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financial vs. strategic

 
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ih8scottcowen



Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 36
Location: New Orleans, LA

PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:50 pm    Post subject: financial vs. strategic Reply with quote

I recall in the transcripts of the 1st Scott Cowen chat, he contradicted himself nearly in the same sentence. It was something to the effect of, "the decision was both strategic and financial"......then he says, "it's not a question of the amount of money needed to save engineering at this point." It's in the chat transcripts, but I can't seem to find the link to them.

Then, on Tuesday, he suddenly could come up with a rough number of what it would cost to save engineering. But in the end, he said it wasn't really a matter of money.

What gives? I think Scott wants Engineering cut b/c Tulane isn't a ranked school in that discipline. And I bet he's just dying to tell someone that.
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wwalkeri



Joined: 12 Dec 2005
Posts: 136

PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

just another reason to get an attorney involved
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dhendric



Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 12
Location: Berkeley, CA

PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:10 pm    Post subject: Class Action Lawsuit Reply with quote

There have been rumors of a class action lawsuit being filed in the Law School as the Law School did not release their students this semester (http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/27/tulane). How idiotic is it to piss off the law students who will soon have their JDs and BAR under their belt? Tulane is just out to make enemies and that why it is vital that both sides (Students/Faculty & Tulane's Administration/Board of Directors) sit down for open negotiations with full transparency on what needs to be done.

I propose the following: since the administration is needing to settle several class action lawsuits and since the administration needs to ensure that they are not removed from their positions of power I recommend that we enter a collective bargaining process with the University and build a safe environment for all sides to enter discourse without the fear of retaliation. I feel as though we should not have to resort to suing the University for its actions nor do I feel that Tulane should hire an "independent" auditing firm to watch over the proceedings. I feel that even though Cowen may have an independent agenda that may involve removing the school of engineering since he may or may not harbor bias against engineers that a collective bargaining process will allow all potential biases to be dismissed and put the power back into the hands of the people who were cut out of the decisions made by the board thus far.

I suggest we allow the student body to represent themselves and allow each department chair to represent their department as a unit in a consensus building meeting and at the end allow the body to take votes on the issues that will be placed on a docket to be voted on. I suggest that a three day session (Friday-Sunday) be devoted to this process: one day to discuss issues that have caused concern(end of day, docket is built), one day for open floor debate (docket is discussed, this should be the longest day and discourse should be open to everyone - including the voting members of this consensus building body), and one day to vote on the issues (could take as long as two hours). In order for the entire process to work effectively, the votes can not be stacked in favor of any representative party (students (grad+undergrad), faculty/staff, and board) and full transparency should be observed. If a voting member of the faculty/staff (department chair who represents both the professors and the staff in his/her department) or student body (student government) requests information, the board of directors should release the appropriate paperwork in order to verify the integrity of the information we have been receiving from the board. If a fact is stated, it MUST be backed by evidence from an external verification agency(ie, questions pertaining to damage sustained to the University, current credit rating) or paperwork already in the possession of the university. On the basis of fact we should be able to continue debate and allow all sides to debate to their hearts content and then be able to vote on the docket on the third day.

This by no means should be a firm outline but is merely a suggestion that could be used to rectify severe oversights made by a small board of directors who made decisions that affect students, faculty, and entire families of employees of the university without consulting with the students who give them 33% of their revenue or the faculty and staff who bring in another 33% of the revenue with grants, or consult with alumni who provide the rest in donations).

FYI, I won a "Google Summer of Code" award (http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/massspecint). I am sure that Google, the strongest technical entity in existence perhaps behind Microsoft, would be interested in knowing why a Tier 1 research school thinks that some of the most vital and strong areas of the American economy are not important to the institution’s educational curriculum.

WWDFD? (What would David Filo do?)
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perturbed1



Joined: 12 Jan 2006
Posts: 87

PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 10:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't want to burst your bubble but Cowen made every decision so far fully aware that there might be lawsuits and fully prepared to defend his dictats in court so what possible incentive could he have?

Of all possible lawsuits the school could face the engineering students are in the weakest legal position. It would be hard to construe an implied contract between students and school requiring the school to not close the engineering departments.

On the other hand various alumni donors to the Engineering School and newcomb donors probably have a very strong case if they wished to make trouble. The law school students have a pretty good legal case too since the shortened semsters are certainly not what they contracted for.

For the engineers the best bet is the court of public opinion and pressure from the alumni directly on the board. If that were combined with legal pressure from law students and possibly faculty I think you would see Cowen's house of cards crumble pretty fast.
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dhendric



Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 12
Location: Berkeley, CA

PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 11:42 pm    Post subject: Lawsuit Reply with quote

If one were to enter into a lawsuit over charging Tulane tuition for a state school education for the fall semester, I think one would also attempt to stress what a "damaged product" Tulane has become and how full price should not be paid for an unrendered product let alone a product that does not live up to its advertised and expected potential.
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wwalkeri



Joined: 12 Dec 2005
Posts: 136

PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cowen has been careless, and although we probably do not have a case for Tulane breaking a contract, we do have a case for the fact that the way Tulane has been talking about the departments is SLANDER. They are destroying reputations as well as the intangible value and strengths of our degree. I have talked to several faculty who did not rule out the possibility that this fact could be challenged in court. Engineering was and is world class. We have enough facts to prove that world class is not defined only by numbers.
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