Questions and Comments We've Received

May 8, 2003

Dear Dr. Cowen:

I want to reiterate my total opposition to any move with respect to the decision on de-emphasis of intercollegiate sports at Tulane. I feel any decision to de-emphasis would be shortsighted and contrary to the best interests of Tulane University.

I am not just some uneducated football fan, who the Board apparently feels is all the sports program attracts. In addition to my BA and MBA degrees from Tulane, I have a MA in Economics, a law degree and a CPA. I may not be the type of student who the university wanted to attract, but Tulane's name recognition in sports made a big difference to me, and set it apart from Loyola, for example. In fact when I was 17 and considering colleges, I never even heard of schools like Case-Western, Carnagie-Mellon, John Hopkins, or for that matter even the University of Chicago. Hell, I use to go to Atlanta every summer and never even heard of Emory. Step back and look at things and you'll recognize that there a numerous private schools that no one ever hears of and they really have no way of gaining any type of exposure.

On the contrary, I knew of Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Rice, SMU, TCU and all the other colleges that had football teams. I also considered going to a couple of them, but I didn't because I loved Tulane. My father didn't go to college, but loved Tulane over the years, and instilled that feeling in me. One of the reasons for his attachment to Tulane was their football team and the pride it brought to the citizens of New Orleans. Furthermore, I paid my tuition, unlike some of my fellow students who were not so interested in the sports program and who were on full scholarships.

While members of the faculty and the Board making these decisions may look down their scholarly noses at people like me, who believe sports is a little more important than they do, they should at least consider the following before they make this grave decision.. Thus far I consider the actions taken so far as a total disregard to the university, the alumni and the people of New Orleans. The actions already have hurt the program that was just turning the corner, after years of neglect by the university.

Here are some of thoughts the ad-hoc committee should consider and give adequate weight to:

I. THE COSTS AND NEGATIVE GOODWILL TO TULANE OF DISCONTINUING SPORTS MAY BE SUBSTANTIALLY GREATER THAN ANY SAVINGS THEY MAY INCUR:

I read somewhere that the decision to possibly eliminate Division I football and sports is not philosophical but financial. I would suggest that you consider a little more than checkbook debits and credits, and look at this matter with a three dimensional mind. It is apparent that very little weight, or very little value (or monetary worth) is assigned to the sports program and the football team. The value the publicity, the prestige, the alumni backing and the overall goodwill the program produces in the city and USA.

Eliminating Division I sports at Tulane will not help anything in the short-run, or the long-run. There will be short-run costs involved in paying off contracts, and who knows maybe even lawsuits associated with donations tied to athletic donations. But in the long-run, the costs in loss of goodwill and prestige associated with name recognition will be substantial, and could lead to the depreciation of Tulane University.

Once the program is gone, it will be gone forever. I really wonder how many of those other universities, whose names are thrown about, wish they had a sports program like Tulane has. For the most part their names are only known in academic circles. You can be sure that their alumni wish they had a sports program like Tulane.

LOSS OF PRESTIGE TO THE UNIVERSITY

There will be a loss of prestige and standing of the school as perceived by the same people who the school needs to attract. You can't charge maximum tuition and provide a perceived tainted product in any manner. Dropping sports for financial reasons would give the appearance of deeper problems. Then who in the hell would want to pay $35,000 to attend a potentially weakened school? If you start amputating programs, the school will not get stronger, but will weaken rapidly.

LOSS OF ALUMNI AND LOCAL SUPPORT TO UNIVERSITY IN ALL MATTERS

There will also be a loss of an energized alumni base in New Orleans. Tulane, unlike local colleges, and even Loyola, has a relatively small percentage of its alumni in New Orleans, since so many come from out of town. However, it is a powerful and influential alumnus. It is therefore important that Tulane not alienate its alumni, and non-alumni friends and fans in this area. It is clear that if Tulane does, as the Administration seems to want to do, that many of the friends and fans, which now love Tulane, will hate it. Even the alumni will lose significant interest, and will look upon anything Tulane does in the future with utmost disgust. .

While you may not think this is important, you better think again. What happens when the City, the State and others try to pass some unfavorable legislation in regard to Tulane University and its students, or ignore problems the university is having? What happens when someone wants to push through some taxing, zoning, noise, or even parking legislation? What happens when the crime rate increases around campus, or the Zoning Board tries to prevent Tulane from expanding? What happens when you get a bunch of unhappy students who want to transfer out, because the neighborhood groups are on the warpath and having students cars towed away all the time?

