TULANE TALK

September 18, 2009

Good Morning:

One of our institutional goals has been to expand our graduate programs, especially at the doctoral level, as we continue to enhance our reputation as a major research university. In this context, I am pleased to announce that beginning in fall 2010 we will introduce three new PhD programs in aging studies, linguistics and French studies.

These new programs are the first fruits of a multi-year initiative launched in 2008 to increase our investment in doctoral education. This effort is designed to focus on programs that cross traditional boundaries of study and involve multiple academic disciplines. These new programs will involve the humanities, social sciences, science and engineering and health sciences.

This interdisciplinary approach prepares students to tackle the complex issues of society in a much more holistic way than traditional studies. These three programs were selected from 13 proposals submitted by faculty from throughout the university. The Graduate Council, which is made up of faculty and students from across Tulane and is chaired by provost Michael Bernstein, selected the winning proposals from this highly competitive field.

I thank all the faculty who submitted proposals as well as our provost and students who had the difficult task of choosing among so many worthy and intriguing programs. I look forward to embarking on these new fields of scholarly inquiry and anticipate further expansion in the upcoming years as we build a portfolio of programs that are truly distinctive and of the highest quality.

Have a great weekend,