<p>We have to be careful not to succumb to the 24-hour news syndrome of drawing all sorts of conclusions based on very little information or, worse, exposure to a sound bit here or there.</p>
<p>I say this as a Tulane parent who is absolutely reeling from today's announcement, as my S is an Engineering major in one of the very few fields that is actually being eliminated. (More on that in the Tulane forum if anyone is interested).</p>
<p>Much of what is being said on this thread is ill-informed. There is a logic to the medical school and hospital changes - the needs of the population and its size is changed drastically, at least for a while.</p>
<p>The use of cruise ships for housing is no surprise - it is an emergency plan to fill the needs of faculty and off-campus students whose housing was destroyed by Katrina and cannot be restored by January.</p>
<p>I recommend that anyone who wants to comment/conclude/speculate at least read the actual full announcement and accompanying documents.</p>
<p>Depending on where you sit, this is a drastic development or it is not. My current impression is that it will have little or no negative effect on the huge majority of undergraduates. And, it will have some positive effects, with all tenured faculty teaching undergrads (none teaching only grads). Whether my S will or will not continue to be one of those undergraduates is too soon to tell. I have championed Tulane on these pages many times. I will not diss them now. </p>
<p>The next few days will show those of us who are dramatically affected what kind of help and support we will receive from Tulane. I expect the best.</p>
<p>I was really hoping your son wasn't an engineering major. Your support of the school through a intensely difficult period has been really remarkable.</p>
<p>I think the Pres. of Tulane has done a terrific job and, frankly, I see today's announcements as generally positive for a school that will have to make a lot of hard decisions to survive. But, I was really hoping the announcements wouldn't impact your son. It probably comes down to the simple fact that engineering is not one of a university's most cost-effective programs. I'm not sure everyone really understands the financial pressure on Tulane for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>First, so sorry to hear about the impact this will potentially have on your son. </p>
<p>Thanks for the link. The full note is interesting. Tulane appears to be trying to support the elements of the U that it feels it can do best with. Can't argue with this. It is part of a city that will probably never be the same, and how to be a participating partner in that process, while focused on the primary mission of education, is a huge challenge.</p>
<p>Thank you, interesteddad and robyrm. I appreciate your thoughts very much. This is a sad day for me, but I do not think it is a sad day for Tulane.</p>
<p>I have read your Tulane-posts for months and have been deeply moved by your spirit throughout. I truly hope that the situation will be resolved in a way that will work for your son. You have my admiration and prayers.</p>
<p>Jmmom, I am also so saddened for your son. I did read the President's announcement after I posted, and I do think that Tulane is doing what is necessary to preserve the institution. But, it is so unfortunate that great kids like your son will get caught in the crunch. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you or him.
Carolyn</p>
<p>jmmom,
You humble me with your generous attitude and open-minded perspective. I truly hope your son will decide to stick with Tulane--if he's anything like you he'll be quite an asset. However, if my son wanted a full engineering program, I'd have to advise him to find a new school. </p>
<p>Re the "24 hour news syndrome" comments--I agree completely.
And frankly, the changes that will require freshmen AND sophomores to live on campus was good news to me. (I was worried about sophomores getting housing--traditionally I understood them to be low man on the totem pole to get on-campus housing. </p>
<p>The cruise ships are only a short term option and I'll presume that within the next 12-18 months, the bulk of the area housing will be repaired and available to cover the current shortage.</p>
<p>Besides Engineering programs being cut, I am also noticing several PhD programs are being eliminated too--ie English, French, Sociology, Political Science. I'm sure there are others.</p>
<p>I wonder if terminal degrees will be created for the two new programs:
Urban Studies and Public Service. I also wonder what all these program cuts will portend for Tulane's future rankings.</p>
<p>Ouch ouch ouch. And that's almost too trivial a response. My heartfelt sympathies to those affected. Some of you who have students already at Tulane are part of my extended "CC family" and the shock and disruption involved hits me almost physically. I know that nothing is forever and nothing is guaranteed, but still, one's college plans should be if you want them to be.</p>
<p>jmmom -- I admire your spirit and hope the best for your son.</p>
<p>Many of the institutions that accepted Tulane students (some for free) with an understanding they would return to Tulane will now be in a bind. My son's school took close to 200 of them.</p>
<p>Beyond Tulane, I have great fears that this is just a symbol of what is going on with New Orleans. We struck up a conversation in NYC a few weeks ago with a transplanted medical professor from LSU. Their hospital was a wreck, he said. He also said that state and county employees were not being paid and that virtually no federal money was yet making its way to New Orleans. He was planning to go back (his house was not destroyed, but he had given up on plans he'd had to build a new house). His son, a lawyer, had transplanted to Houston and could not yet get any sense of whether the firm would be up and running in New Orleans again, since their business clients also were not rebuilding yet. It was almost a sense of suspended animation -- no one could make any plans.</p>
<p>I feel worst for the people who have nothing. But, the truth is, that if businesses do not return, and an institution like Tulane cannot recoup, New Orleans is not likely to recover.</p>
<p>Soon after the hurricane, I read a column that suggested a TVA type authority be assigned to rebuild New Orleans. It noted that the TVA had such strict oversight that virtually no corruption happened under its watch. How can we make this happen in New Orleans?</p>
