Engineering & Education
Tulane Engineering’s Bittersweet Reopening
Can a few students save Tulane Engineering? Tuesday marked the bittersweet reopening of Tulane University’s School of Engineering. Burdened with $250 million in property damage and more than $90 million in operational losses, Tulane University was faced with incredibly difficult choices about how to lead the university into solvency. On December 8th, 2005, Scott Cowan, the President of Tulane University, announced the board’s decision to eliminate the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering. The two remaining departments in the School of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, will be merged into a new School of Science and Engineering.
Within 12 hours of this announcement, a few Tulane Engineering students founded Save Tulane Engineering, an organization dedicated to reinstating the lost departments. The site’s founders argue that
Tulane is THE future of New Orleans. To rebuild our city we need our Engineers; ALL of our Engineers. Such a reckless act hinders our efforts for New Orleans. Tulane’s student body is committed to the Crescent City, willing to do whatever it takes. Abolishing the entire Engineering department is no way to secure an academic, civic, or financial future for the Tulane community.
The founders have formed a coherent mission statement and understand that the best way to see results is through concerted effort, strong media contacts, and an unfaltering desire to help New Orleans. The organization has even written a petition with over 3,000 signatures from students, alumni, faculty, and industry leaders.
Though Tulane’s Board’s decision seems to be final, there can be no doubt that the eliminated departments will be missed by more than just students and faculty. Read more about Tulane’s plan for survival and efforts to save Tulane Engineering in the New York Times and at Save Tulane Engineering’s website.
August 9th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
I do not doubt the importance of Tulane Engineering but by proclaiming that Tulane is THE future of New Orleans you neglect the very large and well-respected College of Engineering at the University of New Orleans across town. I don’t know the exact numbers but I believe that UNO’s College of Engineering wins 2 to 3 times more grant dollars by than most similarly sized departments.