Restoring a city: community college educators return to New Orleans to find a city still reeling from the catastrophic damage of Hurricane Katrina.

NEW ORLEANS -- Joe D. May looked out upon a sea of faces inside a hotel ballroom and couldn't suppress a smile.

The new president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System was delivering welcoming remarks to about 1,700 people attending the recent 10th annual Innovations Conference sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College.

From all around the country, administrators and professors had gathered to hear new perspectives on how the community college movement can move from the age of access to the era of success amid the ever-changing needs of a diverse student population.

May, for his part, seemed pleased merely that the League had made good on its pledge to return to this wounded city, which is still struggling to heal from the effects of Hurricane Katrina 18 months after the monster storm slammed into the Louisiana coast.

"This is what it takes--having people back in our community," May said. Only last year, the League was forced to move its planned conference from New Orleans to …