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I smell an agenda

 
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doreilly



Joined: 30 Dec 2005
Posts: 27

PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:04 pm    Post subject: I smell an agenda Reply with quote

Here are some articles I have found. In september Cowen said his main concerns were opening for the spring and getting students back. Today, in City Business, he brags that they are open for the spring and students are coming back. So my question is Why the massive cuts? Also, notice the beginning of the article, the school has INSURANCE, an endowment they can tap into, and they kept most of the fall semester tuition. Tulane also has an insurance for universities similar to interruption of business insurance. Not to mention, unlike other private universities in New Orleans, Tulane DOESN'T pay property tax. The hurricane is being used as an excuse, and I for one thought the looting was over. Apparently not. Read the following:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12603658.htm

http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/viewStory.cfm?recID=14385
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James A. Lancaster



Joined: 14 Dec 2005
Posts: 17
Location: Uptown (NOLA)

PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:10 pm    Post subject: Cowen's Quote Reply with quote

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

"[City Business Q:]
The elimination of the engineering program stirred a lot of controversy. Looking back on the decision, do you still feel it was necessary to do that?

[Cowen A:]
What people lost sight of is we wouldn’t have done anything if were not for Katrina. The hurricane forced us to make some very tough decisions and we decided to do that as strategically as possible for academic and financial reasons. I understand where people would be disappointed and angry but nobody should question our motives. We had no other choice if we were going to survive as an institution."

MOVE ALONG! NOTHING TO SEE HERE!! MOVE ALONG PEOPLE!

Emphasis [mine] added
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Amelia



Joined: 14 Dec 2005
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I received this today from a Chemistry faculty member at Tulane (name deleted...)

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Hey Tulane Folks,

We met with the new dean of the new division of "Sciences and Engineering" earlier in the week. I thought you might want to know a bit of the info that came out of that.

The gist is that the Tulane administration decided to take a conservative estimate of immediate loses--approx $300 million, of which only half would be covered by insurance. Plus an expected $60 million per annum loss due to reduced enrollment/fees/services. The adminstrators (probably accurately) decided that it was time for drastic immediate decisions so they drafted a plan without informing or asking the faculty for there input/concensus. With these losses they had to choose between 1-closing the school, 2-cutting everyones salary by ~30% (likely driving away the most competitive faculty), 3-cutting each department by ~30%, or 4-doing the "intelligent strategy" that was announced. In order to build a competitive program, faculties that could were melded to give a faculty size of about 40-their estimate of the required size to be a nationally competitive PhD program. This is what happened to Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Those that were stand alones were cut, unless they were of exceptional quality. (They even cut the French PhD which boggles me, as it was one of the best in the country!)

The good news is with the announcement of additional staff layoffs yesterday (we lost an old, dear secretary) we have been assured by a number of qualified sources that barring another massive disaster, this is the last of the cuts.

These decisions were based upon the assumption that Tulane would only retain 70% of its undergrads, and that the incoming freshman class would be about the same size. (The med school is a whole 'nother messy can of worms.) In the (hopeful) event that enrollment is significantly higher, there is a chance that some of these drastic cuts may be reversed/minimized, but it will be hard to say until the class of 2010 arrives in August.
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