TULANE TALK

February 21, 2003

Good Morning:

The highlight of the week for me was attending the annual meeting of the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C. and being snowed in for three days during the fifth worst winter storm in D.C.’s history. I won’t bore you with my tale of survival, except to say that it was interesting being locked up with approximately one thousand other academics and an equal number of fitness gurus who were having their annual meeting at the same time. Most of the fitness folks were in shorts and t-shirts throughout the storm!

The meeting, and the weather situation, did give me an opportunity to spend quality time with a number of my presidential colleagues and discuss the key topics we all have in common. These included political tensions around the world and on campus; homeland security as it relates to university life; the state of the economy; implementing Title IX in college athletics and the University of Michigan cases now before the Supreme Court. We spent hours discussing how to cope with and respond to these contentious issues while continuing to lead our institutions in their academic missions. Most of us were students of the 60s and we want to remember the lessons learned then as we approach the future.

The rest of the week was devoted to the Board of Tulane meetings. In one session we heard an excellent presentation from Carla Fishman, executive director of research administration and technology development, regarding how Tulane-created technology is improving lives and leading to business development in our community.

You can find Carla’s presentation at http://www.tmc.tulane.edu/techdev/pres/pres022003.htm. In addition, I gave the board a quarterly update, including an overview of the issues discussed at the American Council on Education meeting. All in all, it was a unique and interesting week.

Have a great weekend,