A new semester of classes and a new year of opportunities are underway at Tulane University.
The momentum we achieved last year is creating more possibilities for learning and discovery as well as bringing lasting change to our community, to our world and to ourselves.
Our success in 2019 will be based on “the three P's” – people, places and programs. You can switch the order of the last two “P's” in this list, but “people” must be at the top every time. Luckily, this is an area where Tulane thrives. Our students, faculty and staff are second to none.
Our current first-year class is the most academically accomplished, diverse and select in Tulane’s history, and the class we are recruiting for next fall shows every indication of setting a new standard in each of these categories.
New faculty throughout the university and new leaders at four of our schools and at the National Primate Research Center will also be integral to our success in 2019. Collaborating with our high-achieving, high-demanding and highly sought-after faculty and veteran deans, they will help build the most innovative and interdisciplinary learning and research experience. And Tulane staff will support, empower and advance these efforts.
The top performers in their field deserve the best facilities – a physical environment that promotes, supports and inspires excellence while serving the whole person. This is the goal of The Commons, the 77,000 square foot marvel in the heart of the uptown campus. Scheduled to be completed this year, The Commons will include a state-of-the-art dining facility, classrooms, collaborative spaces and a new home for the Newcomb College Institute.
Holistic learning and discovery will be built into the Steven and Jann Paul Hall for Science and Engineering, which will break ground this year. It will also form the foundation for our planned partnership in the revitalization of the old Charity Hospital site. As an expected anchor institution in the rebirth of this historic New Orleans landmark, Tulane could fill 300,000 square feet with labs, classrooms, clinical spaces, student housing, offices and more.
These major projects, plus the recently opened Stewart Center CBD, the Freeman School of Business’ new downtown home for its executive education programs, and other recent and planned construction downtown, uptown and on the North Shore, all provide the perfect settings for a profoundly enhanced and transformative student experience – both at the undergraduate and graduate level.
This experience includes hands-on learning alongside leading researchers, residential living in communities of scholars with shared academic interests, public service that changes lives (including those of our students, faculty and staff), increased online options, enhanced summer programs and so much more.
The Tulane community has every reason to expect an amazing 2019 – as long as we mind our “P's.”
