Scott Coewn to appear in Baton Rouge soon.

[Bigschtick]

Its all about Cowen! Its not about Tulane or New Orleans. Its all about him and his perception of saving Tulane and the city. He has not saved anything. Our athletics are a national joke, some of our facilities look highschoolist and clearly, the academic side has not gone anywhere. Anyone who thinks this guy deserves accolades got their heads were the sun don't shine!

[JDTulane]

I lived in Baton Rouge for 4 years, I liked it more than Houston or Oxford. Service is great and all but even recently we've had articles talking about how New Orleans is becoming a young and old city with fewer and fewer mid career people/families living here because we don't have jobs that pay mid career salaries. They go on to speak about how many young graduates are coming here, teaching in schools and then moving on when they begin to realize there is nothing in this city for them above that. Maybe I'm not doing my homework here, but it sounds alot like what Tulane is bringing to the table these days. What I'm saying is that as crazy as it might be to say this we need less people doing "service" and more people here creating a business environment. By the way 7000 hours of service required by a university is fuc*in insane. This city needs real tangible talent, not people coming down for a few years to give back to the community of less fortunate and moving on when it becomes time to make money. I might be totally wrong but it sounds like Cowen is billing us as a 3rd world community that needs help. We need to be less a charity case and more a city trying to "re-envision" itself as a real 21st century American city that works and doesnt depend on bars and restaurants to survive. I reiterate, 7000+ hours of community service required by a University is insane.

The ACTUAL requirement is 20 hours for the first two semesters and 40 for the second. Some like me did more but usually people just follow this. 7000 is a student number not the number Tulane requires of individuals. So total number of hours estimate is more: 60 * 7000= a minimum of 420,000 hours of community service done every 4 years. Or 110k a year by students. Likely more than that, especially when graduate students come into play.


I would definitely agree with the statement New Orleans is a young n old city. That is definitely the uptown vibe. I think it gets more middle class with the Marigny and also Midcity but uptown you're either pushin' 50 or just graduated.

[RWR]

Anyone who thinks Tulane hasn't impacted New Orleans in incredible ways post storm IS a fool. And that is what Cowen's speech is about is it not? ...



Edit:

And as for what I've done being a 'drop in the bucket' and 'not worth my time', that is your opinion. And considering you know nothing of the works I've done, how I've impacted the city, how it's impacted my studies... etc... well I'll call it a pretty ignorant thing to say.

Thanks for proving my point.

[jonathanjoseph]

LOL at Cowen's vision of "Rebuilding New Orleans".

You know what you need to rebuild something? Engineers.

You know what caused the levee walls to break? An engineering problem. Gulf oil spill? An engineering problem. The single most important college course ANY and EVERY student in america should take? Computer science. What are our national education leaders suggesting that we need to invest in? Engineering.

With all due respect to your fine service, a thousand volunteers are not as valuable as one rock star engineer. So if we are still talking about Tulane's impact, then Tulane's impact would have been exponentially bigger had Cowen made engineering a priority.

And yes, Katrina was just a convenient excuse for Cowen to remake Tulane in his image. Just as we know for a fact that he's using Katrina as an excuse for the state of athletics (when the Scelfo/RR decision and The Review were both made to kill athletics before Katrina), Cowen wanted to get rid of engineering.

The most important aspects of higher education today IMO are athletics (growing rapidly in $$ and visibility) and engineering (for various, obvious reasons) and Cowen has bet against both. We don't need to look any farther into the future to know that Cowen lost those bets and Tulane and the city of New Orleans are badly damaged for it.

There IS an education bubble. A $50K/year education that doesn't rank in the top 50 and features community service is a complete joke. Tulane will never recover and the city of New Orleans will suffer badly no longer having a prominent university in the city.

And everyone who refuses to speak out against Cowen and his agenda are complicit.

[JDTulane]

Anyone who thinks Tulane hasn't impacted New Orleans in incredible ways post storm IS a fool. And that is what Cowen's speech is about is it not? ...



Edit:

And as for what I've done being a 'drop in the bucket' and 'not worth my time', that is your opinion. And considering you know nothing of the works I've done, how I've impacted the city, how it's impacted my studies... etc... well I'll call it a pretty ignorant thing to say.

Thanks for proving my point.

[HoustonWave]

I agree with the statements on the University making less impact in engineering, infrastructure, and politics. I was more referencing social policies and service. I completed the 4 years of service requirement. Multiply me thats 7,000 and that is a lot of student work!


