TULANE TALK

June 9, 2006

Good Morning:

I want to begin by congratulating the members of our Green Wave baseball team for their very successful season. Despite having their home field destroyed by Katrina and being displaced to Lubbock, Texas, these young men came together as a family and a team, posting 43 wins and advancing to post-season play at the NCAA Regionals. It was a spectacular season for which they and all of us should be grateful. I cannot remember being more proud of a group of students.

Another team I am proud of is the Tulane Office of Communications which won a Silver Anvil Award for Crisis Communications from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) last night. The PRSA is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals and the Silver Anvils are its highest honor for public relations strategy.

In addition to this honor the Office of Communications won the 2006 Grand Gold Award in Crisis Communications from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and a Bronze Anvil, PRSAís highest honor for public relations tactics, for ìEvening of Distinction,î a televised variety-style show that helped launch ìPromise and Distinction: The Campaign for Tulane University.î Mary Mouton, president of the New Orleans public relations firm http Media (and a Newcomb and Tulane Law School graduate), is a co-recipient of all three awards with Tulane.

The Office of University Communications also won a gold medal in CASEís Fund-Raising Programs category for ìEvening of Distinction.î CASE also awarded the Tulanian, a bronze medal in the Periodical Special Issues category for ìRenewal,î its first post-Katrina issue.

I am extraordinarily proud of the entire staff of University Communications. Like so many of you they have shown unbelievable creativity, flexibility and a can-do attitude in meeting every challenge, especially since Katrina.

Have a great weekend,

P.S. Tulane board member Walter Isaacson wrote a wonderful op/ed piece about our beloved city in yesterday’s New York Times. I urge you to read it: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/opinion/08Isaacson.html