By KRISTIN M. HALL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; 3:07 AM

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- More than a year after Hurricane Katrina, Southern University at New Orleans is still hurting.

Flooding and mold damaged forced the school to relocate to more than 400 trailers that serve both as housing and classrooms. Only 2,300 out of the 3,600 students enrolled before the hurricane hit have returned and faculty has gone from 160 to 91.

Now, help is on the way: Middle Tennessee State University announced Tuesday an academic partnership to help rebuild the New Orleans branch of the historically black Southern University system.

Although still tentative, officials at the two universities hope to create a collaboration that could involve online instruction, student and professor exchange, joint research and faculty training.

"If this partnership is going to work, it has to be on a sustainable basis," said Victor Ukpolo, chancellor of the New Orleans institution. Middle Tennessee President Sidney McPhee agreed: "This is not a one-time deal."

With the university not expecting to return to campus until fall of 2008, Ukpolo said students from New Orleans could take classes at Middle Tennessee, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, as early as this summer.

The universities also will explore setting up student exchange programs in certain disciplines, which could allow students to register at both universities in order to complete degrees.

"MTSU has stepped up to help us close the gap," Ukpolo said. "I don't know of any other institution that has done that for any New Orleans school."

Professors from both universities could participate in training and professional conferences and work together on research, publications and creative arts projects.

MTSU hopes to recruit some of the New Orleans students for its graduate programs and improve diversity on campus, McPhee said. "It's a win-win situation for SUNO and MTSU," Ukpolo said.

SUNO is one of five universities that make up the Southern University system, which has an enrollment of over 15,000 students and an annual operating budget of more than $200 million.

Other colleges in New Orleans, like the private Tulane University, have expanded the scope of existing partnerships with other schools while hundreds of colleges nationwide offered tuition exchange programs for students affected by Katrina.

More than a third of Louisiana's 244,600 college students were displaced by the storm, and about 20,000 fewer students attended school during the spring semester.

Ukpolo said he felt like mayor of the small city of trailers where the school has operated for a year. He estimates the total damage to the university at $60 million.

"After Hurricane Katrina, there was some discussion to close down the school," said Ukpolo, who served as an associate vice chancellor at the Tennessee Board of Regents from 1997 to 1999 before moving to New Orleans. "Katrina is still strong in terms of its impact on people's lives."

Ukpolo said he feels blessed to get support from other educators in Tennessee, where his professional life began as a professor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville.

"This state continues to be good to me," Ukpolo said.

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On the Net:

Middle Tennessee State University: http://www.mtsu.edu

Southern University at New Orleans: http://www.suno.edu