Save Tulane Engineering

wckirby · Joined: 10 Dec 2005 Posts: 355 Location: New Orleans

http://savetulaneengineering.org/files/aauptotulane.pdf

There's just one part of the last letter I'd like to point out for special attention. The very last sentance:

"We shall doubtless be writing again as additional developments unfold."

This isn't going away anytime soon.
_________________
Clay Kirby
11th generation New Orleanian
4th generation Tulanian
Mechanical Engineering Class of '06

perturbed1 · Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 87

And for anybody interested in the general topic of misspent endowment money and lawsuits:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06038/651628.stm

So far the two sides in this one, Princeton University and the Robertson family have collectively spent $22 million. The dispute is over $30+ million 1961 endowment for the Woodrow Wilson School of Government that has now grown to $650 million and which the heirs claim has both been misspent and looted. In the process they have hire forensic accountants to pour ove tens of thousands of Princeton documents. Interestingly one of the things they discovered was that the university charged the endowment twice for buildings and equipment. First they charged them for building the buildings and then they charged them for depreciation. If I were a lawyer for the Newcomb women I would be taking a close look at that one. I suspect given the size of the original Newcomb donation (it was bigger than Paul's btw) that the Newcomb endowment ought to be worth more than $40 million today unless some creative accounting has been practiced along the way.

Anyway the article makes for interesting reading. It also indicates what is potentially at stake and why universities and other non-profits are very concerned about the outcome of the Robertson case.

wwalkeri · Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 136

wwalkeri · Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 136

Perhaps this could be used to start lobbying faculty for a vote of no confidence.

perturbed1 · Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 87

paleoboy · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 21

I spoke with a tenured Tulane College professor tonight, and he was not aware of the AAUP letters. He is seriously considering an exit from Tulane. He also stated that the AAUP doesn't have much in the way of teeth.

wwalkeri · Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 136

No, but they could generate extremely bad publicity for Cowen and Tulane

Perhaps STE or one of us who has time could generate a faculty email list and send out the AAUP letters to all faculty. Once the faculty is aware we would be more likely to be heard.

perturbed1 · Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 87

Yeah the AAUP is fairly toothless except the university voluntarily adopted the AAUP standards and wrote them into the employee handbook. The employee handbook is tantamount to a contract and since they are the AAUP's standards the AAUP is in effect the expert on what they mean. That matters if a professors has to sue and of course there is the bad publicity.

Universities can get junior faculty no matter how badly they treat them but getting the big guns is a different kettle of fish. You don't lure guys like Doug Brinkley from UNO to Tulane if there is no job security and tenure means nothing.

Frankly I expect a lot of faculty to jump ship voer the next two years and likely the most productive faculty at that.

Dr. Ash · Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 45 Location: New F'n Orleans