McNeese State plans on students returning to campus for the 2021 spring semester. President Daryl Burckel says Hurricane Laura alone produced 77-million dollars in damages to the academic portion of the campus and multiple contractors have been hired so at least 30% of classes will be face-to-face instruction in January.
“We can’t wait to come back in the fall and just have a time in the spring where we just kind of try to recover; we have to recover for the spring,” said Burckel.
Burckel says the speed in recovery is vital because their budget is based on student tuition. McNeese’s enrollment is around seven-thousand and Burkel says despite two hurricanes the school’s enrollment is only down 225 students from the Fall of 2019. He says as they rebuild the campus, student housing is a top priority.
“To get our students back on campus and to get them in a stable situation to live,” said Burckel.
Total damage to the entire university when you also combine water damage from Hurricane Delta is 200-million dollars.
Burkel says students, faculty, and alumni can keep track of the rebuild process by visiting comehomecowboys.com
“What you’ll see is a representation of the campus and you’ll click on a building and it will give you the progress of that building, from being bid to what part of the construction is being done until it’s fully complete,” said Burckel.
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