PUBLIC FORUM

                                   ON 

                       TULANE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

                           MONDAY, MAY 12, 2003

                            DIXON HALL ANNEX





           BRIEFING PANEL:



                SCOTT COWEN
                    President

                YVETTE JONES
                     Senior Vice-President for
                     External Affairs

                PAUL BARRON
                     Professor of Law













           REPORTED BY:

                SIMONE R. BERTUCCI,
                CERTIFIED COURT REPORTER









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       1

       2                       A G E N D A                    

       3   WELCOME ADDRESS

       4        Scott Cowen............................  3

       5

       6   THE CURRENT STATE OF DIVISION IA ATHLETICS

       7        Yvette Jones...........................  9

       8

       9   MODERATOR ADDRESS

      10        Paul Barron............................ 23

      11

      12   AUDIENCE COMMENTS........................... 26

      13

      14   CONCLUDING REMARKS

      15        Scott Cowen............................ 87

      16

      17

      18

      19

      20

      21

      22

      23

      24

      25




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       1             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       2                  What a good audience.  As soon we 

       3   stand up here, you're very quiet.  Thank you.  Good 

       4   afternoon everybody.  It's a pleasure to welcome 

       5   you to our briefing of the topic of athletics 

       6   today.  

       7                  I'm Scott Cowen, President of Tulane 

       8   University, and I am joined by two colleagues who 

       9   I'd like to introduce:  Yvette Jones, who is Senior 

      10   Vice-President for External Affairs, and Paul 

      11   Barron, who is Professor of Law at the Tulane 

      12   School of Law.  I'd also like to introduce Jay Le 

      13   Pere who's in the second row.  Jay is a member of 

      14   the Board of Administrators and a member of the Ad 

      15   Hoc Committee of the Board studying the topic of 

      16   athletics.  

      17                  This, as you may know, is the second 

      18   of two public hearings we've had on the subject.  

      19   The last one was last Friday.  In addition to these 

      20   two public hearings, we have also created a web 

      21   site called feedback.tulane.edu, and on that web 

      22   site we have posted all the letters and E-mails 

      23   that we have gotten on this topic, so anyone who is 

      24   curious of reading all of it, all you have to do is 

      25   go there and take a look at the feedback we've 




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       1   received to date.  In addition, on that web site 

       2   we've put on a lot of factual information to give 

       3   you some kind of context or foundation to 

       4   understand the topic itself.  

       5                  I'd like to tell you that today's 

       6   session is being transcribed.  We have a 

       7   stenographer here.  We did that last Friday also.   

       8   And when we transcribe the tape, we put it up on 

       9   the web site.  Matter of fact, the transcript from 

      10   last Friday is up on the web site today, and I 

      11   anticipate the transcript from today's briefing 

      12   will be up in a couple of days.  

      13                  We have really three objectives we'd 

      14   like to accomplish at the session today.  Let me 

      15   briefly review those objectives with you.  The 

      16   first is, I'd like to briefly discuss the Board's 

      17   process that they've been undergoing for the last 

      18   nine months.  Two, we would like to give you a 

      19   short presentation which provides an overview of 

      20   the world of Division IA Athletics today and how 

      21   that current model of Division IA athletics impacts 

      22   an institution like Tulane.  And when I say an 

      23   institution like Tulane, I mean a private national 

      24   research university with high academic standards 

      25   and aspirations, a relatively modest endowment 




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       1   compared to its competitors, who also happens to be 

       2   a member of the non-BCS conference, Conference USA.  

       3   When we give that presentation today, it is merely 

       4   a description of what is going on in D-IA today, 

       5   understanding that the model of Division IA 

       6   athletics will obviously change over the next few 

       7   years.  So, as we give it to you, it is as we know 

       8   it as of this day.  

       9                  And then the third part of today's 

      10   briefing, which is really the most important, is 

      11   really to listen to your concerns, your issues and 

      12   your questions.  We know you have a lot of 

      13   questions, but we are not here to listen to 

      14   ourselves, we're really here to listen to all of 

      15   you.  However, we will attempt to answer any 

      16   questions of a purely factual nature.  So if there 

      17   is anything we can do to clarify any factual 

      18   information, we will try to do that; otherwise, we 

      19   simply want to listen to what you have to say in 

      20   terms of your questions and your issues and your 

      21   concerns.  

      22                  Let me tell you a little bit about 

      23   what motivated this review.  This review was 

      24   actually envisioned four years ago when we began 

      25   the university's academic planning process.  At 




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       1   that time -- and now I am going back to 1999 -- we 

       2   wanted to first establish the university's academic 

       3   plan for all the schools and colleges and have 

       4   them, as part of their planning process, to review 

       5   their operations.  This task has now been 

       6   completed.   So four years ago, we envisioned that 

       7   after we finished with all the schools and 

       8   colleges, we would turn to athletics; and, of 

       9   course, now it is the time this year to turn to 

      10   athletics.  

      11                  The other reason that we're doing 

      12   the review is that the culture and economic model 

      13   driving Division IA has changed dramatically in the 

      14   last seven years and is likely to continue to 

      15   change in the future, and we wanted to begin to 

      16   understand how that culture and model is affecting 

      17   our Department of Athletics and also the 

      18   university's ability to achieve its academic 

      19   mission and goals, given its resources.  

      20                  The question that has come up is:  

      21   Why is the review being done at the Board level?  

      22   And I think there's three answers to that question.  

      23   One is:  The Board of Administrators is the legal 

      24   governing body of Tulane University.  It is the 

      25   only group that has fiduciary responsibility for 




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       1   the institution.  The other reason is:  The Tulane 

       2   Board of Administrators is also the only body 

       3   associated with the university that is 

       4   knowledgeable about all aspects of the university 

       5   and represents all of the university's 

       6   constituencies.  So the Board of Administrators is 

       7   really the only body that understands all of the 

       8   various pieces of the institution and how they fit 

       9   together, and represents everybody that's 

      10   associated with this university, whether it be 

      11   alumni, faculty, staff, students, parents, the 

      12   community, et cetera.  So that's why they're the 

      13   logical group to conduct the review itself.  

      14                  Now, where are we in the process as 

      15   I stand here today?  The Ad Hoc Committee will be 

      16   meeting in the next few weeks to finalize its 

      17   report to the Board.  The Board will receive the 

      18   Committee's report at its next regularly-scheduled 

      19   meeting on May 28th and 29th.  Obviously, as of 

      20   this date no decisions have been made.  And I want 

      21   to underscore that:  As of this date, no decisions 

      22   have been made.  By the way, I also want to add, 

      23   the university is committed to having an 

      24   intercollegiate athletics program as an integral 

      25   part of the collegiate experience.  An option of 




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       1   having no intercollegiate athletics program has 

       2   never been considered by the Board or 

       3   administration.  And I want you to also know that 

       4   we are here today to neither advocate or defend any 

       5   particular option.  So that's not why we're here 

       6   today, to advocate or defend any option.  This is 

       7   really more a fact-finding briefing for all of you. 

       8                  I also want you to know that the  

       9   committee members and Board are aware of all your 

      10   letters, E-mails and phone calls, and that all this 

      11   information has been made available to them.  It's 

      12   been on the web site that I mentioned earlier.  I 

      13   also want you to know that I have personally read 

      14   every single E-mail and letter that has come to the 

      15   university on this topic, as well as seeing a 

      16   written summary of all the phone calls on the 

      17   subject, in addition to whatever responses I've 

      18   given or phone calls that I've taken personally.  

      19   So of the one thousand responses, I can't say that 

      20   I remember every one of them verbatim, but I have 

      21   read every one of them.  And, as you know, we have 

      22   posted all the ones we had on the web site and 

      23   included them, regardless of what they said, so 

      24   you'd have a full transcript of what's going on. 

      25                  The other thing I want to mention to 




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       1   you, as president of the university, I personally 

       2   have an open mind on this subject, and I want you 

       3   to hear that from me directly because there has 

       4   been a lot of discussion and rumors about what I 

       5   might have said or didn't say or feel or not feel; 

       6   but I have an open mind on this subject and will 

       7   continue to until we receive all the input we 

       8   should during the process.  You should also know 

       9   that I am not a member of the Ad Hoc Committee of 

      10   the Board that's been looking at athletics, nor 

      11   have I attended any of their meetings.  So the Ad 

      12   Hoc Committee is really doing this independently, 

      13   and this is something that we thought was very, 

      14   very important.  

      15                  So, with that background, I will now 

      16   turn it over to Yvette Jones who will give you a 

      17   brief overview of the world of Division IA 

      18   Athletics.  

      19             MS. JONES:

      20                  Can y'all hear me in the back?  

      21   Because they criticized me for moving the 

      22   microphone last time. 

      23                  Scott mentioned the reasons that the 

      24   board had undertaken the study at this time, and he 

      25   touched on the fact that there were a number of 




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       1   factors that had changed nationally in Division IA 

       2   athletics, and many of those are listed here.  They 

       3   are not unique to Tulane University.  I think all 

       4   of us know about the excess commercialization and 

       5   the very businesslike manner of Division IA today.  

       6   The Bowl Championship Series Alliance, I'll talk 

       7   about that in just a minute, but that is a post- 

       8   football season championship play where some of the 

       9   conferences got together about ten years ago and 

      10   actually made a very lucrative deal with the 

      11   networks that has created a division between those 

      12   universities and conferences that are in the BCS 

      13   and those that are not.  

      14                  Title IX, which is federal 

      15   legislation to create gender equity in terms of 

      16   opportunities for men and women in sports with 

      17   regard to scholarships and equipment purchases, has 

      18   actually driven up the cost of Division IA 

      19   athletics.  The NCAA has been reviewing its 

      20   regulations, and the requirements to remain in 

      21   Division I are going to increase and drive up the 

      22   cost.  And then, finally, most of our universities 

      23   have been grappling with the issue of a conflict of 

      24   mission between being in big-time athletics and 

      25   actually providing academic programs to our 




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       1   students. 

       2                  I want to start by giving you what 

       3   I call the introductory to the NCAA, because when 

       4   we started this review with the Board, I'm not 

       5   certain that all of us actually knew how it was 

       6   structured.  There are three divisions in the 

       7   NCAA.  

       8                  Division I, which has 321 members.  

       9   Tulane is a member of Division IA.  And, actually, 

      10   the membership has grown from this 115 to about 117 

      11   members today.  And then you can see that there is 

      12   IAA, and I'll talk about that, and IAAA.  

      13                  Division II -- and I'll go through 

      14   what that looks like and what the criteria is -- 

      15   has 290 members.  

      16                  And then the largest division of the 

      17   NCAA is Division III, which has 422 members.  

      18                  To be a member of Division IA, you 

      19   have to field today fourteen varsity sports.  That 

      20   can be seven men and seven women, and actually you 

      21   can have as few as six men and eight women, and 

      22   these are the minimum number of sports that you 

      23   have to field.  You schedule 60 percent of your 

      24   football games against Division I teams; and you 

      25   have attendance requirements, which you have to 




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       1   meet one of these two where you do it over a 

       2   four-year moving average of 17,000 per year; or, as 

       3   you can see, you play in a 30,000 seat stadium and 

       4   then average that over a four-year period.  

