Category Archives: Katrina

Katrina

More details

I hadn’t seen this bit before. This is very bad.

The Faculty of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering will be reorganized into two schools: the School of Liberal Arts and the School of Science and Engineering. A total of five programs—Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Exercise and Sports Science—will be eliminated. Students in these programs will have the opportunity to continue their studies at Tulane if they can finish degree requirements by May 2007. Otherwise, they will be offered assistance in selecting another major at Tulane or transferring to another institution.

Survival to Renewal: Tulane University

This leaves Biomedical Engineering ADDENDUM – and Chemical Engineering. I guess we’re “world-class excellent.”  Wow.

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Bad news for Tulane

Tulane lost a ton of money during this whole hurricane situation. I’m sure renting cruise ships as residence halls isn’t helping to stem the financial hemorrhaging.  Now comes the belt-tightening.

If your department isn’t rocking the proverbial casbah, you’re out the door:

The university will focus its undergraduate, professional and doctoral programs and research in areas where it has attained, or has the potential to achieve, world-class excellence. It will suspend admission to those programs that do not meet these criteria.

Survival to Renewal: Tulane University

I’m now very curious about the definition of “world class excellence”…  Just how bad is it? Here are some numbers:

The financial recovery aspects of the renewal plan address the budget shortfall the university anticipates in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and will result in the phased elimination of approximately 50 faculty positions in discontinued undergraduate and professional degree programs. Another 180 faculty positions will be eliminated at the medical school as a result of the decreased population and changing health care needs of New Orleans.“I deeply regret that employee reductions were necessary to secure the university’s future,” said Cowen. “We have tried to make the reductions as strategically and humanely as possible, recognizing the hardship it places on those whose positions have been terminated.”

Survival to Renewal: Tulane University

Not very good at all.

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Green Tea in the Coffee Machine

I don’t have a tea infuser. I did — Amanda bought one for me before — but like many things it was lost in The Flood™. I do have a coffee machine, though, with a nice gold filter for preservation of flavor, and I tried making my green tea in there this morning. It seemed to work pretty well, though it’s perhaps a little more bitter than it would be otherwise. This should help me get back on track with my four cups of green tea per day.

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As Predicted – BellSouth Pissed About NOLA WiFi

Hours after New Orleans officials announced Tuesday that they would deploy a city-owned, wireless Internet network in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, regional phone giant BellSouth Corp. withdrew an offer to donate one of its damaged buildings that would have housed new police headquarters, city officials said yesterday.According to the officials, the head of BellSouth’s Louisiana operations, Bill Oliver, angrily rescinded the offer of the building in a conversation with New Orleans homeland security director Terry Ebbert, who oversees the roughly 1,650-member police force.

Angry BellSouth Withdrew Donation, New Orleans Says

Just as I predicted, BellSouth is pissed. I mean, it’s nice of them to donate a building, don’t get me wrong. That’s not something they had to do by any stretch of the imagination. However, this is the beginning of the battle.

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Back in St.Louis

I’m back in St.Louis, but not for long. I’m going to Nashville on Thursday, then returning Saturday. I leave for Mandeville once more the following Thursday or Friday.

In the mean time, there’s a ton of work to be done.

I’m pretty tired today because of the drive. I came home to an apparently-empty apartment, a messy kitchen, a lack of dishes and an empty fish bowl. Alan Hodgkin (the fish, not the scientist) had snuffed it during my absence. This was actually expected. He seemed days away from it when I left.  He lived for about a year and a half, and survived five weeks alone in the lab during Katrina. I felt really bad about that — I thought he’d be dead in three weeks. He looked so pathetic when he got here.  Anyway, he’s gone now.  He was my buddy at my desk in the lab, and he’ll be missed.

I’m in the middle of reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and it’s due at the Wash U library next week, so I’d better get cracking on it before bed.

Tomorrow – work like it’s going out of style.

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