Scott Cowen strikes again!

First, he canned the likes of IEEE Fellow Fred Petry.

He annhiliated the memory of Sophie Newcomb.

Then, his "surgical" elimination of most Engineering departments caused the best in other Engineering departments to leave.

Now, his fuckmookishenss has made even those who wanted to stay...well...leave, to a much better school.

Yet another in a long line of Cowen fuckups.

H/T Scout

RIP, Tulane. You used to be a good school. How can they hire anyone good ever again?

Comments

[ashley]

Need I remind anyone paying attention that 2 former students of Tulane Engineering donated over $60,000,000.00 to Tulane. http://web.archive.org/web/20060419160006/http://www.eng.tulane.edu/news/2004_filo_donation.php

Too bad those programs are such a money sink, eh?

As a matter of fact, this weekend, current "science and engineering" dean Altiero stated that 2lane was about to announce a "computational sciences" pogrom or some other uniquely named track.

And Richard P. echoes all of my points. Loudly. As will the AAUP.

There was no financial exigency, no evidence of financial exigency, and it's coming back to bite the mook in the ass.

[Will]

Richard,

Can you please point me to the "The numbers, or at least what's available for all to see, [that] don't bear that out at all?"

I was unaware that Tulane published school by school P & L's.

[Richard P.]

I was referring to the discussions at the savetulaneengineering.org forum.

There's a whole lot over there worth checking out.

If Cowen OTOH has numbers to back up how his bold actions were genuinely in the "we have little choice but to do this however painful" category why doesn't he himself make them available and silence any critics?

My main contention isn't so much with WHAT he's done however foolish or controversial it may be but HOW he's done all these things.

Secrecy, surprise, obfuscation, take-it-or-leave-it deals, lack of candor, lack of openness. Bush, Rove et al. would be proud of such methods.

[Jeff]

Totally disagree with you. Scott Cowen has done more than anyone could ask. Check out the applications pouring into the admission office.

All the best,
Jeff
Tulane Grad

[ashley]

Jeff, exactly how does that kool-aid taste? And I lay 1200:1 that your degree isn't in engineering or medicine.

[Richard P.]

That's exactly it. Cowen HAS done more than what people were asking, as in lots of things no one was asking him to do and he didn't need to do at all.

Seriously, no one is trying to take credit away that is due him. We all recognize the hard work involved in getting Tulane back together for spring 2006. Now, do I think that Sheldon Hackney or Eamon Kelly couldn't have done it for their part? No, not at all. I don't understand how Cowen is all that special. Where was Tulane going in the academic rankings right BEFORE 8/29/2005? Were they closing the gap with Rice, Vanderbilt, Duke, Emory, etc.? If anything, the gap was widening. What exactly is Cowen's vision for the university, anyway? Does he ever say? It's really an issue of both what was done and how he did it, as in bundling everything together in one package, even though some of his changes could not have had anything to do with addressing financial issues -- and he has admitted that-- and then saying "take it or leave it AS A WHOLE... or I will leave." How was ending Newcomb College helping to erase red ink? Will someone please explain that one? Cowen sure hasn't. OTOH he has managed to get Tulane taken to court, censured by the AAUP, losing noted faculty and without two of its grandest traditions in Newcomb College and the full engineering school. Scott Cowen's tradition seems to be one of secrecy, surprise, obfuscation and spin, i.e. the worst of the Ken Lay Enron, Worldcom, et al. CEO tradition. Look, I want to be clear on this: I AM a business school alum and I hope Tulane never hires another school president whose background is such.

And, look, if students are applying to come and volunteer and/or learn in the new New Orleans' uniqueness, that's totally cool. But don't try to convince me that this is happening because of Cowen's dismantling of programs that were solid and didn't need to be cut back.

[ashley]

Exactement.

Richard's business school eloquence trumps my engineering school practicality -- that is to say, I couldn't have said it better myself, Richard.

[Christopher S.]

The reason Doug Brinkley left
Tulane is because at Tulane
he was considered just another
prof. He cried and cried
because he was no longer the
most important person on the
campus. He sent a number of
emails to Scott Cowen complaining about the treatment he was getting.
Cowen immediately wrote him
off. It's hard to tell who
has the bigger ego between
these two.

[Little Tike]

No problem here whatsoever in acknowledging the hard work to get the school back up and running for the spring of 2006 BTW. Credit should certainly go to where it's deserved.