       5             There are financial aid requirements for 

       6   Division I.  The minimum is that you have at least 

       7   50 percent of the maximum allowable grants per 

       8   sport, and those are very well-stated by the NCAA,  

       9   or that you offer at least $771,000.  And then 

      10   there's a number there for the women's sports. 

      11                  Division IA is divided into twelve 

      12   conferences.  Six of them are the bowl championship 

      13   or BCS conferences, and six are not.  You can see 

      14   listed here the six that are in the BCS, and you'll 

      15   notice that Conference USA or CUSA, which is the 

      16   conference that Tulane competes in, is actually at 

      17   the top of the non-BCS schools.  

      18                  Now, a number of questions have come 

      19   in over the web site about Stanford and Rice and 

      20   Duke and how they're able to compete, and I just 

      21   want to tell you where they sit.  Stanford is a 

      22   member of the Pac Ten, Rice is a member of the 

      23   Western Athletic Conference, and then Duke would be 

      24   in the Atlantic Conference.  So if you remember 

      25   those when we start talking about numbers and the 




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       1   distribution, I think it's helpful to understand.  

       2   The other thing is that Tulane was a member of the 

       3   SEC about thirty years ago, maybe forty years ago 

       4   now, and Vanderbilt is currently in the SEC.

       5                  Division IAA, actually you have the 

       6   same number of varsity sports offered, fourteen, 

       7   and you can see the division is very much the same 

       8   as IA.  You have a less rigorous scheduling 

       9   requirement with 50 percent of your games being 

      10   against IA teams or IAA, and then you have a 

      11   basketball requirement as well.  The other 

      12   membership requirements are the same as IA.  

      13   Division IA teams are actually listed here.  

      14                  Now, on the private side you can see 

      15   that the Ivy schools -- Harvard, Princeton, Yale 

      16   and others -- are members of IAA.  Actually, they 

      17   were grandfathered-in many years ago, but they 

      18   don't have the same scholarship requirements as 

      19   other IAA or even IA teams, and in fact have fewer 

      20   for football than any of the others.  On the public 

      21   side you can see Grambling, Jackson State, Southern 

      22   University.  These are all within our geographic 

      23   region and are competing at IAA.  

      24                  Now, the third subclass of Division 

      25   I is AAA, which is actually very much the same as 




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       1   IA with the same requirements for scheduling, 

       2   financial aid, and attendance, but this is a model 

       3   that has no football program.  Many of the schools 

       4   in our own conference are actually in IAAA.  You'll 

       5   see Marquette and St. Louis up here.  De Paul is 

       6   also in IAAA, as well as UNC Charlotte on the 

       7   public side is a member of Conference USA as well.  

       8   And, again, these all have the same complement of 

       9   sports, same number of sports without a football 

      10   program.  

      11                  I'll go quickly through Division II 

      12   because the major changes are that you've now gone 

      13   from fielding fourteen sports to ten, and you 

      14   actually have 50 percent of your football games 

      15   required against either Division IA or AA teams or 

      16   Division II.  Your financial aid requirements have 

      17   gone from about 771 as the minimum to a $250,000 

      18   minimum, still 50 percent of whatever is the 

      19   maximum allowed.  And there are no attendance 

      20   requirements for Division II teams.  

      21                  This gives you an idea of the 

      22   universities that are in Division II, both private 

      23   and public.  You'll notice that many of the 

      24   University of California institutions play at this 

      25   division; but, as you know, there are many 




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       1   institutions in the California system.  

       2                  Division III is actually the 

       3   division that's been talked about most widely in 

       4   this discussion publicly because I think it's the 

       5   one that most of us knew the least about.  In 

       6   Division III the requirement is that you have at 

       7   least ten sports, that you have no scheduling 

       8   requirements, although you do belong to different 

       9   leagues, and there are many of those.  You also 

      10   have no attendance requirements for your games, and 

      11   the biggest change, of course, is that there are no 

      12   athletic scholarships.  All of the financial aid 

      13   that is offered is either need-based or 

      14   merit-based, just like the general admissions 

      15   process for other students to the university.  

      16   Division III actually is focused on -- the impact 

      17   is on participation as opposed to on spectators.  

      18   Some of the Division III schools, you can see here 

      19   on the private side there are many private 

      20   institutions that play at this level.  In our 

      21   region you have Emory and Wash. U., and then you 

      22   can see on the public institutions that many of 

      23   them are on the east coast.  But as I said at the 

      24   outset, this is the largest of the three divisions. 

      25                  Now, there are many issues that are 




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       1   global and that are really related to being in 

       2   Division IA.  Some of them affect Tulane and some 

       3   don't.  I think first and foremost, of course, is 

       4   the rising cost to compete at Division I.  I've 

       5   listed here coaches' salaries, facility costs, and 

       6   promotions and marketing.  All of these are costs 

       7   that are driven by the external factors to remain

       8   competitive.  The economics of the BCS and non-BCS 

       9   schools has really driven the cost to compete up.  

      10   Actually, I want to go through some numbers with 

      11   you to show the disparity between being in the BCS 

      12   and not.  

      13                  In the year 2000, these are the 

      14   revenues that were generated and distributed by 

      15   conference.  So if you were a member of the ACC, 

      16   one university would have received $8,000,000.  So 

      17   Vanderbilt, who is a member of the SEC, actually 

      18   got a check for six and a half million dollars from 

      19   the SEC for competing in fiscal 2000 even though 

      20   they may not have gone to a bowl or any postseason 

      21   play.  Likewise, for Tulane in Conference USA, we 

      22   received a check for about $900,000.  And actually 

      23   last year in fiscal 2002, that number went down to 

      24   600,000 because of a revision in our 

      25   revenue-sharing agreement.   




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       1                  Those dollars are actually generated 

       2   by a number of sources, but as you can see, there's 

       3   roughly $100,000,000 of revenues generated within 

       4   the bowl championship conferences, and those come 

       5   from -- I hope you can see here at the bottom -- 

       6   TV rights, the football game revenues, and then 

       7   NCAA tournament revenues.  So these conferences 

       8   actually shared in the distribution of that hundred 

       9   million.  

      10                  About ten million was set aside for 

      11   the non-BCS conferences, including CUSA, and those 

      12   dollars were distributed, of course, to our 

      13   conferences.  Now, within those monies that were 

      14   distributed, about 98,000,000 of it came from the 

      15   bowl payout, and you can see how those dollars are 

      16   reflected here and generated. 

      17                  Now, the distribution among the 

      18   different conferences looks like this.  If you were 

      19   in the Bowl Championship Series Conference, your 

      20   conference actually received anywhere between 15 

      21   and 18 million dollars.  If you were not -- and 

      22   Conference USA is not -- the conference received 

      23   $800,000.  That was to be distributed among all of 

      24   the universities within the conference.  So you see 

      25   when we talk about the "have" and "have nots," that 




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       1   this very alliance has created a real inequity in 

       2   the distribution of the resources. 

       3                  So the first two items that we've 

       4   looked at with IA have been cost and the BCS.  The 

       5   third, of course, is related to gender equity 

       6   issues.  Colleges have been adding women to their 

       7   varsity programs.  It's increasing the budgets.  

       8   Many of us are struggling to be competitive and 

       9   meet our legal obligations, and by doing so have 

      10   been dropping men's sports.  

      11                  In addition, the academic issues 

      12   related to Division IA, the NCAA has been reviewing 

      13   this.  Tulane's academic eligibility requirements 

      14   are higher than the NCAA, and they've been talking 

      15   about that in terms of graduation rates and 

      16   academic progress rates, but it does continue to be 

      17   an issue.  

      18                  And then, finally, the NCAA has been 

      19   talking about changing its membership to remain a 

      20   member of IA.  Effective next summer the numbers 

      21   actually will change.  We will go from having to 

      22   put on the field fourteen sports to putting on the 

      23   field sixteen.  Now, Tulane currently has fourteen.  

      24   We are adding swimming, which will get us to 

      25   fifteen, but this means by next summer we'll have 




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       1   to discuss adding another sport.  

       2                  The scheduling requirements will 

       3   change.  If you'll note, it's 60 percent of your 

       4   games against Division I.  They'll also add that 

       5   you have to play a minimum of five at home.  The 

       6   attendance requirements will change.  You'll see 

       7   that you have to have 15,000 paid attendance per 

       8   home game per year.  This is not an issue for 

       9   Tulane.  We actually do meet these numbers, so this 

      10   would not be one of the factors in terms of looking 

      11   at the new criteria. 

      12                  And then, finally, the financial 

      13   aid requirements are changing dramatically.  If you 

      14   remember, it was 50 percent of the maximum that had 

      15   to be offered or at least $771,000.  Now that 

      16   number has moved up to $4,000,000.  Now, Tulane 

      17   University spends roughly $7,000,000 a year on 

      18   athletic scholarships, so this will not be an issue 

      19   for us in terms of meeting the $4,000,000, but you 

      20   can imagine for many schools with lower tuition or 

      21   fewer scholarships, this could be a great hurdle to 

      22   get over.  

      23                  Conference USA, I'm going to talk 

      24   about some of the issues related to our conference, 

      25   but, first of all, let me just acquaint you with 




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       1   the schools that are in our conference.  You'll 

       2   notice that Army is in the conference for football 

       3   only; and, as I said, there are a number of schools 

       4   that are in IAA without playing football.  TCU or 

       5   Texas Christian University, is the only private 

       6   institution in the football part of our program. 

       7                  Now, Conference USA does have a 

       8   number of issues related to it specifically.  

       9   Primarily, the prime driver here is, of course, 

      10   that it is a non-Bowl Championship Series 

      11   Conference.  In addition, the profile of the 

      12   schools in the conference are very different from 

      13   Tulane.  They have a different academic rank than 

      14   we do, and of course there's only one other private 

      15   institution in the football conference.  There are 

      16   others in the nonfootball portion of the 

      17   conference.  There are academic disparities between 

      18   our program, our student athletes, and the peers in 

      19   CUSA in terms of our eligibility requirements, our 

      20   graduation rates, and our progression rates to 

      21   successful completion.  

      22                  And then, finally, I think the 

      23   largest issue, of course, revolves around the 

      24   income that we realize from being a member of the 

      25   conference.  As I said, that number is somewhere 




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       1   between 600 and about $900,000 a year.  

       2                  Now, there are issues that are 

       3   unique to Tulane, and they are cited here.  First 

       4   of all, I think you now know that our conference 

       5   affiliation puts us in a very unique position, and 

       6   that's because it's a private elite school.  There 

       7   are probably only three other institutions that 

       8   fall in the same place that we do.  That's SMU, TCU 

       9   and Rice.  Rice and TCU have endowments that are 

      10   much larger than ours.  All of these schools are in 

      11   the non-BCS conferences, and I would say that if 

      12   you look at SMU, it's probably got a situation much 

      13   closer to ours, but there are very few private 

      14   schools in Division IA that find themselves in the 

      15   same place that we are. 

      16                  In terms of the academic profile of 

      17   our athletes, we do have higher entering 

      18   standards.  Our student success rate is higher than 

      19   any other institution in the country, I believe, 

      20   and we're very proud of our graduation rates, but 

      21   it does weaken the academic profile of our incoming 

      22   class every year, and there is always pressure to 

      23   consider lowering the academic standards of our 

      24   incoming athletes, something that we've been 

      25   refusing to do.  The cost of our scholarships, 




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       1   $7,000,000 a year, and as tuition goes up, those 

       2   costs continue to rise.  

