Scientists open home to hurricane victims

As scientists at UC Irvine, Susan Bryant, dean of biological sciences, and her husband, research biologist David Gardiner, are used to conducting experiments. This fall, however, they’ve been involved in an experiment of a different kind: They’ve altered their work and home life to make room for a former student displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Their arrangement is one of the many innovative ways the UCI community has helped those affected by the unprecedented disaster -- and those in need closer to home.

Bryant and Gardiner have children in college, but instead of living in an empty nest this fall, they’ve had a full house: Friend and colleague Ken Muneoka, his wife and two children now live with them in their Newport Beach home.

Hurricane Katrina severely damaged Muneoka’s New Orleans home and his lab at Tulane University, where he’s a professor of cell and molecular biology. After hearing of his plight, the couple also offered to share their biology lab at UCI with Muneoka, five of his students and a postdoctoral researcher from Tulane, which closed for the fall semester.

Despite the devastating circumstances, the experimental arrangement has had unexpected benefits for both families. It’s allowing them to renew their scientific collaboration and their friendship. Proof that everyone’s doing well: Come Thanksgiving, they will join together as an extended family to count their blessings.

“Usually we don’t consider all that we should be thankful for, but Thanksgiving will be different this year. It will be more significant for my family,” Muneoka said. “There are times when the kids miss home more than other times, but all things considered, we couldn’t ask for a better situation.”

Muneoka got his Ph.D from UCI in 1983 and continued to collaborate with Bryant -- his teacher and mentor -- after he went to Tulane. The two have conducted ground-breaking research in limb regeneration; for this reason, Bryant can understand the significance of Muneoka’s loss more than most people.

“It will cost Ken months if not years to recoup the momentum in his research. Presumably his animals -- special strains of lab mice -- are lost,” she said. “He could be worrying about how everything will turn out, but he’s not. He’s a well-balanced person.”

Indeed, Muneoka shows his characteristic humor when talking about going back home in December.

“Our home will be a construction site for a couple of years,” he said. “We don’t have a roof yet. That’s kind of an issue.”

Members of the UCI community have found other creative ways to help those affected by the hurricanes. Undergraduate Charles Dorsey didn’t have money to donate to Hurricane Katrina evacuees, so he found a hands-on way to help. In October he took a 20-hour bus trip to and from New Orleans to assist in the relief effort.

“I had to do something,” said Dorsey, a fifth-year anthropology student.

He heeded the call to help from Rev. Mark Whitlock of Christ Our Redeemer African Methodist Episcopal Church, which meets on campus. Dorsey and about 80 volunteers -- including 10 UCI students -- spent three days in New Orleans handing out food and cash cards donated by his church to evacuees. They cleaned houses filled with mud. They cleared debris from a caved-in roof at the University of New Orleans. At night, they slept on the floor of a church.

“I wanted to be tired, to get dirty, to do what it takes to help these people,” Dorsey said.

Efforts to assist in the rebuilding of homes and lives have taken place on all levels -- individual, departmental and campuswide. The UCI Volunteer Center, which encourages students to participate in community service, has joined with outside volunteer groups to speed relief supplies to evacuees. The center has worked with Giving Children Hope in Orange County to send about 11 truckloads of toiletries, canned food and other necessities to the devastated area.

“A lot of student organizations have approached us and asked how they can help,” said Edgar Dormitorio, Volunteer Center director. Students with the American Red Cross Club at UCI volunteered at county Red Cross offices to handle donations and answer phones. As part of the center’s Alternative Spring Break, they’re planning to visit the Gulf Coast area to join in the rebuilding effort.

In addition, students are helping those at home -- both in surrounding communities and on campus. For the holidays, the Volunteer Center is working with the Orange County Rescue Mission and Operation OC to coordinate gift and food donations. The center recently sponsored its annual Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week on campus.

The UCI community also has rallied around hurricane evacuees spending fall quarter on campus. In addition to Muneoka, Pamela Waldron-Moore, chairwoman of political science at Xavier University, is a visiting professor in UCI’s School of Social Sciences. About 14 undergraduates and seven graduate students have come from New Orleans schools, including Tulane, Xavier, Loyola and the University of New Orleans. They’re here as visiting scholars, so UCI can waive tuition and sort through details of their financial aid on a case-by-case basis.

“The response from UCI and the community has been terrific. They’ve donated bedding, clothing, TVs and furniture to my six people. They are helping in any way they can to bring our lives back to normal,” Muneoka said. “It’s not like we’re alone in this thing.”

*

The music department at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts presents a fall concert by the UCI Jazz Orchestra at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, in the Claire Trevor Theatre.

Charles Owens will conduct the orchestra, which will perform standards by jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Mingus, Kenny Burrell, Duke Ellington and many more.

Tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for UCI faculty, staff and seniors (62 and older) and $8 for UCI students and children under 18.

For tickets, contact the UCI arts box office from noon to 4 p.m. weekdays at (949) 824-2787 or www.Ticketmaster.com.

* SUSAN MENNING is assistant vice chancellor of communications at UC Irvine. She can be reached at [email protected].

20051122icaerakfPaul R. Kennedy(LA)20051122iqc6e8knPaul R. Kennedy(LA)David Gardiner, left, welcomed Tulane scientist Ken Muneoka into his home and his biology lab.