to alleviate the first "massive displacement of people" in the in the United States in a century.
Morial -- whose city was decimated by Hurricane Katrina earlier this month -- led off this year's Fox Leadership lecture series with an address entitled "Katrina: Leadership and Accountability in a Time of Crisis."
That theme "is the issue of our times and the issue of our generation," Morial said.
He added that there are "long-range issues that Hurricane Katrina will rightfully force the nation to deal with."
Morial stressed the need for the federal government to form a commission to review the disaster, but "not to point fingers and assign blame. We've got to ensure that this won't happen again -- ensure accountability of all involved."
Congressional hearings are a good start and are necessary, he said, but added they are not enough. Ultimately, a disaster-response timeline should be created and a set of recommendations should be issued.
Morial told Penn students that the best thing they can do to help the displaced families is volunteer or donate to charities.
He urged Penn undergrads to go in large groups to shelters for the displaced that are located in Philadelphia or even to travel for a few days to Baltimore, Tennessee or Texas to assist at shelters in those places.
Lending time and letting the victims see a friendly face demonstrates more caring than simply donating money, he said.
Morial described Katrina as an "equal-opportunity destroyer," referring to television coverage that focused on poor blacks. He said that there were also working-class whites who lost everything.
"Most of what you see is the truth, but not the whole truth, because it is not all known yet," he said, adding later, "I am glad the media was there because it crystallized the crisis before the officials pushed the panic button."
Morial added that the media's accounts of violence and looting were counterproductive to the relief efforts since they made rescuers reluctant to go in, although some of these incidents did occur.
"There was no unified message. Unified command and communications are essential to crisis-management," he said.
On a public-policy level, Morial called for a Katrina Victims' Bill of Rights, which would include the creation of a Katrina victims compensation fund.
Morial added that the rebuilding of New Orleans needs to be "participatory" and requires a mechanism to coordinate different groups that have a stake in the rebuilding.
"[Relief and rebuilding] will test whether the nation can stay focused," he said, adding later that "we can't give victims a backseat to commercial interests" when it comes to building a memorial.
Students were receptive to Morial's message.
"He realized and made clear the level of devastation, but he was very positive with ideas on how to solve the problem," College sophomore Dan Warsh said. "I felt his ideas like the Bill of Rights and the commission sounded effective and hope that they are followed through with."
