TULANE TALK

Good Morning:

For the past month I have been experimenting with a new method of communicating with senior members of the university’s administration through a weekly e-mail called “Tulane Talk.” I would now like to expand this to include all faculty and staff. Every Friday I will send you a few lines about the past week’s activities and give you a preview of the week to come.

I hope that you all had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday break. I spent mine in snowy Cleveland, visiting with our four children, reading interesting books (Rope Burns, Bowling Alone and Golden Retrievers for Dummies), getting caught up on correspondence and finally finding my way to some back issues of various journals and magazines. If you’re wondering about my sudden interest in Golden Retrievers, I guess I can let the cat, or in this case the dog, out of the bag. We’re thinking about adding a new resident to Number 2 Audubon. What do you think about the name “Gibson” for the new First Dog?

This week I traveled to Houston and San Antonio where I met with some alumni and shared our exciting vision for Tulane’s future. On Wednesday I visited the School of Architecture, beginning my annual practice of sitting down with the faculty of each college to assess the previous year and plan for the future. I also interviewed a candidate for director of the Primate Center and toured several HANO properties to assess our efforts in community outreach. Thursday I interviewed candidates for the newly created position of Executive Director of Alcohol Concerns. I’ll meet with the Administrative Council today, conduct additional interviews and also meet with the director of the National Science Foundation’s mathematics division. That’s all for now. See you next week.