       3                  The venue for our football program 

       4   is probably the best of all worlds and the worst of 

       5   all worlds.  The Superdome is a great recruiting 

       6   tool.  Take young men there, and they want to play 

       7   at the Superdome.  But to fill up the Superdome is 

       8   a real issue.  In addition to that, we don't have 

       9   the kind of arrangement with that venue that most 

      10   programs have today in their football arenas.  They 

      11   actually have the revenues that come from 

      12   concessions, from parking, and from sponsorships, 

      13   and unfortunately we don't share in any of those 

      14   revenues.  

      15                  Another issue that we do need to 

      16   look at in our program are diversity issues.  We 

      17   have 106 African-Americans competing in our 

      18   Division IA program.  That's about 25 percent of 

      19   our undergraduate class.  And so it's something 

      20   that we need to be mindful of as we talk about any 

      21   kind of change or any kind of revision in the 

      22   programs that we offer. 

      23                  I mentioned the new NCAA 

      24   requirements in the addition of a sport, and we 

      25   will have to look at that and the rising costs from 




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       1   that next year.  

       2                  And then, finally, the financial 

       3   status of the department, which really is a 

       4   reflection of all these items.  Currently we are 

       5   losing about $5,000,000 a year.  That is not with 

       6   regard to the scholarships, so the scholarships of 

       7   $7,000,000 are in addition to that, and there is an 

       8   allowable subsidy of $2,000,000 for the program.  

       9   So on an operating basis, we are losing about 

      10   $7,000,000 with two of that being a subsidy from 

      11   the university, and this is something that we have 

      12   to look at in terms of the addition costs that are 

      13   seen in the future. 

      14                  Now, the Board actually saw this 

      15   presentation back in September, and as a result of 

      16   it, really put these two questions on the table for 

      17   the Ad Hoc Committee to consider.  First is:  How 

      18   is this affecting Tulane and institutions like it? 

      19   And then, finally:  What would be the best steps 

      20   for our institution to take?  As Scott said, the Ad 

      21   Hoc Committee has been meeting, they have one more 

      22   meeting, and then they'll make a recommendation or 

      23   set of findings to the Board on May 28th.  So, with 

      24   that, I'll turn it back over to Paul.  

      25             MR. BARRON:




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       1                   Hi, I want to add my welcome to all 

       2   of you.  We really appreciate your taking time out 

       3   of your evening to come and tell us what you think 

       4   about this matter.  The purpose of this part of the 

       5   meeting is to get input and comments from the 

       6   university and general community.  This is your 

       7   opportunity to let us know what you think and hear 

       8   from you.  

       9                  Let me explain briefly how the 

      10   process is going to work tonight.  As you can see, 

      11   we have microphones on both sides of the room.  

      12   Feel free to come to one of them and I will 

      13   recognize you.  As mentioned, we're taking a 

      14   transcript of this proceeding, and we're also 

      15   recording it for purposes of material for the board 

      16   and the Ad Hoc Committee.  It would be helpful, 

      17   therefore, if you would identify yourself when you 

      18   begin, if only by your first name.  That will allow 

      19   the person doing the transcript to know when there 

      20   is a transition from one speaker to another.  

      21                  Each person will be given three 

      22   minutes to speak to insure that everybody has an 

      23   opportunity to do so.  I will let you know when 

      24   you're near the end of the time.  If you have more 

      25   to say, we will be happy to give you another chance 




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       1   to speak, time permitting.  

       2                  For those of you who would like to 

       3   submit a comment, question, or concern in writing 

       4   rather than coming to the microphone to be 

       5   considered in this process, simply raise your hand 

       6   and we will give you a card or a piece of paper, 

       7   and you can write your comments on that.  Hold your 

       8   hand up again, and we will collect it.  If you'd 

       9   like me to read what you've written to everyone, 

      10   please indicate that on the card and, time 

      11   permitting, I will do so. 

      12                  I want to reemphasize something that 

      13   Scott said earlier, and that is the fact that we 

      14   will answer the questions we can, the factual 

      15   questions we can.  In many cases, however, the 

      16   answers to a lot of your questions and the Board's 

      17   questions and the Ad Hoc Committee's questions will 

      18   evolve over the balance of the process.  We will 

      19   obviously note carefully and fully consider any 

      20   questions that you raise, even if they are ones 

      21   that have no answers at this point.  

      22                  Without any further ado, there's 

      23   always this awkward period where the first person 

      24   decides who's going to come to the microphone.  It 

      25   wasn't an awkward period.  Please, sir. 




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       1             MR. JASON SANCHEZ:

       2                  Perhaps that's always my role in the 

       3   meeting.  Jason Sanchez, College of Arts and 

       4   Sciences, 1992; Freeman School of Business, 2003.  

       5   We've heard a lot today, I think very rightly, 

       6   about costs associated with the program.  We've 

       7   heard virtually nothing about revenues, whether 

       8   those be tangible in terms of cash or in terms of 

       9   exposure and marketing for the university, and I am 

      10   wondering how much we are considering the 

      11   publicity, the marketing we are receiving from 

      12   having the university on ESPN or in different 

      13   newspapers in terms of the marketing that we would 

      14   receive, and if we stopped having a Division IA 

      15   program, whether that impact on the university's 

      16   name recognition, particularly outside of Louisiana 

      17   and the Gulf Coast region, would be so detrimental 

      18   that we would have to spend virtually the same 

      19   amount of money in investing and building our own 

      20   name branding throughout the rest of the country.  

      21   So that was sort of my first comment is that we 

      22   need to consider all tacit revenue sources, not 

      23   simply cash. 

      24                  And the second is sort of an open 

      25   question also for the Ad Hoc Committee.  Are we 




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       1   perhaps considering that there is some changes 

       2   happening in the BCS conferences, and would it be 

       3   possible for Tulane to align with a non-BCS 

       4   conference?  Conference USA itself was resurrected 

       5   out of the old Metro Conference, which was invented 

       6   not for football but actually for basketball at the 

       7   time of its institution, and I'm wondering if that 

       8   has been looked into.  Thank you. 

       9             MR. BARRON:

      10                  Thank you very much. 

      11             LAUREN:

      12                  My name is Lauren.  I'm a Newcomb 

      13   College freshmen.  First of all, I'd just like the 

      14   administrators to take a look around the room and 

      15   see how many students we have in the audience.  It 

      16   looks to me like it's overwhelmingly students, and 

      17   I think that's great, and I think that shows how 

      18   important the students' input is. 

      19                  The main point that I want to make 

      20   is that it seems like most of the issues here are 

      21   centering around football.  From what I've 

      22   experienced in my freshman year at Tulane 

      23   University, football is very different from the 

      24   rest of the athletics at the university.  Generally 

      25   the alumni donations that are made based on 




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       1   athletics are from basketball, baseball, not on 

       2   football.  Football is obviously traditionally a 

       3   university sport; however, at Tulane it's thought 

       4   of -- it's not thought of as well as some of the 

       5   other athletics.   My main question is:  Why could 

       6   we not drop down to Division IA or what have you in 

       7   just football or in one or two sports?  I know that 

       8   there are certain schools that have different 

       9   athletics that have different divisions.  

      10             MR. BARRON:

      11                  Okay.  Thank you.

      12             ASHLEY:

      13                  Hi, my name is Ashley.  I'm a 

      14   Newcomb College sophomore.  Rather than ask or 

      15   question any factual statements, I just want to 

      16   implore upon the people on the stage and the people 

      17   on the Board to consider the following.  In the 

      18   April 25th issue of Tulane Hullabaloo we published 

      19   a front page story kind of breaking this news to a 

      20   lot of the individuals on this campus, and through 

      21   that the alumni response that we have received 

      22   through our comment system has been phenomenal.  My 

      23   mailbox was packed the next day, and all of these 

      24   have been concerns over the fact that they feel 

      25   that an elimination of athletics in any way, shape, 




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       1   or form is going to eliminate a part of the 

       2   external link that they have to this university. 

       3                  That being said, another thing is, I 

       4   don't necessarily want to make an argument for stay 

       5   at Division IA, because I don't really feel that 

       6   that's going to be a lucrative thing for this 

       7   university to do, but I would implore upon the 

       8   committee to not considering dropping something 

       9   drastic as to a Division III or anything like that, 

      10   but consider possibly dropping Division IAAA, 

      11   dropping football, dropping a program like that, 

      12   because due to that -- if you do that, it's not 

      13   only going to hurt our retention rates, it's not 

      14   only going to hurt what President Cowen likes to 

      15   call a multiversity, all of these wonderful goals 

      16   we have for our university, trying to keep our 

      17   retention rates up, trying to keep the apathy 

      18   within our community from increasing, and possibly 

      19   reversing it, this is not the step towards that.  

      20   While athletics are not the center of a university, 

      21   it is part of the experience of what college is.  

      22   It's a supplementation to the academic environment 

      23   that we have here, and I feel that if you cut that 

      24   out, you're cutting out a big part of your 

      25   community.  You're cutting out a big part of the 




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       1   students whose support you need to continue the 

       2   academic integrity and the social integrity of this 

       3   university.  And I feel that if you want to reach 

       4   your goals, your goals which are so wonderful for 

       5   all of us, you know, your ten-year plan, your 

       6   twenty-year plan, if you want to reach all of that, 

       7   this is not the way to start to go about it.  It 

       8   will create a shock to the Tulane Community that 

       9   will be irreversible, and I don't think that you're 

      10   really understanding the severity that any sort of 

      11   extinguishment of athletics would have on this 

      12   university.  Because while again it is not the 

      13   center of this university, not having it will make 

      14   us realize how important it was while it was 

      15   actually here, and our alumni should also be 

      16   considered. 

      17                  So, while I have no questions, I 

      18   just want to make sure that that is very, very 

      19   clear.

      20             MR. BARRON:

      21                  Thank you very much.  Yes, sir.

      22             DARION:

      23                  My name is Darion and I'm a Tulane 

      24   College freshman.   My biggest concern right now 

      25   is, like I'm a big supporter of staying in Division 




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       1   I sports, but why -- about the notice that we're 

       2   receiving now, it's so short.  Like these talks 

       3   right now, it's when the majority of the students 

       4   are gone, and the few students that are here -- 

       5   like we're here for the leadership retreat -- are 

       6   your seniors, and that's like nobody here, and like 

       7   notification about it -- why couldn't this have 

       8   been done like three weeks ago before finals 

       9   started so more students can be able to vocalize 

      10   their opinion about it?

      11             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      12                  Paul, I'd like to respond to that. 

      13                  The Board decided for a number of 

      14   reasons, which I'll explain in just a few minutes, 

      15   that it was important that this discussion occur at 

      16   the Board level.  And, of course, as I described, 

      17   the committee was put in place in December and 

      18   really got to work in January.  They felt that it 

      19   was important that they took a period of time in 

      20   their own process to get their arms around the 

      21   complexity of the issue, because it is a very 

      22   complex issue.  The other thing they were very 

      23   concerned about was that if there was a public 

      24   discussion of this too early in the process, it may 

      25   do harm to the Department of Athletics, because 




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       1   it's hard enough to have this discussion as we're 

       2   having now out there for a few weeks.  Can you 

       3   imagine if this had happened in February or March 

       4   or even April when they're in the midst of 

       5   recruiting seasons and so on?  So there was a 

       6   combination of making sure the board itself had 

       7   their arms around what all the legitimate issues 

       8   were, and then secondly, to make sure that if there 

       9   was going to be public discussion, it came at a 

      10   time in the year, and unfortunately this is 

      11   probably the only time of the year, where you can 

      12   actually have it and it minimizes the amount of 

      13   negative impact for the department. 

