A panel of Stanford faculty discussed how government and private organizations failed the people they were supposed to protect from Hurricane Katrina and explored ways they could be made more effective. Four professors participated in the third panel of a four-part series sponsored by the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE) at Cubberley Auditorium last night.

Before the backdrop of a slide show with pictures of the Katrina tragedy and the relief effort, the director of the center implored the audience to learn from the disaster.

“Katrina impelled us to think about and to see the deep problems rooted in the social fabric,” said Lawrence Bobo, director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

While stating that this event was motivated by the New Orleans tragedy, Bobo urged the panelists not to dwell on the one specific disaster but to talk about how to deal with still present underlying problems.

The moderator began the event with an opening statement that included a harsh rebuke of President George W. Bush and his administration for making special tax exemptions and awarding no-bid contracts to corporations like Halliburton in the aftermath of the tragedy.

“New Orleans could be considered a third-world country,” said Comparative Literature Prof. David Palumbo-Liu, highlighting the city’s impoverished conditions. “Bush and the GOP Congress drastically cut the budget for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Army Corps of Engineers and other projects for New Orleans...This government has siphoned public resources into the uncommon good.”

Each of the three panelists spoke for 15 minutes about a different aspect of Katrina and then answered questions at the end of the event.

The first panelist explored the government’s obligation to protect its people from natural disasters. Using the example of famine, Philosophy Prof. Debra Satz explored distinction between misfortune and injustice.

“Society’s institutions caused or exacerbated Katrina from a natural disaster to a human injustice,” she said. “Government inaction harmed the population.”

The second panelist explained why FEMA failed as an organization to prepare for and respond to Katrina. Political Science Prof. David Brady of the Graduate School of Business explained that FEMA was not set up to be a first responder, but to be a flood insurer. To get away from the charged politics of Hurricane Katrina, Brady focused on the 1993 Great Flood on the Mississippi River as an example to illustrate his points.

He noted that the federal government usually reacts after a disaster by over appropriating funds for recovery efforts. As a result, he said, state and local governments do not feel a pressing need to invest in preparations for natural disasters.

“Congress and the president use FEMA to distribute and redistribute pork to ensure their re-election,” he said, pointing to high incumbent re-election rates as a result.

The third panelist discussed the role of altruism in the public’s response to social needs. Law Prof. Deborah Rhode, director of the Center on Ethics, examined people’s varying motivations for giving, benefits of altruism, influences on charitable behavior and options for increasing people’s sense of compassion.

“[Hurricane Katrina’s] exposure of racial apartheid has mobilized efforts that will focus on the have-nots,” she said. “We want to nurture the altruistic instinct because over the long run, it is more likely to promote public service.”

Rhode said that private and government donations for Hurricane Katrina are at an all-time high. Nearly $2 billion of private money has been donated, and the stream has not ended. She noted that domestic disasters receive far more attention and money than disasters in Africa or the Indian subcontinent.

Organizers estimated that 250 to 300 people turned out for the event. Freshman Haley Minick attended the lecture as part of the CSRE 51 lecture course “Confronting Katrina,” which gives students the opportunity to earn credit for attending the discussions. She called the third panel the most interesting so far in the series.

“I really liked that they talked about more solution-oriented activities and how to get the public motivated to help,” she said. “This session delved really well into the role the public can play to prevent and deal with these kinds of disasters.”

Some said they are glad that the series has generated such a large turnout.

“It’s a gift to the community to be able to have this kind of conversation,” said Laura Selznick, special assistant to the vice provost of undergraduate education.”This gives a window into new ways of doing things. I think it was a real treat that the whole community was invited, not just students.”

The fourth and final panel in the series will be held on Nov. 28 from 7-9 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. Provost John Etchemendy will preside, and CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux will deliver a keynote address. The Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University will come to Stanford to participate in the panel on “Lessons from Katrina.”