This has happened in the past, and will continue to happen. The school may find itself in a position where its friends will abandon it, or just not be as interested. I can just hear alumni, who previously supported Tulane, say "Who cares, let them use their big savings on athletics to handle their own problems".

Even the New Orleans Saints realize the value of the Tulane Alumni in this area, and that is probably part of the reason for their donation to the TAF.

In short, Tulane needs all the goodwill it can muster from the city. Also, remember a large percentage of sports athletes come from this area and will wind up in public office.

LOSS OF NAME RECOGNITION

To eliminate the sports program as is being considered, is to place it with the other legions of nameless institutions throughout the country. It will suddenly take a giant step behind Vanderbilt, Rice, and other private schools, which it now has to compete with for students.

Numerous students knew about Tulane as opposed to non-football private schools (Emory, Case-Western,). While the football program was not the reason for attending Tulane, it sure provided recognition that allowed the school to become attractive to the potential applicant. It also provides a complete college, along with the expected college atmosphere.

Since sports was supposedly being listed low on some alleged poll, of reasons the students came to Tulane, it seems that if this ranking can be increased, this could significantly increase applicants. I also have my own doubts on the accuracy of any polls, or statistics taken to support this result and some other recommendations being tossed around to scrap the sports program.

CONCLUSION

Tulane should maximize the benefits from the sports program to make the University stronger. If the football program was supported adequately by the administration and allowed to improve, the name recognition and applications would increase significantly. Accordingly, the importance of the Division I status of Tulane sports is an important part of Tulane University, and its future potential.

In short, I feel that the decision to minimize the value of the goodwill associated with the sports program and alienate a large portion of the alumni has not been thought out very well. Tulane needs the local support at this time more than ever, and cannot exist as an island in New Orleans. I hope the quality of the people making the decisions for Tulane at this time are better than the past. I could go on for much longer, but I from what I have read, other letters and e-mails have made many of my other of my own points known to you. I have also written an e-mail earlier myself.

*****

If you can somehow keep the Tulane-LSU game in the line-up, the traditionalists should be happy. It's the only game that generates any interest.

*****

Dear President Cowen -

Don't you think it is time for universities such as Tulane to start fighting for what is right?

As we all know Tulane is not the only university facing the budget dilemma. There are athletic programs losing funding and being cut throughout the country and it all boils down to money. Not enough money to fund a wide range of sports. Not enough money for the more visible sports such as football and basketball to stay competitive nationally. Yet, the NCAA has a system set-up so the rich get richer and everybody else has to fight just to stay alive. Its universities such as Tulane who need to be leaders and put pressure on the NCAA to create equal opportunities for all institutions. Not to follow the pattern of dropping sports or in this case dropping down to division I-AA or III.

Student/athletes pick schools like Tulane because they know they are going to receive a great education and they know that their athletic teams are well respected and supported by the university, alumni, and student-body. Tulane needs to value intercollegiate sports because they can contribute tremendously to a students educational experience. Tulane athletics have done well because they have been able to recruit good student/athletes who love to compete and contribute to their teams overall well-being. Athletics are rewarding for all concerned.

You are headed in the right direction with the addition of women's swimming. This is going to be a great program for the university and it going to be a shot in the arm for the sport of swimming at the Division I level.

Tulane, Conference USA, and others need to fight to keep Division I programs alive.

*****

HIghlight the success of your athletes in the classroom....you do not hav the pampered pooch athletes that so often annoy people...you students graduate at a very high rate!

*****

We plan to help the cause, however would love to see Tulane Football played at Tad Gormley Stadium. I am sure that my husband and I are not alone in thinking that game attendance would be much higher and a greater enthusiasm would be achieved by playing games in this venue over the Superdome. Are there any plans to make this happen, and if not what can we do to make this happen.

