The School of Arts and Sciences budget cuts are revising Fox Leadership's summer plans but not deterring students from helping to renew New Orleans.
Due to an announced 10-percent cut affecting all SAS programs and departments, the second-annual Fox Leadership in New Orleans summer internship program has been cancelled for 2009.
"The Fox Program is a primarily endowment-funded program," Joseph Tierney, director of Fox Leadership, explained in an e-mail. "Our only cut is $50,000, meaning that we will not have the summer 2009 [program]."
The program is "to my knowledge, the only thing we have cut, and we anticipate no further cutbacks affecting the next fiscal year," Frederic Fox Leadership professor John DiIulio, who teaches political science, added in an e-mail.
SAS Dean Rebecca Bushnell wrote, "The Fox Leadership program has begun quite responsibly to think about how it can economize without affecting its core mission."
According to College senior Judith Kim, the program's cancellation disappointed many, especially after previous interns like Kim had been "hyping it up."
But College junior Josh Pollack said he understands that Fox Leadership is "doing their best to work with the resources available."
Last summer, 14 students stayed at New Orleans' Loyola University for 10 weeks, working with nonprofit organizations that ranged from architect firms to mentoring programs to Latino-focused initiatives, Kim explained.
College senior Lany Villalobos worked with a Latino organization called the Hispanic Apostolate Workers Rights Initiative.
"The rebuilding effort was changing the city - changing the demographics," she said. Because of a sudden influx of Latino workers and citizens in the area, her job was to mediate between the Hispanic day laborers and their employers.
Pollack, however, worked in the Office of Catholic Schools under the Archdiocesan Schools, helping Catholic nonprofit organizations.
"It was the most educational experience I've ever had," he said. "This was really an opportunity to help create a city."
Because each intern had unique experiences, they met weekly to discuss their progress. "We had eyes everywhere about housing, immigration problems [and] health care," Kim said. "We got a very good feel for what kind of nonprofit, even for-profit, organizations are doing for recovery."
Despite the cuts, Fox's free 101-person spring-break trip to the area is still on. During this trip, students will work on construction projects with either Habitat for Humanity or Operation Helping Hands, Tierney wrote, explaining that the program also includes related activities in the evenings.
But one week is not enough. "We still have to focus on [rebuilding the city]," Villalobos said. "It's sad that it's kind of taking a backseat among other issues."
"Once you go down there a couple of times, it's hard to turn your back on it," Pollack said.
Fox Leadership hopes to reinstate the project in summer 2010.