And fewer research, professors, $, is a result of Katrina. It would've happened to ANY president save a few gems. Should we be better off than now despite that? Maybe.

/shrug



You can have a huge dispute with Cowen, that's fine. I have my own issues where I wish I could kick him between the legs. My point is him giving a speech on Tulane's impact is hardly worth an uproar. This topic would work if his speech was "How Tulane is rebuilding New Orleans" or "How Tulane is out pacing rival schools".

I guess it's the parents, forking over around $40,000+ per year, that really deserve any credit for helping the city, state or universe. It's their money that is providing those 7,000 students. Personally, I would rather my education dollars go toward educating my son or daughter as opposed to a social agenda driven by Cowen's off-the-chart ego.

[JDTulane]

Very true on parents' $ fueling this! But the service work I've done has given me a lot of 'real world' knowledge. Just a different form of educating.

[Fred Dowler]

I lived in Baton Rouge for 4 years, I liked it more than Houston or Oxford. Service is great and all but even recently we've had articles talking about how New Orleans is becoming a young and old city with fewer and fewer mid career people/families living here because we don't have jobs that pay mid career salaries. They go on to speak about how many young graduates are coming here, teaching in schools and then moving on when they begin to realize there is nothing in this city for them above that. Maybe I'm not doing my homework here, but it sounds alot like what Tulane is bringing to the table these days. What I'm saying is that as crazy as it might be to say this we need less people doing "service" and more people here creating a business environment. By the way 7000 hours of service required by a university is fuc*in insane. This city needs real tangible talent, not people coming down for a few years to give back to the community of less fortunate and moving on when it becomes time to make money. I might be totally wrong but it sounds like Cowen is billing us as a 3rd world community that needs help. We need to be less a charity case and more a city trying to "re-envision" itself as a real 21st century American city that works and doesnt depend on bars and restaurants to survive. I reiterate, 7000+ hours of community service required by a University is insane.

Right.

The best thing that Tulane can do to have a positive impact on the city and state would be to do things to engender an improved business environment.

If Tulane loses prominence as a research institution and gets rid of the type of faculty and programs as were in the engineering division that's going in exactly the opposite direction.

[timlan2057]

As a Tulane parent, as far as this "Tulane Empowers," I say: Meh.

My daughter did her required community service ... what an oxymoron.

Now yes, I'm glad she did, and only positive things can come out of the experience for her personally.

But is this some life-changing, mega-event for Tulane or just a good diversion for Cowen?

Bottom line: universities are judged by their academics and athletics.

Under Scott Cowen's watch, Tulane is declining and outright failing in these areas.

This "community service" business is just Scott Cowen trying to change the rules as to how to judge a university president, since he's failing at the REAL criteria. And just like that emperor with no clothes on ... everybody sees right through him.

Real Tulane alumni and supporters blush.

Everyone else laughs.

[IM42lane]

YES -- EXACTLY ! ! ! It is long past time for NEW leadership at Tulane, and hopefully the Tulane Board will change course and choose a STRONG candidate who has at least one Tulane University degree.

*********************************************************************************

As a Tulane parent, as far as this "Tulane Empowers," I say: Meh.
My daughter did her required community service ... what an oxymoron.
Now yes, I'm glad she did, and only positive things can come out of the experience for her personally.

But is this some life-changing, mega-event for Tulane or just a good diversion for Cowen?

Bottom line: universities are judged by their academics and athletics.

Under Scott Cowen's watch, Tulane is declining and outright failing in these areas.

This "community service" business is just Scott Cowen trying to change the rules as to how to judge a university president, since he's failing at the REAL criteria. And just like that emperor with no clothes on ... everybody sees right through him.

Real Tulane alumni and supporters blush.
Everyone else laughs.

[HoustonWave]

As a Tulane parent, as far as this "Tulane Empowers," I say: Meh.

My daughter did her required community service ... what an oxymoron.

Now yes, I'm glad she did, and only positive things can come out of the experience for her personally.

But is this some life-changing, mega-event for Tulane or just a good diversion for Cowen?

Bottom line: universities are judged by their academics and athletics.

Under Scott Cowen's watch, Tulane is declining and outright failing in these areas.

This "community service" business is just Scott Cowen trying to change the rules as to how to judge a university president, since he's failing at the REAL criteria. And just like that emperor with no clothes on ... everybody sees right through him.

Real Tulane alumni and supporters blush.

Everyone else laughs.

Well stated, timlan. You hit the nail on the head with that post.