Good times
Message from President Cowen - September 14, 2005, 5:30 p.m.
Dear Tulanians and Friends,
Based on everything I know today, Tulane University will be open this spring for our faculty, staff and students.
Let me assure you that my optimism is based on facts, not wishful thinking. Every day our team reports improvements in all areas critical to our recovery.
Basic services in the City of New Orleans are coming on line much faster than we anticipated. According to the Entergy website, power has been restored to more than 834,000 of the 1.1 million customers affected by Hurricane Katrina. Water levels have receded substantially throughout the city. Eighty percent of our uptown campus is already dry and we anticipate all Tulane University campuses will be dry in two weeks. These accomplishments are especially important because then we can finally begin the nuts and bolts tasks of restoring our campus facilities.
The university has hired a professional firm that specializes in the restoration and rehabilitation of facilities, including our collections and archives. The firm already has provided more than 400 people to work on our campuses, and their reports are especially encouraging. They report damage that is less than initially anticipated. They have assessed the damage to our buildings, have begun to repair windows, clear away downed foliage and place tarpaulins over any missing roofing tiles.
With things progressing so quickly, starting classes in January is realistic. Many of you have conveyed concern about whether the rest of the city could support the Tulane community when our spring semester begins. We have formed a new task force to make sure there are ample amenities for us when we return to school, including on and off campus student housing, restaurants, stores, groceries, medical services and more, including schools for the family members of our community.
Having detailed our progress, I do want to reiterate that no matter the progress we are making to restore the university's facilities, we will not start classes until it is absolutely safe to do so. We are taking a hard look at the environmental issues caused by Hurricane Katrina. We are fortunate to have several of the world's foremost authorities on public health, medicine and environmental toxins on our faculty to examine environmental issues on campus and in the surrounding areas. These experts have assured us that any environmental health issues that might exist will be remediated well in advance of our opening. If this assessment changes, we will let you know.
It is too early to give you the specific opening dates for our return to campus and the start of the spring semester, however, the progress our team members have made so far is impressive and a source of encouragement for all of us.
I will have another Live Chat through this website at 5 p.m. central time on Friday to answer questions you may have about any Tulane University issue.
Scott Cowen
Dear Tulanians and Friends,
Based on everything I know today, Tulane University will be open this spring for our faculty, staff and students.
Let me assure you that my optimism is based on facts, not wishful thinking. Every day our team reports improvements in all areas critical to our recovery.
Basic services in the City of New Orleans are coming on line much faster than we anticipated. According to the Entergy website, power has been restored to more than 834,000 of the 1.1 million customers affected by Hurricane Katrina. Water levels have receded substantially throughout the city. Eighty percent of our uptown campus is already dry and we anticipate all Tulane University campuses will be dry in two weeks. These accomplishments are especially important because then we can finally begin the nuts and bolts tasks of restoring our campus facilities.
The university has hired a professional firm that specializes in the restoration and rehabilitation of facilities, including our collections and archives. The firm already has provided more than 400 people to work on our campuses, and their reports are especially encouraging. They report damage that is less than initially anticipated. They have assessed the damage to our buildings, have begun to repair windows, clear away downed foliage and place tarpaulins over any missing roofing tiles.
With things progressing so quickly, starting classes in January is realistic. Many of you have conveyed concern about whether the rest of the city could support the Tulane community when our spring semester begins. We have formed a new task force to make sure there are ample amenities for us when we return to school, including on and off campus student housing, restaurants, stores, groceries, medical services and more, including schools for the family members of our community.
Having detailed our progress, I do want to reiterate that no matter the progress we are making to restore the university's facilities, we will not start classes until it is absolutely safe to do so. We are taking a hard look at the environmental issues caused by Hurricane Katrina. We are fortunate to have several of the world's foremost authorities on public health, medicine and environmental toxins on our faculty to examine environmental issues on campus and in the surrounding areas. These experts have assured us that any environmental health issues that might exist will be remediated well in advance of our opening. If this assessment changes, we will let you know.
It is too early to give you the specific opening dates for our return to campus and the start of the spring semester, however, the progress our team members have made so far is impressive and a source of encouragement for all of us.
I will have another Live Chat through this website at 5 p.m. central time on Friday to answer questions you may have about any Tulane University issue.
Scott Cowen