<p>If these hurricanes keep occuring in the nature of Katrina and Gustav (evacuation, etc...), is there a possibility of Tulane closing for good? As a member of the class of 2009 (and Tulane being my first choice) I certainly hope not. However, the question has been stuck in my mind.</p>
<p>There is a large, large difference between Katrina and Gustav. The reason the school ended up closing for a semester after Katrina was <em>not</em> because the school suffered serious damage (yes, it underwent some, but nothing which couldn't be - and hasn't been - fixed). The reason it closed was primarily due to the fact that New Orleans as a whole basically "shut down". So many people moved away, shut down their businesses, were injured, temporarily and in the rare case permanently, and the college can't function without the city. No college can function without it's city. Why? No city => no cleaning staff, cooking staff, no food vendors, no textbook suppliers, no police force, no maintenance staff, and so on. A school can't manage with solely its students and teachers.</p>
<p>So, in other words, the only way Tulane would ever permanently close is if the city of New Orleans itself permanently did. And, after spending time there, I can say with complete assurance that such a city will never cease to exist no matter what it undergoes.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, the school has closed and evacuated temporarily in the past, aside from Katrina and Gustav. It's not really uncommon for schools along the gulf coast, or any other area subject to such natural occurrences. The only reason people don't really know about it, or care, is because none of these past evacuations were more than a couple days. And, once again, the only reason it was for Katrina was due to the levees being breached, and the city shutting down.</p>
<p>If you go to the Tulane website and look at the transcript of Sunday's live chat with the university's president, you'll see a very similar question was asked and answered. Probably answered better than I just did too ^^.</p>
<p>As the previous poster mentioned Tulane will only close if New Orleans closes. In the history of the university there have been many, many hurricanes and only once has the school had to close for a significant amount of time. I wouldn't count on it happening again, especially now that the levees are being reinforced. Besides, hurrications are one of the benefits of being a Tulane student. Most of the time the evacuations end up being a nice little break with no real impact on the school or the city.</p>