After spending spring semester rebuilding in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina, universities in New Orleans are now opening
their doors again, but some faculty will not return and some degree
programs will not continue.
For example, when Tulane University reopened on Jan. 17, 86
percent of the student body returned, though the positions of 168
full-time faculty members were eliminated.
The cuts were part of a renewal plan unveiled on Dec. 8, 2005
that pledged to reorganize and refocus the university’s areas
of research while addressing the financial problems caused by
Hurricane Katrina.
The faculty and program cuts will not affect Tulane’s
status as a research institution and only 3 percent of students at
Tulane were affected by the program cuts, said Mike Strecker,
director of public relations at Tulane.
The Tulane faculty that were not retained worked in a variety of
departments, though most came from clinical positions at the
medical center, whose staff was reduced due to the decreased size
of the population in New Orleans.
“With less people in the area, there are less patients to
treat,” Strecker said.
When Xavier University at New Orleans opened for spring
semester, they also returned to find a reduced number of
faculty.
Due to financial constraints, around 30 percent of faculty and
staff were not retained, said Norman Francis, president of Xavier
University, in a statement.
As part of Tulane’s renewal plan, there will be a focus on
spending the university’s resources on areas of research
where the university is world-renowned, Strecker said.
“We will focus on areas of strength where we achieve
world-class excellence,” Strecker said.
Unfortunately, for some of Tulane’s students and teachers,
the academic “refocus” meant cutting degree programs,
specifically from the engineering program and the medical
school.
In Tulane’s engineering department alone, which boasted
700 undergraduates, 200 graduate students and 61 faculty members,
seven degree programs were cut for freshmen, including civil
engineering, electrical engineering and computer science.
For upperclassmen at Tulane, the eliminated majors are still
being taught and those students will still be enrolled in the
major, Strecker said.
Samantha Warner, a freshman originally enrolled at Tulane for
fall semester, was in one of the recently eliminated majors, and
said though the situation is hard on engineering students, it is
most difficult for the teachers who were not retained.
“It is especially hard on the teachers who have to leave
their jobs, research and homes to start somewhere else,”
Warner said.
UCLA professor of education Jeff Wood said it would be difficult
for professors to find another faculty position on such short
notice because of practical issues, such as lab and office
space.
It might also be difficult for professors in that position to
achieve tenure, especially if the academic prestige of their
original institution is not as high as that of the new institution,
Wood said.
Warner decided not to go back after her major was discontinued,
and said the administration did not give any indication that the
degree programs were going to be cut until the formal announcement
on Dec. 8, 2005.
The teachers did not have a say, and the students did not know
about it ahead of time, which made it difficult for students to
transfer to different schools before spring semester, Warner
said.
Though Warner knew Tulane would no longer be the best school for
her because they no longer offered her major, Warner said she still
liked the campus.
“It wasn’t an easy decision at all,” Warner
said.
In addition to cuts in the engineering and medical programs,
Tulane’s athletic program was reduced by half. A Division I
school, Tulane’s athletic program has been reduced to funding
only eight teams, eight short of the 16 required for maintaining
Division I status.
Because of a deal with the NCAA, Tulane may retain Division I
status with only eight teams for a period of five years, Strecker
said.
He added that in five years, they hope to be able to support the
additional teams to retain the Division I status, but that remains
to be seen.
Though there is hope for the revival of the athletic program,
Strecker said the changes in the engineering department are
permanent and the discontinued programs would not be coming
back.