      14                  Now, the other thing I would just 

      15   say with respect to that, at the time that the 

      16   information about the review became public, there 

      17   was beginning to have discussion at the Board level 

      18   about actually having a public hearing process, but 

      19   the information became public, and now we've 

      20   converted obviously the last three weeks into that 

      21   process itself.  So it's really a timing issue and 

      22   making sure that we had this in a very controlled 

      23   way so that the department itself didn't get hurt 

      24   just by the mere fact there was prolonged 

      25   discussion of the topic.




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       1             DARION:

       2                  Thank you.  

       3             MR. BARRON: 

       4                  Thank you.  Yes, ma'am.  

       5             EMILY:

       6                  My name is Emily.  I'm a sophomore 

       7   at Newcomb.  I wanted to play off a little bit of 

       8   what Ashley spoke about just before this young man.  

       9   My main comment was, my father came here on a full 

      10   scholarship to play basketball, and he lived on a 

      11   ranch in Texas where he couldn't afford to go to 

      12   college, and this was his way of coming.  Now he's 

      13   managing partner of a very successful law firm in 

      14   New Orleans.  I've grown up watching people, most 

      15   recently Janelle Burse and Grace Daley, go on to 

      16   play for the WMBA, being on scholarship, and then 

      17   going on to bigger and better things other than 

      18   school.  And I feel like -- I'm not sure of the 

      19   exact number, I feel like it's 90 percent of 

      20   African-Americans that come to this school are on 

      21   athletic scholarship, and I think since -- I know 

      22   Mr. Cowen and a bunch of people have said that it's 

      23   great that we want diversity, and we want more 

      24   diversity at the school, and I think that by 

      25   dropping to Division III, if we were to, that would 




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       1   cut out a significant amount of not just 

       2   African-Americans but a bunch of other races that 

       3   are on athletic scholarship.  But just to give the 

       4   people the opportunity to come, being on 

       5   scholarship just helps them to come to the school, 

       6   get a good education without going to a state 

       7   school.  So that was just my main comment. 

       8             MR. BARRON:

       9                  Thank you very much. 

      10             JOSH:

      11                  Hi there.  My name is Josh, I'm a 

      12   freshman at Tulane College, and I'm an avid sports 

      13   fan, and as such -- the way I knew about the 

      14   school -- I think I was in sixth grade or whatever 

      15   when Tulane was actually good at basketball, and 

      16   Gerald Honeycutt and all those guys, I actually 

      17   knew about them, I followed them a little bit.  

      18   That's how I knew about the school, that's why I 

      19   applied here, and it led me here.  

      20                  I know a lot of different guys -- I 

      21   mean, Darion is not my roommate, but he lives right 

      22   next door to me.  I see him walking around with 

      23   Tulane baseball shirts.  I own a basketball and 

      24   football one.  I don't think you guys realize that 

      25   that is a huge marketing thing.  I mean, I would 




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       1   never buy a Tulane -- I would buy a few Tulane 

       2   shirts, but not the magnitude or the sports 

       3   insignia.  While we're not a UNC, a Michigan, or a 

       4   Duke that has millions of dollars of revenue from 

       5   that kind of stuff, I'm sure there's a great deal 

       6   of revenue from those type of shirts and hats and 

       7   whatnot.  

       8                  And then, finally, you talk about 

       9   like Emory and Washington University in St. Louis, 

      10   two excellent schools, probably higher ranked than 

      11   ours, but the thing is, it is a downfall that they 

      12   do not have a great sports, even a Division I 

      13   sports school.  I looked at Emory.  I didn't like 

      14   the community there because they didn't have a 

      15   sports scene to go root for.  I don't go to many 

      16   games, but it's always there if I need it, and it's 

      17   kind of nice knowing that we are on ESPN every now 

      18   and then.   If we took the direction to invest a 

      19   few million dollars more into basketball, football 

      20   or whatever, get a better school, get more 

      21   attendance, increase the revenue, it would be an 

      22   investment in the future instead of just giving up 

      23   now and then losing the money later.

      24             MR. BARRON:

      25                  Thank you.




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       1             McCann:

       2                  Hi, I'm McCann.  I'm a junior here 

       3   at Newcomb College, and I have a question that 

       4   hopefully you guys can answer.  If we did change 

       5   conference or change division, when would that go 

       6   into place?  What year?  

       7             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       8                  It would take place the year after 

       9   next.  So, for fiscal year '04, which starts this 

      10   July 1st, we would be just as we have been.  So if 

      11   there were any change, it would be starting the 

      12   year after.

      13             McCANN:

      14                  So not this year's incoming 

      15   freshmen?  

      16             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      17                  That's correct. 

      18             McCANN:

      19                  Okay.  Thank you.  

      20             MR. BARRON:

      21                  You're welcome.  Thank you.  Yes, 

      22   sir. 

      23             TRAVIS MEYER:

      24                  My name is Travis Meyer, I'm a 

      25   freshman in Tulane College, and my question is:  I 




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       1   wondered if the committee has considered the impact 

       2   it will have on admissions for incoming freshmen.  

       3   I know that I didn't think about it until I 

       4   actually heard about this, but when I looked back, 

       5   I looked back to all the schools that I applied to, 

       6   and not a one of them were anything but Division 

       7   IA.  And it wasn't something that I thought about, 

       8   like I have to go to a Division I school, but 

       9   looking back, it's like it was subconsciously I 

      10   just looked at it, I guess the advertising and 

      11   whatnot.  It's the only thing I knew.  And I think 

      12   when I talked to my peers, that's a big thing,  

      13   because a lot of them had the same situation.  They 

      14   look back and they go, wow, I didn't apply to 

      15   anything but IA schools.  And I wondered if the 

      16   committee has considered what impact that will have 

      17   on the admissions.  

      18             MR. BARRON:

      19                  Thank you.  Ma'am.  

      20             KELLY: 

      21             Good evening.  My name is Kelly Bagayoko.  

      22   I'm a rising junior.  I actually have a question.  

      23   As a minority and African-American student here at 

      24   Tulane, I've noticed that very little is done to 

      25   recruit minority students, and even less is done to 




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       1   retain them.  So you mentioned that the cut-out of 

       2   scholarships would mean -- well, there are a lot of 

       3   athletes who are African-American, but what I don't 

       4   think that you're really recognizing is that a lot 

       5   of these students are males.  So when they're 

       6   gone -- and the majority of academic students who 

       7   are African-American are female.  So you're going 

       8   to end up with an African-American population that 

       9   is basically all females, and I don't know how 

      10   that's going to go with freshmen, but that would be 

      11   a consideration because as African-American 

      12   females, fewer and fewer African-American males are 

      13   going to school, and that's something you look at, 

      14   what the African-American male-to-female ratio is.  

      15   So the ratio here at Tulane is going to be poor, to 

      16   say the least.  

      17                  And continuing to have the programs 

      18   isn't so much that the opportunity for diversity is 

      19   helping African-American students, but it's helping 

      20   the Tulane experience as a whole, because when you 

      21   come to college, especially liberal arts students, 

      22   you need to come here to learn from other people's 

      23   experiences, backgrounds, what they can teach you 

      24   that you couldn't learn from a book.  If Tulane's 

      25   diversity becomes -- you understand what I'm 




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       1   saying?  If there's basically no diversity here, 

       2   you're going to have a handful of African-American 

       3   students, and you'll still have international 

       4   students at the business school, but you have a lot 

       5   of international students on the athletic teams as 

       6   well.  So if Tulane's diversity is basically none, 

       7   what are you going to do about that?  Are you going 

       8   to hype up the Office of Multicultural Affairs?  

       9   Are you going to do more recruiting?  What is 

      10   Tulane going to do about that, or is that not a 

      11   consideration?  

      12             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      13                  All of the factors you mentioned are 

      14   a consideration and are being thought about. 

      15             MR. BARRON:

      16                  Thank you very much.  Yes, sir.  

      17             LOUIS:

      18                  First of all, I just want to say 

      19   "Roll Wave." 

      20                  (Applause) 

      21                  I'm sorry, my name is Louis Lowe, 

      22   I'm a rising sophomore.  I forgot that part.  My 

      23   comment stems from mainly alumni giving.  In light 

      24   of all this recent news about Tulane looking at its 

      25   athletic program, the Saints gave $20,000 to the 




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       1   program.  That came out of Jim Haslett's -- I think 

       2   that's the coach's name -- it came out of his own 

       3   paycheck.  It's really like help -- you know, 

       4   people really care.  Alumni really care, students 

       5   really care.  I'm a broke college student, but I'm 

       6   planning to give some money to the program.  I just 

       7   really think that can really help.  I see alumni 

       8   caring about it, and I think that's a big factor, 

       9   and I hope the Board considers that.  I hope they 

      10   haven't already made a decision, which obviously 

      11   you said they haven't, but they've already like 

      12   kind of formulated their opinions and stuff, and I 

      13   hope people realize that this is like a big issue, 

      14   and if it's taken away, I think alumni giving will 

      15   just like -- just really go down.  

      16                  I've read a lot of the comments on 

      17   the web site, and I know that alumni have said that 

      18   you won't see a penny from me again if you take 

      19   away the athletic program, and already the giving's 

      20   come in.  So I just want to make sure the Board 

      21   considers that, which I'm sure they are, but, you 

      22   know, that's a big factor. I think it can really 

      23   help when people really care, and I think they do.  

      24   Thank you. 

      25             MR. BARRON:




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       1                  Thank you very much.  Yes, sir.

       2             ERIC:

       3                  Hi, my name is Eric.  I'm a junior 

       4   at Tulane College.  There have been a lot of rumors 

       5   floating around as far as actions that might be 

       6   taken towards our Athletic Department from moving 

       7   to DIII to moving -- to remove the football 

       8   program.  I was just wondering if the thought of 

       9   moving from Conference USA to a BCS conference had 

      10   been considered, or what other actions have been 

      11   considered by the Board or by the committee.

      12             MR. BARRON:

      13                  Thank you.  Yes, sir.

      14             RICHARD:

      15                  Hello, my name is Richard.  I'm -- 

      16             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      17                  Paul, if I could -- 

      18             MR. BARRON:

      19                  Oh, I'm sorry.  I apologize. 

      20             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      21                  What I could say is, is all of those 

      22   possibilities about conference realignment and BCS 

      23   are very important pieces of information that we're 

      24   very aware of and is part of our process. 

      25             MR. BARRON:




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       1                  I'm sorry.  Yes, sir.

