Tulane Talk August 28, 2008
TULANE TALK
August 28, 2008
Good Morning:
As we all keep an eye on the track of Gustav, I want to assure you that Tulane University is prepared. We have been closely monitoring the storm and stand ready to activate our well-tested emergency plan for the
safety of our students, faculty and staff should Gustav pose a serious threat to the New Orleans area as some forecasters are predicting, as of today. This plan served us well during Katrina when all of our campuses were safely evacuated. It has been further refined since then to ensure even greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Now is the time for each of us (students, faculty and staff) to make or finalize our personal evacuation plan so we know how we are leaving the city should the need arise. We also want everyone to continue to monitor our emergency web site http://emergency.tulane.edu/ and our Alert Line (504-862-8080 or toll-free 1-877-862-8080) for updated information on evacuation orders, closings, re-openings and other emergency
information.
Those of us who went through Hurricane Katrina will once again summon the determination, will and experience that brought us through that storm to assure those who are new to this experience that now is the time to prepare and to remain calm and focused. By remembering this, we will be fine, no matter which path Gustav takes.
Tulane Talk August 27, 2008
TULANE TALK
August 27, 2008
Good Morning:
As he begins his eighth year at the helm of Tulane University’s School of Law, our colleague and friend, Larry Ponoroff, has informed me that he will be stepping down as dean. Larry has agreed to stay on as dean while we embark on a national search for his replacement. Once a new dean is in place, Larry will return to the faculty where he will continue to teach and publish in the area of commercial and business law. Provost Michael Bernstein will work with the faculty of the law school to lead the search for a new dean.
Larry arrived at Tulane in 1994 as a professor of commercial and business law. In 2001 he was named dean of the law school. Under Larry’s leadership student quality at the law school increased and annual fund contributions to the school doubled. He was also instrumental in creating two endowed chairs at the law school and establishing an Advisory Board to help guide the school in these changing and challenging times.
One of the most challenging of these times was, of course, Hurricane Katrina. Larry’s steady leadership during this difficult period was something for which I, and the entire university, will always be grateful. In the aftermath of Katrina, and at my request, Larry assumed university-wide responsibilities in addition to his dean duties and did A marvelous job during our survival and recovery process.
During Larry’s tenure as dean, the law school also started a Domestic Violence Clinic to provide legal services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and dating violence in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.
Larry also oversaw the law school’s involvement with Tulane’s Payson Center for International Development, an interdisciplinary center that provides Tulane graduates the knowledge and expertise to assist countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America achieve environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially just development.
We are grateful for Larry’s leadership and for all the contributions he has made to the university, including advancing legal education at Tulane. We look forward to his continued success at Tulane.
Tulane Talk July 14, 2008
TULANE TALK
July 14 , 2008
Over the weekend we lost one of the most distinguished alumni in the history of Tulane University. Dr. Michael DeBakey, who would have been 100 years old in September, passed away Friday night at Methodist Hospital in Houston.
Shock seems an odd word to use when you receive such news concerning someone so advanced in years. But for such an extraordinary man, who was responsible for so many advances, who counted among his patients Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Jordan’s King Hussein, who was performing heart surgery into his 90s and who, just a few months ago, received the Congressional Gold Medal, shock is, for me, an appropriate emotion. Gratitude for a life well-lived and the honor of having known Dr. DeBakey is another.
I had the great pleasure of first meeting Dr. DeBakey about 10 years ago. I remember that initial meeting like it was yesterday. We met in his Houston office and I was immediately impressed by his personal warmth, genius and physical presence (at 90 no less). He regaled me with life stories that were inspirational, humorous and heart warming. We became immediate friends and saw each other about once a year for each of the last 10 years. I will forever remember him as a giant among men and a person who made a profound difference in the lives of so many.
Dr. DeBakey’s was a life filled with “firsts.” A native of Lake Charles, La., Dr. DeBakey earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Tulane University and, from 1937 to 1948, was a faculty member of our School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. While still a 23 year-old medical student at Tulane, Dr. DeBakey invented a pump for blood transfusions that was used in the first successful open-heart operation.
By World War II, Dr. DeBakey had achieved a national reputation as an authority on vascular disease and had a promising career as a surgeon and teacher. However, he put this career on hold and volunteered for military service, joining the Surgeon General’s staff and rising to the rank of colonel and chief of the Surgical Consultants Division. It was here that Dr. DeBakey’s recommendations led to the development of MASH units responsible for saving the lives of so many of our military.
After the war, Dr. DeBakey’s proposal to create specialized medical centers to treat wounded veterans evolved into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center System. In 1948, Dr. DeBakey joined the Baylor University College of Medicine, where he developed the first surgical residency program in the city of Houston. In 1953, DeBakey performed the first successful procedures to treat patients who suffered stroke-causing aneurysms and later developed a series of innovative surgical techniques for the treatment of aneurysms.
In 1964, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful coronary bypass operation and was named chairman of the President’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke by President Lyndon Johnson. Two years later, Dr. DeBakey was the first to successfully use a partial artificial heart for a patient who could not be weaned from a heart-lung machine following open-heart surgery.