*****

Keep Tulane D-1

*****

President Cowen and members of the University Board,

As a constituent member of the Tulane Alumni Association, I had the opportunity to attend the meetings last weekend in which President Cowen and Director of Athletics Rick Dickson both addressed the difficult issues involved with the current crisis at hand. While the decision the Board must make is likely not going to please everybody, I strongly consider the decision-makers involved to carefully read each of these letters very carefully so that they fully understand the tremendous support alums and friends from all over the country, and perhaps the world, have put forward to keep our current Division I-A status. Scott, I know you are very diligent in reading these letters and perhaps they have cut your sleeping hours lately...I hope our Board members follow your fine example. From my personal perspective, I was a student worker back in the day with our Athletics Department and was fortunate enough to work with many fine individuals whom I proudly still know today who continue to serve our AD with total professionalism. As an alumnus living in New York City today I treasure the opportunity to trek north to West Point every 2 seasons or so (along with about another 1000 local Tulane alums, fans and friends) and support our football program. Classic athletic events such as these are particularly enjoyed by your non-Conference-USA affiliated Tulane Clubs, as they rarely get the opportunity to see our fine student athletes compete on the national level they deserve. As one of the ESPN commentatators noted during our Hawaii Bowl appearance on Christmas Day, "If the BCS paired bowl teams on academics as well as athleticism, Tulane University would be playing for the national championship." For those who may not have heard, Tulane student-athletes had the best GPA of ANY NCAA Division I-A school last year, edging out a "little-known" also-ran institution that is located in South Bend.

I am particularly moved by the tremendous support shown via the letters of the local New Orleans alums and friends. They are already vastly under-represented within the freshman classes that enter, please do not take away something that the entire New Orleans community can rally around, regardless of their educational background or socio-economic status...that something is the Tulane Green Wave. Thank you President Cowen for listening and for continuing to make us proud of the institution that we all love. I pray that the Board has the strength to make an informed decision which will be something that we can all support in good conscience.

*****

I have written many emails about the importance of keeping Tulane a DI-A school. This one is in response to some of the other comments I have read on the website. Tulane is currently a well-rounded, wonderful university. It is exactly the type of school that I wanted to attend. If we drop to Division III, we would lose this quality that attracts all of our students. It is absolutely false that Tulane would attract more quality students if we switched divisions. Most of the best students looking at colleges are well rounded people, involved in many things, almost always sports, and they look for a university that fits them. We would actually lose students should we switch.

Also having sports like sailing, polo, etc. is stupid. No current students would want to take time to be members of these groups. College athletics is time consuming and takes special, committed people. If people want to be involved in sailing and polo they shouldn't go to college, they should go be middle aged men. Or maybe they could join the current sailing club! Doesn't that make more sense than taking away any sense of pride Tulane students and alumni have?

Please, please let us be proud of our school! Keep Tulane Division I-A.

*****

is it true that the roots of this stidy is that the university is facing an overall deficit this year of roughly $20 million?

*****

Who chooses where they are going to study chemistry or philosophy based on the relative effectiveness of one school's over-sized boys inflicting violence on another school's boys? Does that make any sense to anyone? The ridiculous obsession over athletics has no place in a serious academic environment. Let it go.

More good students who loathe sports will apply to Tulane to make up for the people who were (supposedly) only coming here for our Div I athletics. As for alumni giving... Tulane could lose 4 million in alumni giving and still be better off.

*****

A SECOND THOUGHT FROM LAFAYETTE

On April 26 I sent A VIEW FROM LAFAYETTE. This is a second thought on the topic; I am certain it is not unique, but I feel strongly that it should be pursued.

Since the root cause of our problem is money, and since much of the problem is related to lack of current revenues , I call into question the policy of the NCAA and of the BCS group to control such revenues. If we are members of the NCAA in good standing, should we not participate in all aspects of the organization, and should we not ask is it legal for the NCAA and BCS to exclude us and all other schools except for a "select" few? As everyone knows, the "select" are attempting to control all revenues, to the detriment of all other members.

I believe a faculty member of our School of Law is considered an authority on "sports law", and I believe he has stated that what is going on is contrary to law. At this critical juncture, I believe it is incumbent upon Tulane to take this question to courts. The University probably does not savor such a prospect, but someone has to take the lead ; why not us? I am certain that many other universities would welcome our initiative.

Recall that in 1999 our football team was the only undefeated team in the nation and ranked #6 in the polls. Yet we were not even considered for a BCS spot. Why - because we are not among the "chosen few". That alone should have been grounds for a lawsuit.

Thanks for listening.

*****

Sorry to hear that Tulane might be dropping a division, because of lack of resources. That's really sad when Tulane has an elite business school that could perhaps help administrators gain and manage their athletic funds better. Maybe Tulane doesn't have as many local supporters in the New Orleans area anymore who really want to watch the Green Wave go and get 'em?