       2             RICHARD:

       3                  Hello, my name is Richard.  I'm an 

       4   alumnus of the School of Business, as it was 

       5   previously known a long, long time ago in the early 

       6   '80s.  I have a couple of quick questions, if you 

       7   please.  Maybe President Cowen or Yvette Jones 

       8   could answer these.  First, I'd like to know about 

       9   what is the status or how are efforts proceeding as 

      10   far as working to increase or address Tulane's own 

      11   university endowment; and, second, how does Tulane 

      12   University's endowment compare to Texas Christian 

      13   or a rival school in Conference USA?  It seems to 

      14   be having a pretty solid athletics program for 

      15   themself, and I don't hear any news about Texas 

      16   Christian considering dropping down.  Thank you 

      17   very much.

      18             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      19                  I can take the part about the 

      20   endowment without giving you the specific numbers.  

      21   Our endowment, depending on the day in the market, 

      22   is about $600,000,000, and we have an operating 

      23   budget of about $600,000,000.  If you look at the 

      24   institutions that we compare ourself most like, 

      25   Vanderbilt, Washington University, Emory in terms 




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       1   of academic institutions, they tend to have 

       2   endowments that are about three to four times the 

       3   size of their operating budget.  I do not know that 

       4   answer for TCU, even though I do know it is larger 

       5   than our endowment is, and their operating budget 

       6   is much smaller, but I don't know if that ratio is 

       7   3-to-1 or 2-to-1. 

       8                  Your second question is, is we have 

       9   been for, at least as long as I've been here, five 

      10   years, on the silent phases of the capital campaign 

      11   for the university.   We have had a great deal of 

      12   success with that capital campaign, and a lot of 

      13   the money that we are raising is money for the 

      14   endowment itself.  We are not blessed though, 

      15   unfortunately, right now with good economic times 

      16   and good markets, so that has hurt us; but 

      17   actually, the fund-raising has gone very well for 

      18   it.

      19             MR. BARRON:

      20                  Yes, sir.

      21             JONATHAN STROUD:

      22                  My name is Jonathan Stroud.  I'm 

      23   the viewpoint editor for the Tulane Hullabaloo.  My 

      24   father was an alumni of the school, as well as my 

      25   sister eleven years ago, and I've kept close 




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       1   contact with her about this issue because she knows 

       2   a lot of people in the alumni community from that 

       3   time.  A lot of the comments that have come in from 

       4   the Hullabaloo and from her have been nothing but 

       5   support for every program but football.  I know 

       6   that I have friends that are better students than I 

       7   am that play volleyball and baseball -- and, I 

       8   mean, there are wonderful students in football, but 

       9   it seems like every single financial, academic, 

      10   space issue that was brought up earlier had to do 

      11   with the football program, and I just wanted you to 

      12   know and the Board to know that all the comments 

      13   from the community reflect somewhat of the same 

      14   opinion, at least the ones that I've seen, so I 

      15   just wanted you to know that.  

      16             MR. BARRON:

      17                  Thank you.  I'd just as soon let 

      18   everybody who's had a chance -- if you don't mind.  

      19   I promise you there will be a lull, there always 

      20   is, and then you're welcome to go again. 

      21             ALEX:

      22                  My name is Alex.  I'm a freshman in 

      23   Tulane College.  I just wanted to make reference to 

      24   one specific thing that Ms. Jones said.  She seemed 

      25   very concerned with matters of revenue and 




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       1   expenditures, specifically the $7,000,000 paid out 

       2   in scholarships, and the concern thereto related 

       3   with raising tuition.  Tuition is already at 

       4   $38,000, and there are 7,000 undergrads.  How much 

       5   more revenue does Tulane University need?  How much 

       6   more can you raise tuition?  We are a private elite 

       7   school, as you mentioned, but we are a second tier 

       8   school, and one of the things we have going for us 

       9   is solid Division I athletics.  

      10             AUDIENCE MEMBER:

      11                  We're Tier 1. 

      12             ALEX:

      13                  Pardon me, I stand corrected.  My 

      14   point being, if you're concerned with the 

      15   $7,000,000 paid out yearly in athletic 

      16   scholarships, and the correlation between that and 

      17   rising tuition, simply stop raising tuition.  

      18   $7,000,000 isn't exactly that much from 7,000 

      19   undergrads paying 40,000 a year.  That's all.

      20             MR. BARRON:

      21                  Thank you.  Yes, ma'am.

      22             ASHLEY:

      23                  I'm Ashley.  I'm a Newcomb College 

      24   freshman.  I wrote for the Hullabaloo for sports 

      25   this year, and I just have to say, it was an 




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       1   incredible experience.  I got to meet many of the 

       2   coaches and many of the players and interview very 

       3   many people, and something that I noticed, and it's 

       4   something that I learned about in psychology 

       5   actually this year, is that there are multiple 

       6   intelligences, and many of these athletes -- we 

       7   continue to say academic university, but if you ask 

       8   me, they have a definite intelligence in the way 

       9   that they're able to control their body and the way 

      10   that they're able to compete.  And someone who 

      11   necessarily wouldn't gain admission to our 

      12   university but might gain admission through an 

      13   athletic scholarship but is serious and maintains 

      14   their grades and graduates from this university 

      15   will come out with so much.  And I believe that 

      16   their ability to use their body and to compete in 

      17   the ways that they do brings so much to this 

      18   college and affords them more opportunities.  I 

      19   don't know that I agree with just dropping all of 

      20   our scholarships because I believe that those 

      21   people, that intelligence merits acceptability, and 

      22   it merits a good education as well.  And as we have 

      23   mentioned before, that's a great deal of our 

      24   diversity, and I think that that's definitely, we 

      25   probably all agree, an issue at Tulane.  So I think 




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       1   that that's just something to be considered, that 

       2   that is an intelligence in itself, and that that 

       3   does merit certain acceptance as well, and not only 

       4   academics should be considered.  

       5             MR. BARRON:

       6                  Thank you very much.  Yes, sir.

       7             TONY:

       8                  I'm Tony, I'm a first year student 

       9   in the School of Architecture.  I have a comment 

      10   and a question.  First thing, just to reinforce the 

      11   name recognition.  Recently I went back home and 

      12   visited some old teachers, and one of my old 

      13   teachers knew of Tulane not because of its 

      14   academics or its history, he knew it because we 

      15   competed in the ConAgra Foods Bowl.  So I want to 

      16   say that no matter how good we are of a school, 

      17   Number 42, or whether we come up to even Number 1, 

      18   people know of us because of our sports as well. 

      19                  My question is not necessarily about 

      20   the changes, but what is the plan to inform the 

      21   students?  I think the statistic is 50 percent live 

      22   500 miles away from the school.  Obviously, we 

      23   don't have easy access to the Times-Pic or the 

      24   Hullabaloo, especially the Hullabaloo during the 

      25   summer.  How are we going to be informed of what 




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       1   happens, and how are we going to be informed of 

       2   what's going on now even in the limbo phase?  

       3             MS. JONES:

       4                  First of all, we are using the 

       5   university's web site as the main communication 

       6   right now, and there's new information posted there 

       7   daily, so you should always look at the web site.  

       8   Once the Board has made a decision, we do plan to 

       9   launch a communications plan that would include a 

      10   Tulane talk, so those of you that still have E-mail 

      11   access, but we'll make certain that we get it out 

      12   on the web site, and there are probably some other 

      13   channels of communication.

      14             MR. BARRON:

      15                  Yes, sir.

      16             JEFF:

      17                  Hi, my name is Jeff, and I'm a 

      18   rising junior in the business school.  I have more 

      19   of a comment concerning the relationship between 

      20   administration and students.  I think it's pretty 

      21   clear that the overwhelming majority of students at 

      22   Tulane do not support the decision to go to any 

      23   other division and switch conferences or anything 

      24   like that.  I think one thing that I think the 

      25   administration probably is but definitely should be 




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       1   aware of is the idea that dropping down to a 

       2   different division would almost create a sense of 

       3   bitterness among the students, I feel like.  

       4                  I give tours for the Tulane 

       5   University, I'm also an admissions intern, and I 

       6   have a hard time when parents of upcoming 

       7   freshmen -- they've actually already asked me 

       8   questions, you know, "We hear rumors that Tulane is 

       9   going to go down and not be Division 1 anymore.  

      10   How do you feel about this?"  I always -- when I 

      11   talk about Tulane, I obviously love it so much, and 

      12   I have nothing but positive things to say.  

      13   Whenever someone asks about the party school 

      14   aspect, I'm able to defer around it and talk about 

      15   the other aspects of the school and why we're not a 

      16   party school.  But when someone asks me about what 

      17   goes on with us becoming something besides Division 

      18   I, I have a really hard time saying that it's 

      19   something that the students support and something 

      20   that the students are in favor of.  I think that 

      21   not only with incoming freshman but people who are 

      22   asking questions about it, parents, people who -- I 

      23   serve on student panels to talk about the school.  

      24   I have a hard time saying that this is looked on 

      25   favorably by the students.  I think not only does 




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       1   it make a negative impact on incoming freshmen or 

       2   people who are interested in applying to Tulane, I 

       3   think it creates a sense of bitterness amongst the 

       4   students who really don't support this decision.  

       5   If you look how many students are here right now, 

       6   if this decision were made, I feel like all these 

       7   students, the majority of students at Tulane who do 

       8   not support this decision would feel like their 

       9   opinions have been overlooked.  I mean, there are 

      10   so many people that are so adamant against it.  I 

      11   mean, we understand both sides of the story, but I 

      12   really feel like the administration should be aware 

      13   that it would create an even greater rift between 

      14   the student population and the administration at 

      15   school here. 

      16             MR. BARRON:

      17                  Thank you for your input.  Yes, 

      18   ma'am.

      19             LAUREN:

      20                  Hi, my name is Lauren, and I'm a 

      21   Newcomb College freshman.  I just have a purely 

      22   factual question.  I was wondering why we're no 

      23   longer part of the SEC conference.  

      24             MS. JONES:

      25                  He didn't make that decision. 




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       1             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       2                  I was not here for that one, even

       3   though I'm being blamed for that also.  We dropped 

       4   out of the SEC -- was it in the 1970s?  

       5             MS. JONES:

       6                  In 1965.  

       7             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       8                  All right, 1965 we dropped out of 

       9   the SEC.  The decision was made at that time.  I 

      10   wasn't here, and so I don't know the rationale 

      11   behind that decision.

      12             MR. BARRON:

      13                  Yes, sir.

      14             JONATHAN STEWART:

      15                  Hello, my name is Jonathan Stewart, 

      16   and I'm a rising junior to the business school.  

      17   I'm originally from New Orleans, and I've been 

      18   attending Tulane games since I was twelve years 

      19   old, and presently now I'm nineteen, so I had a 

      20   chance to see Gerald Honeycutt, Grace, and Shawn 

      21   King play everybody when the Superdome used to be 

      22   full when they really didn't have any 

      23   air-conditioning and we used to sweat it out.  

      24                  But the biggest concern I have, when 

      25   you say we're losing money as far as football, why 




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       1   can't we try to renegotiate the contract with the 

       2   Superdome to get revenues from parking or from 

       3   concessions?  And another thing is, why we can't 

       4   move like football to the independent conference 

       5   where we could play Notre Dame and open up to other 

       6   Division I schools and get prime time coverage on 

       7   ESPN or NBC?  Another concern I was having, if we 

       8   move to a D-III, we really won't get any athletes 

       9   that will come to pay $38,000 to play on a football 

      10   team that's Division III, so we'll still probably 

      11   lose money because we'll just be like a bunch of 

      12   walk-ons, basically.  And the biggest talk is about 

      13   moving just football or whatever.  Why we can't 

      14   look at moving back to the SEC or move to an 

      15   independent conference where we could have a chance 

      16   to make more revenues? 