In 1968, Dr. DeBakey supervised the first successful multi-organ transplant, in which a heart, both kidneys and lung were transplanted from a single donor into four separate recipients. Dr. DeBakey also pioneered the field of telemedicine with the first demonstration of open-heart surgery transmitted overseas by satellite.
In 1969, President Johnson honored Dr. DeBakey with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction and in 1985 President Ronald Reagan conferred on him the National Medal of Science. Dr. DeBakey also worked with NASA engineers, refining existing technology to create the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, which may eliminate the need for heart transplantation in some patients.
Believe it or not, this is just a partial list of Dr. DeBakey’s achievements and accomplishments. The countless lives he touched and saved during both his time on earth and for generations to come, offer the most eloquent testimony to his greatness. These lives include the hundreds of Tulane medical students and residents Dr. DeBakey welcomed to Baylor College of Medicine, which gave our medical students a place to continue their education as Tulane recovered from Katrina.
I was honored to know Dr. DeBakey personally and to count him as one of Tulane’s most distinguished alumni. We were fortunate to have him as part of our community and our memories of his greatness and humanity will always serve as an inspiration for a life worth living.
Tulane Talk May 23, 2008
TULANE TALK
May 23, 2008
Good Morning:
Festive and historic Commencement 2008 is over and we have now come to the end of another academic year. With applications and student quality at an all-time high, with research awards and fundraising dollars on par with pre-Katrina levels and with students engaged in New Orleans like never before, this is a wonderful time to be part of the Tulane story.
I want to thank all of you, our wonderful faculty and staff, who continually work so hard to help us achieve all of our goals. I hope you know how much you are appreciated.
This will be my last regular Tulane Talk until the fall semester when we begin what I hope is another promising year. But I do plan to write to you occasionally over the summer as events warrant. I hope you get some time to relax a bit this summer and that you have a wonderful Memorial Day break.
Have a great summer,
Tulane Talk May 16, 2008
TULANE TALK
May 16, 2008
Good Morning:
What do an 81-year-old earning his MBA after a 53-year interruption, two undergraduates being honored for public service and a group of nine receiving their Master’s of Fine Arts degree after a Katrina-imposed delay have in common?
They are all members of Tulane’s class of 2008 and are among the more than 2,100 graduates who will be honored as Tulane hosts the 10th anniversary of its Unified Commencement May 17 at 9 a.m. in the Superdome. This year’s commencement, the first Tulane commencement held in the Superdome since Katrina, is expected to draw more than 12,000 families, friends and members of the university community.
America’s political odd couple James Carville and Mary Matalin will deliver the keynote address. The ceremony will include all the pomp and circumstance of a traditional commencement along with bagpipes, herald trumpets, confetti cannons, balloon drops and “only in New Orleans” moments such as performances by jazz greats Dr. Michael White and Wanda Rouzan and a rollicking second-line jazz procession.
The day will also feature a new tradition, the first Undergraduate Diploma Ceremony in which all undergraduates enrolled in Newcomb-Tulane College and the School of Continuing Studies will come together in a single ceremony to receive their degrees. Several media outlets, including CBS and the Associated Press, plan to cover this year’s event.
Commencement, the ultimate celebration of academic achievement, is always the highlight of my year. I hope to see as many of you there as possible.
Have a great weekend,
Tulane Talk May 12, 2008
TULANE TALK
May 12, 2008
Dear Colleagues:
Our national search for a new School of Architecture dean has ended in resounding success. Kenneth Schwartz, a professor of architecture at the University of Virginia (UVA), will become the new dean of Tulane’s School of Architecture effective July 1.
A graduate of Cornell University, Ken’s academic focus is architectural design, urbanism and professional ethics. He began his academic career at Cornell in 1974. He arrived at UVA in 1984 after teaching for several years at Cornell and Syracuse University, including a year with the latter’s architecture program in Florence, Italy. He also served as a visiting professor at Princeton University from 1986 to 1987.
At the University of Virginia, Ken held several administrative positions including graduate program director, department chair and associate dean. From 2005-2008, he served as a leader of the university’s Faculty Senate, including a year as chair and committee member on the Board of Visitors, the university’s governing body. In 2003, Ken was awarded UVA’s Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award, the school’s highest university-wide teaching honor. He was elected to the fellowship of the American Institute of Architects in 2001.
Ken has also gained renown as an architect and urban designer. His work with Schwartz-Kinnard, Architects, a company he formed with his wife Judith Kinnard, who will also join Tulane’s faculty, won four national design competitions focusing on the constructive contribution of strategic urbanism and contextual innovation in rebuilding cities. In 2005, Ken and Judith opened Community Planning and Design (CP+D), and they subsequently included UVA colleague Maurice Cox as a partner with the firm.
Ken also founded the Design Resources Center, a not-for-profit organization serving lower income neighborhoods in Charlottesville, Va. Ken has completed numerous planning and design projects for communities throughout the Eastern seaboard including his collaboration on the master plan for Crozet, Va., which won a Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism.
