Posted on 12/08/2005 11:41:38 AM PST by BurbankKarl
NEW ORLEANS -- Battered by Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University announced a major downsizing that will eliminate the jobs of a third of its medical-school faculty, do away with 22 programs of study and suspend eight sports.
"We are determined to find opportunity in the face of adversity," said Tulane President Scott S. Cowen, who in recent weeks has been visiting displaced Tulane students around the country to encourage them to return to the school next year.
Tulane officials said the restructuring is necessary because of $200 million in storm recovery costs this year and a "significant" budget shortfall projected for 2006, when the school's incoming freshman class is expected to be smaller. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Tulane had about 6,400 undergraduates and about 5,000 graduate and professional students.
Hardest hit in the restructuring will be the Tulane School of Medicine, where the jobs of 180 of its 545 faculty members will be eliminated. Because of changing health-care needs and the reduced population of New Orleans, university officials said they plan to downsize the medical school's clinical operations and put added emphasis on research and educational programs.
Tulane also said it plans to eliminate the positions of 53 of its 550 nonmedical faculty members, including those of 26 tenured professors.
"I deeply regret that employee reductions were necessary to secure the university's future," Mr. Cowen said. "We have tried to make the reductions as strategically and humanely as possible, recognizing the hardship it places on those whose positions have been terminated."
University officials said they will also eliminate six undergraduate majors -- primarily in engineering -- affecting 228 students. It also plans to halt admissions to 16 graduate and professional programs impacting about 112 students.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
More likely, they are doing away with everything EXCEPT the "-studies" majors.
High above the Mississippi,
Standing in plain view.
There is an old, abandoned outhouse,
Known as Tulane U.
Oh the odor, oh the odor!
What an awful smell!
Before I'd go to Tulane U,
I would go to Hell!
They may cut more if students don't return.
There is also a school called New Orleans University. Wondering how they are doing.
Did the Tulane campus flood? Are they spending a lot on rebuilding/clean up?
Sounds like it. Targeting Medicine and Engineering.
I don't know. I was talking to a Methodist pastor here in Jacksonville, and his seminary was in NO. He said it may not be rebuilt in the city but outside of any flood areas.
Don't even know the name of it tho.
We're going to be discovering the ramifications of Katrina for years to come.
Yes, this area got hit hard.
Pre-Katrina I was definately applying to Tulane Law school for next fall. Now I am definately not, and from reading various lawschool discussion groups, I am far from alone.
May I ask why you considered New Orleans in the first place?
UNO is a Sun Belt Conference brethern. I'm concerned they may not be back. I know Western Kentucky is letting them use their arena to play some of their "home" basketball games. So are other SBC programs as well.
Looking back, I probably never would have gone there. However, Tulane has a very solid law school and my scores were a good match for the school. I lived in a small town my whole life growing up, and attended undergrad at a relatively small city (Starkville, MS) and was considering a change of pace by going to law school in a large city.
Now I have come to the conclusion that small town life isn't so bad after all, although I still might end up in either St. Louis or Nashville, depending on what letters I recieve in the mail this spring :P
The LSU School of Dentistry in NOLA is closed for indefinite future. Some classes are being held in Baton Rouge but the Dental School is in really bad shape. I hear the same is true for LSU medical school and all allied health areas. The Baton Rouge paper had an article not long ago projecting decreased numbers of health providers for LA in the future. The final toll of this storm is yet to be known.
Be sure to get information about the area surround your new choice of St. Louis or Nashville so you can freely experience the atmosphere of a larger city.
Well nobodies mentioned it, but as soon as they start rebuilding or anything. Mold spores will go airborne and I am sure that will not be good.
And, if you tell a college kid to NOT open his fridge. What is the first thing he's going to do?LOL!
I never thought about the effect on colleges in the area. This is sad.
Isn't UNO (the University comes at the front, not the back) taxpayer supported? They should do OK. They've been holding classes online and at off campus locations, and plan to be back on campus in the spring.
Don't forget Xavier and Loyola.
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