The National Organization of Minority Architecture Students is hosting a symposium Friday and Saturday entitled “Designing for Disaster: The Architectural Response to Hurricane Katrina.”

Carrie Costanzo, sophomore in Communications, will be participating in the “New Orleans: The Road Ahead” panel discussion, just one of the many events taking place during the symposium.

Over winter break Costanzo accompanied her mom and brother to New Orleans with a church group to help with the reconstruction.

“It looked like the hurricane had just happened yesterday,” she said. “Trash wasn’t picked up, there were dead animal carcasses lying around, they were still finding people dead in their houses even though they supposedly checked every house, and death tolls were spray painted on buildings.”

Some of the people Costanzo helped had not been in their houses since the hurricane. She said it was difficult going through the houses with the people for the first time since the hurricane and seeing that all their belongings had been destroyed. She remembered the smell when they opened a refrigerator full of food that hadn’t been touched in six months.

The symposium theme was suggested by one of the members of the minority architecture students group during a meeting and the group thought it would be a topic that everyone could speak on, said Rachel Mensah, sophomore in FAA and co-president of the Registered Student Organization.

The event, located in Temple Hoyne Buell Hall, 611 E. Lorado Taft Dr., will feature speakers and panelists from around the country and is free to the public.

The National Organization of Minority Architecture Students has a cultural focus and hopes to share all the aspects of architecture, as well as the issues behind rebuilding New Orleans, said Matt Piker, junior in FAA and co-president of the organization.

“(The organization) should be a place for anyone to come and learn about cultural architecture,” he said.

The RSO started searching for speakers within the architecture department. Through networking, the club found interest from speakers from other colleges as well, she said.

“Everyone is bringing something different to the table,” Mensah said.

By bringing in a variety of speakers with different backgrounds, Mensah said she hopes that when the different opinions come together, new ideas will emerge about how to rebuild the city.

The organization hopes to create a greater awareness of the situation, Piker said.

“This is a once in a lifetime thing that doesn’t happen every year and it needs to be scrutinized,” he said. “The way it’s portrayed in the media, although objective, gives a small picture of what’s going on.”

Besides focusing on the architecture behind rebuilding New Orleans, the symposium will discuss topics such as race and social economic policies.

“The symposium focuses on different aspects of architecture: designing for different people, uses, climates, and possibilities like natural disasters,” Piker said.

Costanzo is partaking in the panel to serve as a “reality check.” She said the city has hardly been worked on since the disaster, with the exception of the French corridor for tourism. New ideas and change need to take place in order for there to be an impact on the area, she said.

Costanzo said she will tell the audience about her visit and show pictures she took on her trip. The presentation will not be “sugar-coated,” she said, because people don’t understand how bad the situation really is.

“I don’t understand why it’s not being called to attention,” she said. “It happened recently and was forgotten about recently.”