Ken was president of the National Architectural Accrediting Board from 2001 to 2002. He is currently chair of the National Intern Development Program Committee of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and chair of the state licensing board for architecture in Virginia. He recently served as the southeast regional director on the Board of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
Please join me in welcoming Ken and Judith to Tulane and in thanking our friend and colleague Scott Bernhard, a faculty member of Tulane’s School of Architecture for more than 15 years, for serving as interim dean of the school since May 2007. I also would like to thank Provost Michael Bernstein and the School of Architecture Search Committee, led by professor John Klingman, for the excellent job of recruiting Ken and Judith to Tulane.
Tulane Talk May 08, 2008
Tulane Talk
May 8, 2008
By now I am sure most of you have read or heard about the hazing incident involving members of the Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) fraternity.
I want you to know that I deeply regret this incident and its impact on the victims, their families, friends and the entire Tulane community. The well-being and personal safety of our students are our top priorities. This incident is counter to everything we stand for as a university. We will do everything in our power to prevent, detect, deter and respond to future incidents so that nothing like this occurs again.
Both the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and the university are investigating the formal complaints made by two students injured in this incident. In the last two days, the NOPD, with the cooperation of the university, has charged and arrested ten PIKE fraternity members in connection with the hazing incident. Likewise, the university is undertaking its own review of the students’ complaints in accordance with its Code of Student Conduct.
The incident was reported to us on the evening of Sunday, April 27. Members of Tulane’s Office of Student Affairs met with the victims in their residence halls that evening to ensure that they received proper medical care, counseling and assistance in re-arranging their academic schedule as they recover. We will continue to assist these victims.
On April 28, we suspended PIKE as a recognized fraternity. This fraternity has a history of incidents and university sanctions, and this type of behavior cannot be tolerated. The PIKE national organization has also revoked the charter of the local PIKE chapter.
The university will immediately undertake a thorough review of its student conduct procedures, including its handling of student complaints and related student issues to ensure the efficacy of its policies, procedures and processes for the safety and well-being of Tulane students. This review will be conducted by a panel of experts from around the country. I will share the results of the review with the Tulane community when it is completed.
The Tulane experience outside the classroom is an important part of campus life. But this incident underscores the need to examine certain behaviors in light of our responsibility to ensure the personal safety and well-being of our students. This is what the thousands of wonderful and dedicated members of the Tulane community expect and deserve.
As an institution, we pledge to be more vigilant and to investigate thoroughly incidents and accusations of misconduct. We will work with all segments of our student population to ensure that we have a shared vision of expected behavior.
Scott Cowen
President
Tulane Talk May 02, 2008
TULANE TALK
May 2, 2008
Dear Colleagues:
Last week I wrote to you about the importance of believing in ourselves and all that we can achieve. The article below, from yesterday’s Boston Globe, is proof that others are starting to believe in us, too. Please read this article, which I know will have you (as it did me) bursting with pride. Also, stay tuned for next week’s announcement regarding the size and quality of the Fall 2008 first-year class.
Have a great weekend,
Tulane Talk April 25, 2008
TULANE TALK
April 25, 2008
Dear Colleagues:
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” I chose this quote from E.E. Cummings as a way to introduce the annual President’s Report, a brief video version of which you can view http.
I am sure you will enjoy this vivid and joyous presentation of all we have accomplished in the past year. Eboni, Vincent, Lisa, Lance, Rick, Katie, Dave, Josh, Candice, Rich, Kate, Tae, Lydia and many others will see themselves in this video. But actually all of you should see yourselves, knowing the vital role you had in achieving the success this report chronicles.
I hope you enjoy the video.
Have a great weekend,
Tulane Talk April 18, 2008
TULANE TALK
April 18, 2008
Dear Colleagues:
This has been a week of reflection, sadness and hope for me that started in Washington, D.C. at the biannual meeting of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of the 60 largest and most respected research universities in the United States and Canada. This meetingís focus on college affordability, accessibility and accountability caused me to reflect on the future of higher education. I plan to write and speak about each of these critical issues in the weeks and months ahead, starting with next month’s Board of Tulane meeting.
I returned to campus Tuesday evening in time to attend and speak at a student-organized candlelight vigil in remembrance of the 42 students and faculty killed at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University and Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. Our students spoke with eloquence and maturity beyond their years. Their remembrances were a source of sadness, recalling the tragic and violent deaths of so many young people with so much promise. As a father, grandfather and someone who has spent his entire adult life among young people, I grieved for our students, the victims and their families and for a world where there is so much violence, intolerance and hatred.
The week ended with the publication of the second annual State of Public Education Report by Tulane’s Cowen Institute for Public Education in partnership with the New Orleans City Council and the Greater New Orleans Education Foundation. This report, which can be found at http://education.tulane.edu, fills me with hope. While many challenges still remain, its survey of students, teachers, principals, parents, community leaders, public officials and education experts revealed significant progress in improving public education in our city. This progress is the basis for the hope I have for our city and the next generation of New Orleanians. We cannot yet declare victory but we are certainly on the right path.
As I reread this Tulane Talk I now realize that my feelings of reflection, sadness and hope this week cannot be divided and assigned individually to three separate events but are intertwined with all three experiences. Each of these experiences include elements of reflection and sadness but end, ultimately, with hope.
Have a great weekend,