Save Tulane Engineering

[wckirby]

Hey, I've been pretty busy, but I've found a few things I want to pass along. Sadly, most of what I learned I can't pass along because of privacy concerns.

Next year's freshman class is going to be a disaster. Just to go over last years numbers again, they had 18,166 applications, Tulane sent out 7,000 acceptance letters, and had 1,600 students show up to campus. That final number is termed the "yield." This year, Tulane had 22,000 applications. A little mroe than 15,000 were completed (many students applied and then didn't bother to send their transcript). They decided to change the number of acceptance letters they sent out, but not by that much (so they sent out around 7,000 acceptance letters).

Initially, they were hoping for a yield of 1,400 students. From what I can gather, they aren't going to come anywhere close to that and they're in serious panic mode. Some people have said they underestimated the Katrina effect and admitted to few students. The yield is so bad, I'm reluctant to even say how bad. I'll just say that it's less than a thousand. A thousand students showing up to campus would be bad, on the good-bad scale.

New Orleans isn't getting very good press and the reconstruction is going a lot slower than people expected, so that's a big factor. Don't underestimate the impact from the fears of the next hurricane season. I remembered seeing on WWL that the head of admissions for Loyola said that Nagin's chocolate city comments had a measurable impact on their admissions process for out of state students. It would be reasonable to assume the same is true for Tulane (thanks, Chromedome).

I believe the impact of the Renewal Plan, the faculty exodus, and Tulane botching several key opportunities is to blame for the majority of the drop. Two quick examples of the botched opportunites I'll give is community service and the Commencement with the Presidents. Loyola has gotten a lot of great press for their community service, meanwhile Tulane has yet to finalize its plans for the community service requirement for the incoming freshmen. Loyola, despite its much smaller size, sent almost as many students to Outreach New Orleans as Tulane. We also had 2 former presidents at our commencement, but the press didn't pick up on it at all. I'm dissapointed. That's the one thing that Cowen tends to do well (be a media-whore).

Compounding that problem, the transfer rate out of Tulane was higher than they expected. They won't have exact numbers until the fall, but it's worse than they expected and it will be a factor.

Because of these factors and the fact that Cowen's wife hates New Orleans (she spends all her time either in Cleveland or the Hamptons), I'd place money on Cowen moving to greener pastures in the near future. Like Lefton, he isn't going to stick around to clean up the mess he made.

Signs - I have the signs. They look good. I've already distributed a few to friends in Monroe, Aaron, and Butler. Soon, I'll get them up in Irby. I'm going distribute more soon. Let me know if you want them. They are free as long as you hang them up publicly. The signs were paid for by some generous engineering alumni. I was going to place them around campus right before commencement, but I decided against it at the last minute because I thought it would be counterproductive to our cause. I didn't want to turn people against us. If I had know Cowen would get booed, I would have covered campus in them.

If you want a sign email me at NolaEngineer1984_at_mac.com (I left out the @ to cut down on spam). I have 60 signs total, so don't hessitate.

I will put up a few signs around the perimeter of campus, but I'm not going to put up any on campus (unless I'm giving them to someone with a balcony) because I had a run in with good ole TUPD. Instead of arresting real criminals, Officer Warren (yeah, I'm printing your name, asshole!) was a real prick and harrassed me and said I was being anti-Tulane for hanging those signs. You should have seen how pissed off I got at him. Thankfully, another officer intervened before I did something I would have regretted, but that will be the end of my days inciting unrest on campus.

That's all for now. I'll let you know when I get more.
_________________
Clay Kirby
11th generation New Orleanian
4th generation Tulanian
Mechanical Engineering Class of '06

[wwalkeri]

While students are getting shot in he leg with shotguns on maple TUPD is harassing u about signs. Now thats amusing

[gwlaw88]

The graduation got press on all the major cable networks - unfortunately it was on the same day that McCain created news by speaking at Liberty or whatever that school is called - so the press focused mainly on that. However, Cowan looked like a goof.

I was in a deposition a few weeks ago and the opposing attorney found out I graduated from Tulane - he had just returned from looking at the school with his son. He was not concerned about the state of New Orleans but seemed to be most concerned with the changes that Cowan recently made to the school. His comments were basicially to the effect that Cowan seems to be taking it in the direction of your basic liberal arts schools - and it was ludicrous to spend that kind of money on tuition for that sort of education. Also, he was concerned about what changes might be next - when the president seems to make radical changes without giving them much thought. He also mentioned that they were treated somewhat rudely by several Tulane administration people. His son, who has a high GPA and is graduating from a private school, would have made a good addition to Tulane, but he chose a state school instead.
_________________
N82, L88, MBA 88

[ih8scottcowen]

I have intimate knowledge of 600-700 max students showing up for the freshmen class for Fall 2006. They, meaning Tulane & our soon-to-be beheaded leader Cowen, had an opportunity to put Tulane in national prominence with creative, new programs to help locally. The plan to trim versus beef up has proven to perhaps save money in the short-term and preserve Tulane, but let's look at the other side of things:

*Newcomb heirs are now pissed and trying to claim their $42 million
*Engineers are running around New Orleans bad-mouthing a great school & a questionable leader in an effort to get their beloved programs back
*Admissions is expecting a miniscule class for the fall
*Faculty and staff are leaving, and those that are still there, can and will leave at the drop of a hat

Well, all of that for saving a few bucks and not operating in the red for more than a few years. Engineers were some of the most proactive people on the mainly apathetic Tulane campus when I was there. Maybe Engineering should have been given priority number 1 afterall.

REMOVE COWEN!

[phmccain]

I wonder how many freshmen they expect to enter what is left of engineeirng for 2006-2007?

I graduated with a B.S.Ch.E. in 1980. I would not enroll in the program as it is today.
_________________
B.S. Chemical Engineering
Tulane Class of 1980

[perturbed1]