I will say that I did go to the Tulane vs. BYU game over a year ago in Salt Lake City. It was really fun and hot. Unfortuately, Tulane attendance was a mere 10 versus their full-house rowdy local crowd cheering on their new transplant coach from Louisiana Tech. We cheered good enough to end up on ESPN, and my friends at home had a good laugh seeing me and my sister on TV sweating it out to 72 BYU to Tulane's like 7. So what's might point of all this... sports, like music, can let you relive some really great memories. No matter what level the game is on, Division I or whatever. Some super fun memories are what the college experience is all about besides getting that amazing education. As an alumni, I am no longer able to go to New Orleans and get the education within your walls, but it sure has been fun hanging out and networking with my Tulane friends in Los Angeles to watch some really good Tulane vs LSU games.

If you do decide to lower your divisional rank, maybe those misappropriated athletic funds will be allocated to more team sports like sailing, polo, soccer, cross country running (which I think might not even exist anymore), golf, or whatever strikes the campus fancy. Sure, if Tulane drops a level, I probably won't be blessed to see any football, basketball, or baseball games in my neighborhood on the West Coast or on television either. I'll miss it, but I understand your financial situation.

Even with an athletics change, I still fail to see from your letters pleading with the public that the financial situation of the university will change for the better with such a change in the athletics program. Back to school for the Tulane money managers, and perhaps maybe your own Tulane University School of Business might have an opening or two for your applications.

*****

Dear President Cowen and members of the athletic review committee, I am writing to you to voice my support for Tulane staying a Division IA school. I believe going down to Division III will have a profound impact on the university. The issues of school spirit, visibility, etc. have been adequately covered in other postings. So, let me address another issue: there is a population of prospective students for whom Tulane is one of the few schools that are the right combination of academics and athletics. Admittedly, this is a fraction of the overall population of prospectives, but it sure is too large to ignore. As a Division III school, you will lose such students.

Let me share a couple of personal stories. Three years ago, my first daughter did her college search. Being a competitive swimmer, she was looking not only for a good college, but also one with a serious Div 1 swimming program. She got very interested in Tulane, but had to quickly cross it from the list due lack of a swimming program. She eventually chose Rice, where she is a sophomore now. My younger daughter, also a swimmer, did her college search last fall. She visited Duke, Boston College, U. of Richmond, Miami of Florida, Cal, and Rice. She had looked at Tulane, but only for a second, and with a sigh, since it did not have a swim team.

Then, in late October, we heard the news that Tulane was forming a swim team in 2003. My daughter visited Tulane on the next to last day of the early signing period, and found the perfect combination of academics, athletics, atmosphere, and size. She committed to Tulane the next day. She has since qualified for an academic scholarship. I presume this means that she is the kind of student that Tulane attempts to attract. Well, without a Division I program, you would have lost her to Rice or BC.

I am not asking you to keep Div I athletics alive so that one individual will benefit. I am trying to make the point that there must be hundreds of prospectives who would not consider Tulane without competitive, funded, Division IA athletics.

The effects of losing Div I athletics goes beyond the athletes. Look at the Ivy schools. Harvard and Princeton field competitive Div I teams, and believe that such programs make them better universities. They turn away applicants with perfect SATs, but admit competitive athletes with SATs of mere mortals. And we are not talking Div III-level athletes; these are serious Div I athletes, many of whom could play at schools in "BCS" conferences. Ivy colleges make the point that such students add to the overall educational quality of the institution. Why not at Tulane?

Without a Division IA program, you will not be able to offer the level of competition that many student athletes seek; you will also lose the students who rely on athletic scholarships to be able to afford a private college education. The resulting impact will be felt by the school as a whole, not just the Athletic Department.

Good luck,

*****

As a recent graduate of Tulane University, I take much pride in the fact that I went to an outstanding University from an academic standpoint, while at the same time, had the ability to watch Tulane compete against Division 1-A schools, often times competitively. The mixture of an exceptional scholastic reputation accompanied with Division 1 sports is a unique advantage that few schools can offer. Now as a member of the alumni, I enjoy watching Tulane compete at the highest level of college sports. Tulane has produced some fine student athletes, who actually graduate and pursue all interests in the business world, including playing in the NFL.

More Comments We've Received