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It's not hard to tell the difference between Dillard University students and guests at the Hilton Riverside Hotel on Canal Street.
Students wander the hallways in twos and threes, dressed casually in sweatpants and T-shirts, many with iPod buds planted in their ears. Their IDs and room keys hang from a Dillard lanyard around their necks.
Guests, however, move through the hotel dressed in business suits or khakis and themed T-shirts, fanny pack secured to their waists, wheeling luggage behind.
Since January, Hilton guests have shared living space with displaced Dillard students and faculty at the high-rise hotel in one of the city's most popular tourist areas.
With tourism still lagging post-Katrina, hotel officials say students helped keep the business afloat.
They occupy more than 500 rooms in the hotel, said Hilton general manager Fred Sawyers. Needless to say it's been huge for us. With the lack of convention business up to this point, you just could not keep this hotel busy and team members employed without Dillard.
Walter Strong, vice president for institutional advancement for Dillard, estimates the partnership between the university and the Hilton has had an economic impact of nearly $100 million after housing 800...