TULANE TALK

February 15, 2008

Good Morning:

I had the pleasure this week of sharing a conference call with former President Bill Clinton and nearly 100 college newspaper editors from across the country. President Clinton arranged the call to discuss the upcoming Clinton Global Initiative U (CGI U) that will make its debut March 14-16 at Tulane University.

Nearly 700 students from around the country have registered for this conference which seeks to harness the energy, ideas and power of the nation’s young people to help solve some of the world’s most pressing issues in the areas of energy and climate change, global health, poverty alleviation and peace and human rights.

Participants in the non-partisan CGI U will include Lauren Bush, niece of President George W. Bush; James Carville, political consultant; Dave Eggers, novelist and social activist; Laurie David, global warming activist, and many others. Students still have the chance to sign up at http://www.cgiu.org/ The closing session of CGI U, in which President Clinton will summarize the meeting and outline priorities for further action, will be open to the whole Tulane community. I will send you details on this as we get closer to the date.

While addressing world problems, CGI U will be a great opportunity for New Orleans to again gain the national spotlight. Another opportunity will take place this weekend as New Orleans hosts the NBA All-Star game. With so many sports celebrities in town, some of the excitement and glitter of the All-Star weekend is spilling over to campus. Nike is taping two commercials on campus that will feature Colorado Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday.

But the real campus baseball star is the dazzling, sparkling new Greer Field at Turchin Stadium, home to the mighty Green Wave baseball team. The stadium, field and our team will make their 2008 debut at a special
celebration next weekend. I will give you details about that in my next Tulane Talk.

Have a great weekend,