TULANE TALK

April 12, 2001

Good Morning:

Well the weather is perfect for the many prospective undergraduate students visiting us for this year’s “Tulane Days.” This program gives students who have been accepted to Tulane a real taste of university life through classroom visits, faculty meetings, overnight stays and other activities. By the way, applications are way up this year and our incoming class is shaping up to be the most academically qualified ever.

This week we hosted a meeting of the National Housing Conference, a federal agency that seeks solutions to the country’s housing crisis. The primary topic was affordability of housing in New Orleans. There was a good turnout from a cross section of community leaders at the meeting. We felt that hosting this meeting was an important extension of the university’s continued efforts in addressing the issue of housing.

Yesterday we convened the first meeting of the Louisiana Council, whose honorary chairs are former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Lindy Boggs and State Senate President John Hainkel. The Louisiana Council is a group of alumni from throughout the state who are interested in bringing Tulane’s message to their hometowns. We first conceived of this group during last fall’s “Hometown Tour” of the state.

Dr. Leena Ala-Kokko of the Tulane Center for Gene Therapy has been a real media star this week. As co-author of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association on lumbar disk disease, she has been interviewed by CBS News, ABC News, Reuters, the Associated Press, Agency France Press, CBS Radio and others.

Were you able to witness our baseball team’s thrilling come-from-behind victory over No. 2-ranked LSU last night? I thought you might enjoy http photo of Riptide with his new-found friend: a real Tiger slayer.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday break.