Norman Francis
FameRank: 4

"Dr. Norman Christopher Francis", is the president of Xavier University of Louisiana. He has been Xavier's president since 1968, making him (as of June 2014) the List of longest serving higher education presidents/longest-tenured current leader of an American university and the only lay (non-clergy) president of Xavier. He previously also served as the chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state agency in charge of planning the recovery and rebuilding of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

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As I have said before, every time we open our doors, it's a miracle. Well, I can tell you that opening our doors this time was the biggest miracle of all. We recognize that some things are still not exactly the way we want them, but with a little patience, understanding, and sacrifice, we will get through this challenge. You have to go through Good Friday to get to Easter Sunday.

If you do have a substantial number who do not come back, you downsize, ... You hate to think about that, but obviously we have to think about it.

What happened to New Orleans and Xavier, represents the greatest disaster this country has ever had. That we were able to come back in such a short period of time is a credit to our staff and faculty, who put aside their personal loses and problems, to make this miracle happen.

We can't afford not to work together.

I'm not naive, ... Right now anybody seeing the city of New Orleans would say, 'My God, that's the farthest place from where I'd want to be.'

At the time, there was no minority banking service in New Orleans.

A compassion for bringing Louisiana back and taking it forward. ...This is not just recovery. We're talking about enhancement.