Tulane Facing Pivotal Period

Scott Cowen, President of Tulane University's Talk on The Future of Our University
Tulane facing pivotal period
Student and faculty retention are keys

Good Morning:

In last week's Tulane Talk I mentioned that the Board of Administrators
and the university's senior administrative leadership were having
extensive conversations about the university's future in light of
Hurricane Katrina. These conversations have either already included or
will include a number of external advisors from such institutions as
Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, Rice and Princeton. In
addition, I have consulted on a regular basis with members of the
President's Faculty Advisory Committee, an elected body of the
University Senate.

All of these groups are providing wise counsel about how Tulane
University should chart its future. In thinking about the future we are
guided by the desire to maintain the university's exceptional academic
quality and to continue as a major research and graduate-level
university focused on areas where we have demonstrated or are on the
cusp of demonstrating world-class excellence.

We will continue to be a university committed to academic excellence
while also ensuring the university's long-term financial viability.
These dual commitments will require us to make some difficult decisions
in the months ahead, but the result will be a stronger, vibrant and more
focused university prepared for the extraordinary challenges of the 21st
century.

The discussions thus far give me confidence that Tulane University will
increasingly be defined in the future by its:

* World-class excellence in education and research
* A distinct relationship with the culturally rich and diverse city
of New Orleans, home to one of the world's great waterways and a
gateway to the Americas
* Historical strengths and the ability to learn and recover from the
worst natural disaster in the history of the U.S. in ways that
will ultimately benefit the Tulane community, the city of New
Orleans and other communities in the U.S. and around the world


The center of the renewed Tulane should be an exceptional undergraduate
program dedicated to the development of students both as scholars and
socially responsible citizens. This center should be strengthened and
surrounded by a limited number of graduate, professional and research
programs, which demonstrate the defining characteristics mentioned above.

We also have an unusual opportunity to shape many of our programs by the
university's direct experience with such a large-scale natural disaster.

This experience should provide faculty, staff and students with unique
research, learning and community service opportunities that will have a
lasting and profound impact on them, New Orleans, the region and
communities around the world.

In the coming weeks the Board and I will continue to address our renewal
strategy drawing on our external advisors and the President's Faculty
Advisory Committee. I will keep you posted of our progress. In the
meantime, please click on the link below to read an article on Tulane's
recovery that ran on the front page of Monday's Times-Picayune
Tulane facing pivotal period
Student and faculty retention are keys
Scott