<p>sac - I believe it is a relatively small number of students who are affected by the Engineering "deletions." It was not a huge department. So I think it is a pretty small proportion of visiting students who will be affected and it will not be difficult to distinguish those whose majors have been eliminated from all others. Should the host schools be willing to make special accommodations for these particular students.</p>
<p>Jmmom -- I hope that any engineering students who were displaced (and med students who were effected) will be able to stay where they have found a home.</p>
<p>I thought I read somewhere that there are about 700 undergrads in the Engineering school. I would think that perhaps as many as half were affected by this--certainly most of the freshmen and sophomores (unless bio or chem eng). </p>
<p>I don't know anything about Engineering programs, so maybe that IS considered small in the scheme of things. Nonetheless, if it affects you, it still hurts. I agree with a couple of other posters that it seems ironic that civil engineering is one that is being eliminated, particularly in the face of all the local opportunities that field would offer in NO.</p>
<p>sac, I do not believe that the current med students will be affected, they are all together elsewhere with plans to return to N.O. next Fall. The downsizing will seemingly affect the incoming classes, as best as I understand it.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about the discontinued programs in the new and improved School of Science and Engineering. I heard that Tulane will let you take courses at LSU and give you a Tulane degree as long as you pay Tulane tuition and a degree from Tulane is very prestigious.</p>
<p>NOLA may have lost a few levees, power, pumping stations, bridges, sanitation, water, gas etc, and Tulane may have lost its IT services for months but the important thing is Tulane is going to lead the way in rebuilding the city. And heck given the circumstances what they new civil and mechanical engineers or electrical or computer science engineers for? Can't imagine. They will be cranking out lawyers though who are getting seven week semesters.</p>
<p>Anyway if it is not a problem for me it is not a problem. These kids should just switch majors and stop trying to back-door their way into some other college. Tulane needs their money.</p>
<p>Not for nuttin', but the students are still the customers in this equation. While I am fully supportive of Tulane's predicament and efforts to recover, students don't "owe" the school anything. At the end of the day, the students and their families have to look out for their own interests above those of Tulane.</p>
<p>I'm glad that Tulane will "allow" students to pay full Tulane tuition for state school classes.</p>
<p><q> These kids should just switch majors and stop trying to back-door their way into some other college. Tulane needs their money. </q></p>
<p>That seems a bizarre thing to say. If a student always wanted to be an engineer but Tulane don't offer it anymore, you're saying they should just suddenly decide they're actually really interested in Fine Art? Obviously there's more to a college than just a major, and some people might be able to switch with no harm done, but to imply that wanting to do what you originally chose and were paying for is selfish or ungrateful or whatever seems a bit unfair.</p>
<p>The person who stated that some of the cuts in medical positions are due to the shift in the population is exactly correct. I know people who were employed at other hospitals in New Orleans who have now lost their jobs because the population of the city is currently so much smaller than it was prior to Katrina. Most of these worked at Charity Hospital which was severely damaged.</p>
<p>Also, LSU's medical school is located in New Orleans and is facing large cuts as well. The medical, nursing, etc. schools have been relocated to Baton Rouge this semester with plans to return to New Orleans next semester. My aunt is a nursing instructor there and they were told a few weeks ago that there would be many cuts in faculty positions.</p>
<p>I have hesitated to post about things we are hearing here in Mobile, coming out of NO - I have many dear board friends who are attached to Tulane, and I had no desire to even appear to bad-mouth the school - but this was no surprise for us. My understanding is that at least one of the teaching facilities (hospitals) was condemned, no one in the medical community here expects the med school to be back in the "foreseeable" future - 2 years, 5 years? As someone said earlier, a number of these positions were filled by people who never actually came back.
I am sad to hear about the engineering programs, because preserving a strong, stable undergrad will be the key to Tulane's recovery.
The problem with the med school is a stable patient population with the necessary range of illnesses to maintain accreditation and provide adequate teaching for the students/residents. They may be planning to take in new students, then by the time those are ready for clinical rotations (2 years) have the hospital ready for them. Right now it is lots of infections, heart attacks and trauma, although Oschner, I've heard is almost back to normal.</p>
<p>The accepted wisdom here is that NOLA will never be what it once was, and even among those that loved the place, the thought is that it should not be allowed to be rebuilt to the extent that it was. The wetlands should be refurbished, and building allowed in areas that can be protected by Category 3 storm levees. If the wealthy want to build on the lakefront, let them, you get into the same arguments that we have over building on barrier islands and beachfront - most people saying just don't bail them out with taxpayers dollars. The problem is what do you do with the Ninth Ward? And how can the politicians come to any agreement when their constituents are not living there anymore, and may never be back.</p>
Thank you, carolyn. Well, I was thinking. When you're finished with DD's applications, you could morph right over into my DS's decision - to transfer or not to transfer, to change major or not to change major. Then you could take care of his transfer app process. And wake me when it's over.</p>
<p>Seriously, I appreciate all the thoughts from you and everyone. But I figure I'd better exercise my sense of humor. It's in serious danger of atrophy at the moment. :o:</p>