UNO is intact and making a consistent comeback, while the neighborhoods around the university are still blighted and experiencing a slower comeback than anticipated. It’s sinking in slowly that the recovery of New Orleans is taking much longer than we all thought just a year ago. While UNO is physically in great shape, the university is still struggling due to a slower return of students than projected. 17,000+ students that attended UNO prior to Katrina, while 11,700 students are currently enrolled. The university thereformake painful financial adjustments.

Center Austria’s programs are showing an encouraging comeback. In August 19 students from the University of Innsbruck enrolled at UNO. 6 new students will join us for the spring semester. We will welcome them with a crawfish boil. For the year we are thus matching the 2/3 post-Katrina enrollment of the university.Given the university’s new focus on recruitment of international students, the enrollment of University of Innsbruck
students continues to be a model for international recruitment at UNO. This is only possible as a result of both the strong “word-of-mouth marketing” through alumni/ae in Innsbruck and the exceptional service that Austria staffing, advising , and “mothering” of Innsbruck students while at UNO. We have demonstrated that international recruitment can only be successful with this type of individual mentoring of students, which makes them feel comfortable and at home on campus.

Christian Carlson is teaching German as this year’s “Fulbright” lecturer – we are proud that UNO hosts the only Fulbrighter this year in a New Orleans area university. Martin Heintel, a geographer from the University of Vienna, is teaching regional studies as this year’s Marshall Plan Chair. We are very grateful to all our Austrian visitors for the confidence they have shown in the resilience of our university and the city in the
post-Katrina environment. They have displayed the same sense of adventure and grit that New Orleanians are demonstrated every day in the reconstruction of their beloved city. We are confident that they have not regretted coming here to observe disaster recovery and rebirth in action. We thanked them with a festive Christmas Party. CA’s other programs have continued without interruption. Our “Academic Year Abroad” program in Innsbruck has made it through Katrina and beyond. The hard work of our resident director Margaret Davidson and the financial post-Katrina support of benefactors such as the ERP-Fonds of Vienna, the City of Innsbruck, as well as the Länder Tirol, Vorarlberg and Südtirol, was crucial in keeping this program going. The University of Graz has generously accepted 4 UNO “Katrina” students during the fall term of 2006 free of charge. We would like to thank Roberta Maierhofer and Doris Knasar for making this possible.

Volume XV of Contemporary Austrian Studies was just published and a new series Transatlantica launched with the StudienVerlag in Innsbruck. Two Innsbruck artists were displaying their fine art at UNO’s Fine Arts gallery this October. We had a highly successful “Satchmo Meets Amadeus” symposium with spectacular concerts and the photo exhibit of Michel P. Smith pictures “Before the Storm” in early October at the Salzburg State Museum. We would like to thank Reinhold Wagnleitner of the University of Salzburg and WolfgangPillinger of the Mozarteum for their hard work in putting these events together. It sent a strong message about New Orleans’s exceptional position as a music capital of the world to the many visitors present.

We are blessed with devoted friends, colleagues and partners in Austria. We would like to thank them all for their outstanding support and faith in our city and university. Happy Holidays! May 2007 encourage us to believe in a brighter future as the sad memories of Katrina slowly slip into the past.

Sincerely Yours,
Guenter Bischof