      17             MR. BARRON:

      18                  Thank you very much.  Yes, sir.

      19             STEVEN:

      20                  I'm Steven, and I'm a freshman in 

      21   the architecture school.  Recently I finished 

      22   reading a book called Tulane - The Emergence of a 

      23   Modern University, and in reading this book I kept 

      24   in mind -- I wanted to answer the question:  Why is 

      25   Tulane so far away from the New Orleans community, 




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       1   and why do so many old alumni not -- they don't 

       2   really care about their school?  I know a lot of 

       3   alumni that are LSU fans and stuff.  So while 

       4   reading this, I looked at it, and there were two 

       5   things that really affected this, and one was 

       6   whenever it became more of a national university, 

       7   but even more so was in the '60s whenever they 

       8   started changing a lot of things with the athletic 

       9   program.  A lot of our alumni became very upset, 

      10   and they had problems with alumni donations and 

      11   stuff.  And I hope the Board is looking at stuff 

      12   like this and seeing that this might actually 

      13   happen again, and we might fall further away from 

      14   the community, something that we probably shouldn't 

      15   be doing. 

      16                  Also, going to the last couple of 

      17   baseball games, I had the opportunity to sit -- I 

      18   sat in a general -- up in the stands with the 

      19   alumni and stuff, and I started talking to a few of 

      20   them, and I met people that graduated in '49 and 

      21   '60 and stuff like that, and it was really 

      22   interesting to be able to just talk to these people 

      23   and ask them how Tulane was whenever they were 

      24   there, and find out information about how they've 

      25   been having the Hullabaloo cheer forever, and how 




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       1   they think it's a horrible cheer too.  But it was 

       2   these experiences that really added to my pride in 

       3   this university and made me want to be more 

       4   involved in this university.  

       5             MR. BARRON:

       6                  Thank you very much.  Yes, ma'am.

       7             JULIA MOTT:

       8                  Who won the Division III National 

       9   Football Championship last year? 

      10             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      11                  Mount Union. 

      12             JULIA MOTT:

      13                  Where are they? 

      14             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      15                  They're in Ohio.

      16             JULIA MOTT:

      17                  Okay.  Thank you.

      18             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      19                  I just happen to be a sports buff, 

      20   so I know that.

      21             NICHOLAS VLAHOS:

      22                  Nicholas Vlahos, Freeman School, 

      23   Class of 2000; law school, class of 2003; men's 

      24   varsity tennis, '96 to 2000.  I just wanted to kind 

      25   of hit on a couple of points that had been 




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       1   mentioned earlier.  I think financially when we're 

       2   talking about athletics, people talk about 

       3   football, but even though I played an Olympic 

       4   sport, I think it's the Olympic sports that 

       5   actually account for 70 percent of the costs.  And 

       6   we're looking at athletics at a time where you 

       7   mentioned there's an economic downturn, or we're 

       8   coming off an economic downturn that has affected 

       9   the whole university, including your endowment plan 

      10   I believe that you said, that it's not going with 

      11   the economic times.  We're looking at something 

      12   that I believe -- maybe this question can be 

      13   answered -- athletics accounts for less than one 

      14   percent of the entire deficit that the university 

      15   is running?  If that is correct, I don't know.  

      16   That's the number I've heard.  

      17             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      18                  No, I think what you're referring to 

      19   is, is someone made a calculation that the 

      20   5,000,000 was about one percent of the operating 

      21   budget of the institution. 

      22             NICHOLAS VLAHOS:

      23                  Okay.  And just the other point I 

      24   wanted to stress is the marketing.  I've seen 

      25   stories about the '98 undefeated season, the 2001 




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       1   College World Series, the spike in applications for 

       2   the university that they had.  I think one of the 

       3   magazines came out and had Tulane as one of the top 

       4   ten right after that College World Series in terms 

       5   of application increase, and a lot of that was 

       6   attributed to the success of the sports.  Every 

       7   Sunday when you hear Patrick Ramsey's name as the 

       8   starting quarterback for the Washington Redskins, 

       9   you hear Tulane.  You hear Gerald Sowell, you hear 

      10   JaJuan Dawson.  I think when you're looking at 

      11   bottom lines, I hope you consider the marketing, 

      12   the TCU game Monday night to open the season on 

      13   Labor Day this year on ESPN, that the university 

      14   just can't get without athletics.  

      15                  I hope everyone keeps in mind when 

      16   making the decision, the last time we deemphasized

      17   athletics was getting out of the SEC, and the 

      18   ramifications that if we were in the SEC what that 

      19   could be for us now. 

      20             MR. BARRON:

      21                  Thank you very much.

      22             DONNIE DIXON:

      23                  Good afternoon.  My name is Donnie 

      24   Dixon.  I am a rising senior at Tulane College.  It 

      25   feels great to say that.  This might sound a little 




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       1   cheesy, but I just want to say that I was brought 

       2   up in a way to believe that when you have a 

       3   challenge or you face adversity in life, you rise 

       4   to the occasion and you take that challenge 

       5   head-on, and you don't take the easy way out, and 

       6   that's not the way to go about things.  I just feel 

       7   it's the same situation here.  We're sort of at a 

       8   crossroads with our athletic program, and instead 

       9   of taking the easy way out and sort of dropping 

      10   down to Division III, we should look at the 

      11   positives.  I mean, we won a bowl game this past 

      12   year.  We have a lot of successful athletic teams 

      13   and programs, and I just think we should place more 

      14   emphasis on rising to the challenge, trying to find 

      15   ways to get more money, to get more butts in the 

      16   seats at the football games and the basketball 

      17   games, and I think that will solve the money 

      18   problem right there.  I just think we should do 

      19   more to face the positives over our history in our

      20   athletic program.  

      21                  You know, as an institute of higher 

      22   learning, I know y'all want to promote Tulane as a 

      23   high academic institution, and as students we face 

      24   challenges every day academically with tests and 

      25   papers and all that kind of stuff, and if we took 




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       1   the easy way out, we'd fail, we wouldn't graduate 

       2   from Tulane.  And we have to face those challenges.  

       3   We have to study our butts off and try to make our 

       4   grades and try to get a degree.  So I think it's 

       5   sort of the same principles here.  I just think we 

       6   should face the positives and look at those when we 

       7   make this decision and try to just look at the 

       8   history of Tulane athletics and all the good things 

       9   that's happened in the history of Tulane athletics, 

      10   and factor in that when you're making your 

      11   decision.  Thank you very much. 

      12             MR. BARRON:

      13                  Thank you.  Yes, sir.

      14             MR. TIM SCANDURRO:

      15                  My name is Tim Scandurro, and I'm a 

      16   descending 40-year-old 1984 graduate of the College 

      17   of Arts and Sciences.  My father, Doctor Cowen, 

      18   took me to my first Tulane football game in 1972 

      19   when I was nine years old, and I remember the game 

      20   like it was yesterday.  I don't remember what the 

      21   score was or who we played, but I remember after 

      22   the game waiting outside the stadium.  And we had a 

      23   player named Nathan Bell, he was a defensive 

      24   tackle.  He was one of the first African-American 

      25   players to play football at Tulane back in 1972.  




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       1   And as he walked past me on the way to the locker 

       2   room, he took the chin strap off his helmet and 

       3   gave it to me, and that chin strap rested -- I hope 

       4   not under my pillow, but at least on the shelf next 

       5   to my bed for years after that, and that was the 

       6   start of a lifelong love affair between me and 

       7   Tulane athletics.  And that's something that 

       8   carried through from the time I was a little boy 

       9   all the way up to the time that I'm a man, and it's 

      10   something my children are enjoying now.  

      11                  And I'm not just one of these fans 

      12   who talks a good game that I know you're concerned 

      13   with, who say and profess to love Tulane but don't 

      14   buy season tickets and don't give money.  My family 

      15   buys season tickets to football, basketball and 

      16   baseball.  We give money every single year, more 

      17   money each year than we did before.  We're just 

      18   hitting our peak earning years.  

      19                  These people are going to be in that 

      20   position in another 15 or 20 years.  I've very, 

      21   very excited about the support I've heard today for 

      22   athletics.  Most of us alums feel like not enough 

      23   students care about athletics and they're too 

      24   apathetic and Tulane students don't care.  I'm very 

      25   excited to see what's in this room.  Look at all 




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       1   the money that's sitting out in this room in 

       2   fifteen or twenty years.  

       3                  Doctor Cowen, I volunteer for the 

       4   Tulane Athletics Fund raising money totally on a 

       5   volunteer basis.  I call people.  I tell them about 

       6   you.  I'm proud to have you as our president.  I've 

       7   been proud to see you with your face painted at the 

       8   ball games.  We have always said:  We finally have 

       9   a president who gets it, who understands the 

      10   relationship between alumni and athletics in a 

      11   university.  Don't cut our legs out from under us.  

      12   Give us a chance.  We will meet this challenge, and 

      13   we'll meet it with flying colors.  The support 

      14   we're getting around the country is unbelievable.  

      15   You've got to give us a chance.  We will meet this 

      16   challenge, sir.  You've only been here five years.  

      17   I'm proud of the job you've done.  But this has 

      18   been with me a lifetime.  I hope it's with my 

      19   children for a lifetime.  Please give us that 

      20   opportunity.  Thank you. 

      21             MR. BARRON:

      22                  Thank you.

      23             FRANNIE DEBORD:

      24                  Hi, my name is Frannie Debord.  

      25   I'm the assistant swimming and diving coach here at 




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       1   Tulane.  I think that man hit it right on the head 

       2   there.  What I've seen as far as what we've been 

       3   doing within the Athletic Department and going 

       4   after the Tulane Athletic Fund and rallying our 

       5   alumni, they're getting behind us, and everybody 

       6   here today is behind us, and I think that that 

       7   speaks a lot about the pride that we have in Tulane 

       8   athletics.  I've only been here six months, not 

       9   very long, but I can tell you it will be very hard 

      10   for me to try to get another job someplace else or 

      11   be happy in another job someplace else because I've 

      12   seen the right model, and it's here at Tulane, I 

      13   think, just from everything that I've seen just 

      14   being here.  

      15                  And I know this debate is not about 

      16   the quality of the Athletic Department and the 

      17   quality of the student athletes, but I think that 

      18   we do need to realize that we do have a rare model 

      19   here.  We do have student athletes that meet the 

      20   academic standards.  With our Athletic Department 

      21   GPA at a 3.0, that's one of the most elite GPAs in 

      22   the nation as far as Athletic Departments go.  You 

      23   know, we talk about the deficit, and I understand 

      24   that's important and that's an issue, but when we 

      25   talk about our coverage on ESPN and the type of 




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       1   product that we're putting out there to the public, 

       2   I think you can't find a much better one than here 

       3   at Tulane.  

       4                  One of your questions that you ask 

       5   is:  Given the changing landscape, what steps 

       6   should Tulane take to ensure that our athletics 

       7   program best fits our academic missions and 

       8   aspirations and culture here at Tulane?  Well, 

       9   since when has Tulane's mission and aspirations and 

      10   culture been to associate with average standards?  

      11   I think that if we drop to a Division III standing 

      12   or even a Division IAA or IAAA, I believe that 

      13   we're just diminishing our elite reputation as a 

      14   university.  Thank you.  

      15             MR. BARRON:

      16                  Thank you very much.

      17             JENNIFER SOLOVE:

      18                  I'm Jennifer Solove, a Newcomb 

      19   freshman, and I was taught in track in high school 

      20   that school always came before athletics.  I know 

      21   it's a devil's advocate here, but I have an honest 

      22   question on that line.  How does this help our 

      23   academics?  Is it such a drastic change, or how are 

      24   you going to redistribute the gain that we'd have 

      25   by changing divisions?  That's all.  




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       1             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       2                   That is a very core question which 

       3   is very much a part of our discussion.

       4             MR. BARRON:

       5                  Yes, sir.

       6             JASON:

       7                  Jason.  There was earlier in Ms. 

       8   Jones' presentation -- in fact, the first bullet 

       9   point which I believe she did not actually discuss, 

      10   something called excess commercialization.  We've 

      11   talked a lot about advertising, marketing, and 

      12   promotions throughout these meetings.  How is 

      13   excess commercialization bad if the whole point is 

      14   to drive more revenue?  And I wonder if Ms. Jones 

      15   could explain a bit more in depth what she means by 

      16   excess commercialization and how that affects the 

      17   model she sees us working with. 

      18             MS. JONES: 

      19                  Well, the notion here was not about 

      20   the promotions and marketing other than the costs 

      21   that are driven from the businesslike manner of 

      22   Division I athletics.  So to remain competitive, 

      23   you have to pay higher salaries, your recruiting 

      24   costs are higher, and so forth.  So that was what 

      25   the intention was there, to drive up the cost. 




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       1             MR. BARRON:

       2                  Thank you.  Yes, ma'am.

       3             MS. (?):

       4                  I just want to say, I looked at 

       5   schools mainly for their academics, and Tulane was 

       6   definitely on the top of my list, but I was also 

       7   looking at like St. Louis University and Emory, and 

       8   the one thing that sealed the deal for me was that 

       9   Tulane also had the athletics that the other two 

      10   schools didn't, and it had just as good an academic 

      11   record as the other two, so I was just wondering -- 

      12   like it seems that the academics are already really 

      13   high, and so if it doesn't need to be changed, why 

      14   can't we keep the athletics as well?  

      15             MR. BARRON:

      16                  Thank you.  I told you you'd get 

      17   another shot.  

      18             DARION:

      19                  My name is Darion again.  My 

      20   biggest thing is another question:  What about 

      21   publicity?  Most of my friends go to state schools 

      22   where a football game, a basketball game, a 

      23   baseball game is publicized everywhere.  Like I 

      24   know last year y'all did it with the LSU-Tulane 

      25   game where y'all broke the record for the 




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       1   attendance.  Why wasn't it done this year?  I 

       2   didn't see anything about it except for like a 

       3   month, month and a half ahead of time with an 

       4   E-mail, and then the day before the game like two 

       5   little pieces of paper on the doors.  Why isn't 

       6   more publicity done for our sports?  That will put 

       7   more our student involvement (sic), which will then 

       8   in turn make our students much more willing to go 

       9   as alumni and support the athletics.  And another 

      10   question is:  What about getting more games out at 

      11   Tad Gormley or possibly even getting a Tulane 

      12   Stadium like they used to have a long time ago when 

      13   my dad and my grandfather went here and 

      14   everything?  Like the game for homecoming, it was 

      15   the most fun I've had at any game this season with 

      16   the tailgating and all the fans and everybody 

      17   dressed up outdoors, which is what football should 

      18   be to most people, compared to being in a stadium. 

      19             MR. BARRON:

      20                  Thank you.  Yes, sir.

      21             MICHAEL:

      22                  My name is Michael.  I just 

      23   graduated Tulane law in 2003.  Essentially, I'm 

      24   from the northeast.  I went to a small Division III 

      25   school for undergrad and had the opportunity to 




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       1   come to Tulane and attend all the games, the 

       2   football games, the basketball games and the 

       3   baseball games with my friends, and getting 

       4   everybody together and motivating and going to 

       5   those games was a phenomenal experience, and the 

       6   stress of law school and things that we did for 

       7   three years was -- Tulane athletics was an integral 

       8   part of that, and I think that it really would be a 

       9   shame to take that away from students like myself 

      10   and all of those that are here.  There's got to be 

      11   a way to make it work financially.  There should 

      12   be.  I mean, if we're able to capture the Hornets 

      13   into New Orleans, we should be able to attract a 

      14   BCS Conference here.  We should be using our 

      15   television market to integrate and try to get into 

      16   one of those situations where you can cut up the 

      17   pie to have that type of money.  Just to conclude:  

      18   Essentially, that was an important part of choosing 

      19   Tulane, it was an important part while being here, 

      20   and it's going to be some of the more lasting 

      21   memories will be attending that with friends and 

      22   with everybody together.  Thank you. 

      23             MR. BARRON:

      24                  Thank you. 

      25             JOSH: 




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       1                  Josh again.  I think a big fear with 

       2   you guys is that you think that our athletics 

       3   program can't improve, can't raise revenue or 

       4   anything like that.  We are losing money, that's 

       5   true, but if you look at other schools, like if you 

       6   know about Gonzaga, like four years ago -- every 

       7   single year now they've been competing in the NCAA 

       8   tournament in basketball, really kicking some butt.  

       9   They've gone from an absolutely nobody in Spokane, 

      10   Washington.  I mean, what place is that?  No one 

      11   knows what the school is.  One of my good friends 

      12   from back home now actually goes to that school, is 

      13   a good student.  I know my aunt lives in Washington 

      14   about like two hours away in Seattle, and she says 

      15   like people actually follow it there.  They're 

      16   actually making money.  They're like a die-hard 

      17   school, you know what I mean.  Like you have 

      18   schools like Valparaiso, other schools like that 

      19   that did well in the tournament, had one good year, 

      20   and then, bam, enrollment went up, revenue went up, 

      21   everything went up.  If we just have a little 

      22   spurt, a little help from the community of New 

      23   Orleans and the Tulane community, we can raise the 

      24   bar a little bit, get to that level and just 

      25   continue, and we won't be talking about losing 




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       1   money, we'll be talking about how much money we'll 

       2   be getting from the sports and how much alumni 

       3   giving we get from the sports, how many seats are 

       4   filled by the sports.  That's what we need to 

       5   consider in this situation.  Thanks. 

       6             MR. BARRON:

       7                  Thank you.

       8             EMILY:

       9                  This is Emily again.  I know 

      10   someone spoke about they played Division I sports.  

      11   I swam on a Division III school last year, and just 

      12   speaking from -- I wish there had been people 

      13   recruiting to go to the Olympics, to go to bigger 

      14   and better things, but people -- I went to Swanee, 

      15   University of the South.  Probably most of you 

      16   haven't heard of that unless you've been to 

      17   Tennessee or whatever, but based on what other 

      18   people are saying, I'm kind of just reiterating a 

      19   little bit, but there are people that come and 

      20   recruit, and they come here and they look.  I mean, 

      21   we had two people that went to the NFL draft.  I 

      22   mean, they didn't get drafted, but they could end 

      23   up being free agents or whatever.  But what I was 

      24   just saying was the people are really smart.  My 

      25   highest grades were when I swam last year, and I 




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       1   wish that I had had the opportunity -- I actually 

       2   didn't get into Tulane last year.  I wish I had.  I 

       3   was on the wait list.  But every time that I came 

       4   down to visit my family I always came to basketball 

       5   games, always supported Tulane, been supporting 

       6   Tulane since I was three.  It was something that -- 

       7   I know other people have been mentioning it's 

       8   really important to them.  So my big thing was just 

       9   about recruitment, and I don't know if there would 

      10   be people that would come to recruit people for the 

      11   NFL draft or anything if they're Division III 

      12   because it's not really a big deal.  That was my 

      13   concern.  Thanks. 

      14             MR. BARRON:

      15                  Thank you.  Yes, ma'am.

      16             BROOKE:

      17                  My name is Brooke, and I'm a 

      18   Newcomb freshman.  When I decided to come to this 

      19   school, I didn't really focus on the athletic part, 

      20   I was mainly academics, but when I came here I 

      21   recruited for the football team, and like it got me 

      22   so into the school.  It developed a new experience 

      23   for me.  I met so many wonderful people.  Like all 

      24   the people that came in that we recruited were 

      25   absolutely wonderful.  We had such a great time.  




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       1   And I really feel like if we drop down and we 

       2   didn't get as much of a retention rate because of 

       3   our athletic program declining, I really feel like 

       4   people wouldn't have that experience.  Like next 

       5   year I'm going to be an RA and I'm going to tell 

       6   people, go and recruit for the teams, go and have 

       7   fun at the games, you know.  We're going to make 

       8   that like a quad-wide activity too, hopefully, next 

       9   year.  So that's what I wanted to say.

      10             MR. BARRON:

      11                  Thank you very much.  Yes, sir.

      12             RICHARD:

      13                  This is Richard once again.  I 

      14   wanted to make a point about one of the previous 

      15   students here who made a comment, said that he had 

      16   read the book Tulane - Emergence of a Modern 

      17   University.  I don't remember which one he was.  

      18   I've read that book, too.  It's a very interesting, 

      19   very good book, and I would hope that all of y'all 

      20   have read that book too. 

      21             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      22                  Not once, twice. 

      23             RICHARD:

      24                  Well, I want to say that I have 

      25   pretty good memory -- or some memory of the later 




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       1   part that's in there where they talk about the 

       2   administration of former president Sheldon Hackney 

       3   in the late '70s and early '80s and former 

       4   president Eamon Kelly, and I agree with what the 

       5   authors of the book had said about when President 

       6   Hackney came to Tulane and he was noted for being a 

       7   very student-oriented president, very good 

       8   communications with the student body, and there's a 

       9   sentence where, paraphrased, that President Hackney 

      10   took a pulse of the student body and found that it 

      11   was lacking in the 1970s when he came.  And Tulane 

      12   at the time, I remember, was not in the best of 

      13   financial positions, and it was somewhat evident, 

      14   and it was a topic of discussion among the students 

      15   as I remember at the time, and the endowment was a 

      16   big topic of discussions among the students, and I 

      17   remember going to meetings at times with President 

      18   Hackney, and it always seems like it's been a major 

      19   topic of discussion among students and alums, the 

      20   connection between the school and alumni as far as 

      21   can be evidenced by giving donations to the school.  

      22                  And my comment is, the ties that the 

      23   athletics program, a high-profile athletics program 

      24   produces between the school and the students and 

      25   alums exists, and if you cut the ties by moving 




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       1   down to a lower profile athletics program, Division 

       2   III or Division IAAA, because that would be 

       3   regarding football, which is clearly the highest 

       4   profile sport in the Tulane lineup, then obviously 

       5   there would be an effect as far as donations, and 

       6   there would be an effect as far as student morale 

       7   that would probably be felt down the road in terms 

       8   of alumni giving, and I would hope that that would 

       9   be considered.  And I want to point out that when 

      10   Sheldon Hackney came to Tulane, things also weren't 

      11   going very well for football in 1975, '76, '77.  

      12   They were all losing years, and the faculty and a 

      13   lot of people were against football at the time,  

      14   but he stayed the course, supported the program, 

      15   and eventually there was a Liberty Bowl season in 

      16   1979 and everything -- he was proven right.  And I 

      17   want to stand up for staying the course. 

      18             MR. BARRON:

      19                  Thank you.  Yes, ma'am.

      20             JULIA MOTT:

      21                  Two summers ago I had the ability 

      22   to take a road trip with four of my Tulane friends 

      23   to go up to Omaha when Tulane's baseball team was 

      24   playing at the College World Series.  We slept 

      25   outside on the pavement to get in line for tickets 




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       1   because you couldn't get them because all of these 

       2   crazy LSU fans had bought tickets when they thought 

       3   they were going to beat us during the (inaudible). 

       4   And because of that we had to buy tickets off of 

       5   eBay.  And we took the road trip anyway, and I just 

       6   remember seeing all of the alumni, the parents of 

       7   the students that were playing, I saw President 

       8   Cowen there, and there was the alumni tent with all 

       9   of these people who were so excited about school, 

      10   and they were all talking about the fact that it 

      11   was so good to have something to be so excited 

      12   about Tulane about. 

      13                  The thing about that trip that was 

      14   really kind of disheartening though was, I had fans 

      15   from schools like Miami and Stanford ask me where 

      16   Tulane was, and they didn't know where we were 

      17   before we went to the College World Series.  And 

      18   having the ability to be a Division I program that 

      19   gets the recognition of being one of the top 

      20   baseball teams in the nation while having a GPA 

      21   that's above a 3.0 as their team average is really 

      22   something to be proud of, and people still didn't 

      23   know where we were from when we showed up at the 

      24   College World Series.  They just knew that we had 

      25   beaten LSU.  They figured we were from Texas or 




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       1   Arkansas.  And the fact is, because of our student 

       2   athletes who go out there and play their hardest 

       3   and do their best and show how good Tulane is, we 

       4   get better national recognition, which in turn 

       5   brings in better students to our school.  So I must 

       6   implore you, as somebody who slept outside to go 

       7   watch baseball in Nebraska, we need to stay 

       8   Division I.  

       9             MR. BARRON:

      10                  Thank you.  The question is whether 

      11   you can top sleeping outside.  

      12             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      13                  What I'm really worried about is the 

      14   quality of the people that graduate from Miami and 

      15   Stanford now.  That's what I'm really worried 

      16   about.

      17             MR. BARRON:

      18                  Yes, sir.

      19             ERIC:

      20                  I can top sleeping outside, but I 

      21   don't think it would have to do with Tulane sports.  

      22   I'm Eric, a junior at Tulane College, and I just 

      23   wanted to know if the Board -- or I wanted the 

      24   Board and the committee to know that, like one of 

      25   my fellow students said, that every school he 




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       1   applied to was a Division IA school, and I was the 

       2   same way.  I applied to and visited the University 

       3   of Missouri and LSU in addition to a couple of 

       4   other schools, and the only reason I even came to 

       5   visit Tulane -- it wasn't even something I was 

       6   thinking about doing -- was that my dad had been 

       7   looking on the internet, and we were coming down to 

       8   LSU to visit that school, and he said that we got 

       9   free football tickets when we came to a Tulane day, 

      10   and we got to go see a game at the Superdome.  And 

      11   he was like, you know, if nothing else, it will be 

      12   a fun day.  We'll get to go tour the Superdome, 

      13   we'll do some things at the school, whatever.  And 

      14   that led to, you know -- how much do we pay a year, 

      15   28,000 a year, 32,000 a year in tuition for you 

      16   guys?  Something, whatever, you know.  Wells Fargo 

      17   is taking care of it for me right now.  But the 

      18   point is, I wanted to know if the Board had any 

      19   ways of combating that form of marketing in 

      20   addition to the sports center marketing that we 

      21   won't get if we move to a Division III school.  

      22             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      23                  Little did your dad know, we 

      24   actually would have given him 1,000 tickets if he 

      25   wanted them.  And by the way, for the record, the 




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       1   tuition is 27,500.  Not 38,000, not 42,000.  

       2   27,500.  

       3             MR. BARRON:

       4                  Yes, sir.

       5             EUGENE KREJCI:

       6                  Howdy, my name is Eugene Krejci.  

       7   I'm graduating on Saturday, but I kind of look at 

       8   it as I'm five days away from being a Greenbacker.  

       9   As far as sleeping outside goes, I'm crazy.  I 

      10   slept on the quad two weeks ago on Gibson just to 

      11   say hi to Cowen and tell him to go DI only.  

      12             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      13                  Oh, were you the guy I talked to?

      14             EUGENE:

      15                  Yes, I'm the guy. 

      16             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      17                  I mean, I was very impressed. 

      18             EUGENE:

      19                  My main question was:  What kind of 

      20   contract options do you have for Tad Gormley?  I 

      21   mean, can we get parking revenue there?  What are 

      22   the costs for like concessions that we can get at 

      23   Tad Gormley?  Do either one of y'all know?

      24             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      25                  I do not know the answer to that 




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       1   question.  I'm sure they do in athletics.  I don't 

       2   know the answer to that question.  

       3             MR. BARRON:

       4                  Good question.  Thank you.

       5             MIKE BRITT:

       6                  Hi, I'm Mike Britt.  I'm currently 

       7   a staff member here, but I was a student here in 

       8   the '70s when we made our second big mistake and 

       9   moved out of the Sugar Bowl.  When we look at this, 

      10   it appears that we're concentrating on a 

      11   self-supporting Athletics Department.  In the 

      12   Sunday paper I believe Rick Dickson said we could 

      13   run an exemplary Division III program for 

      14   $5,000,000 a year, and I'm wondering if we've done 

      15   any projection to see what it would take to run an 

      16   exemplary athletics program at our other options.  

      17   In other words, what would it cost us to do an 

      18   exemplary athletics program Division IA, Division 

      19   IAA, Division IAAA?  Because I think that's the 

      20   real question.  I think what the students have very 

      21   adequately pointed out here is, if we have a 

      22   $600,000,000 operating budget and it costs us 

      23   $18,000,000, then that's 3 percent of our operating 

      24   budget, and athletics is much more than 3 percent 

      25   of our experience and our tuition.  




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       1             MS. JONES:

       2                  Paul, I want to clarify the cost of 

       3   the Division III programs.  I know that number was 

       4   quoted in the newspaper, but in our discussions 

       5   with other institutions at the Division III level, 

       6   the highest expense level is about $3,000,000 a 

       7   year. 

       8             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       9                  There's something else I just want 

      10   to mention because we heard it at our last session, 

      11   and you said it today about the 5,000,000, what is 

      12   that on top of 600,000,000, or 18,000,000.  To put 

      13   that in context to you, I want to just give you 

      14   some factual information, and then you draw your 

      15   own conclusions from it, but I would not want to 

      16   leave the discussion of look at 5,000,000 versus 

      17   600,000,000.  

      18                  I told you the endowment of the 

      19   university right now is about 600,000,000, maybe a 

      20   little lower, maybe a little higher, depending on 

      21   the market.  If you took the $7,000,000 cash 

      22   deficit and capitalized that and said what 

      23   equivalent endowment do you need to support that, 

      24   that's $140,000,000.  So that is greater -- that is 

      25   about 23 percent of our entire endowment is devoted 




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       1   to athletics.  Now, it doesn't break out that way, 

       2   but that's a different kind of way to think about 

       3   the size of it.  

       4                  The second thing is, as you look at 

       5   our $600,000,000 budget, the vast majority of that 

       6   budget is restricted for schools of engineering and 

       7   for medicine and so on.  So you have to say:  How 

       8   much of that $600,000,000 is really discretionary 

       9   and you could use those dollars to fund athletics 

      10   or anything else you wanted to do?  That number is 

      11   a very low number.  So I just want you to keep a 

      12   couple of other facts in mind as you put any dollar 

      13   amount, whether it's 5,000,000, 7,000,000 or 

      14   18,000,000, in perspective.  Okay? 

      15             MIKE BRITT:

      16                  Okay.  Do we have projections on 

      17   successful programs at each of these levels?  

      18             MS. JONES:

      19                  The committee has been looking at 

      20   all options and has been running financial models. 

      21             MIKE BRITT:

      22                  Thank you. 

      23             MR. BARRON:

      24                  I think that was a "Yes."  

      25             MS. JONES:




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       1                  It was a "Yes."

       2             MATT BRADLEY: 

       3                  Howdy, I'm Matt Bradley.  I'm a 

       4   rising junior.  Is that how it works?  I don't know 

       5   how that works.  I'll be a junior next year in 

       6   Tulane School of Engineering. 

       7             MR. BARRON:

       8                   You've already risen.

       9             MATT BRADLEY:

      10                  Sure, that's cool.  All right.  

      11   Every football game, every home football game, my 

      12   fraternity went out.  We're one of the few student 

      13   organizations that would go out.  We're at every 

      14   football game sitting out there with the 

      15   Greenbackers before the game, chatting, meeting 

      16   alumni, and I think that it really gave me a link 

      17   to the history of Tulane University to see what 

      18   goes on after you graduate, to see some of the 

      19   benefits of being an alumnus of this prestigious 

      20   university in addition to providing an excellent 

      21   social outlet as part of the university 

      22   environment.  I think that if you would work more 

      23   into getting student organizations involved in 

      24   Tulane athletics instead of individual students 

      25   where it becomes a group effort to go out to the 




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       1   game and support your team, you'd see a lot more 

       2   support rallying behind the teams.  I know that the 

       3   weekends where we had away games, there was a 

       4   little empty spot in my weekend.  And when the team 

       5   came back home and we had another game, another 

       6   reason to go out and cheer, that really filled in a 

       7   part of the college experience that I wasn't 

       8   getting when we didn't have an athletic event going 

       9   on here.  So I just think that might be something 

      10   to consider.  I'm sure you all are, but just 

      11   realize that it really completes things, it brings 

      12   things all back into perspective.  Because we're in 

      13   class all week long, and that one game on the 

      14   weekend, the chance to get around with our friends, 

      15   meet past graduates, make friends, it really means 

      16   a lot. 

      17             MR. BARRON:

      18                  Thank you very much. 

      19             TODD:

      20                  Hi, my name is Todd.  I just 

      21   graduated from Tulane Law School.  Let me say first 

      22   that going to the athletic events at Tulane was 

      23   definitely an integral part of my education here.  

      24   I would give to Tulane far more likely than I would 

      25   to my undergraduate because I felt much more 




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       1   attached to Tulane as a result of the athletic 

       2   events, and I'll make 150 grand a year next year. 

       3             MR. BARRON:

       4                  From your lips to God's ears. 

       5             TODD:

       6                  Yes.  Second, I would say I 

       7   honestly am somewhat torn about whether we should 

       8   remain Division IA versus Division IAAA, but I do 

       9   want to point out a hole in your model in 

      10   considering Division II or Division III at all,  

      11   which is frankly that the schools that are in 

      12   Division II and Division III that you said you 

      13   compare yourself to, Emory and Washington, I think 

      14   we have to be frank, at an academic level are 

      15   considerably better schools than Tulane is, and I 

      16   think a big impact that the athletics gives Tulane 

      17   is that there are a number of other people, like 

      18   myself and I know a number of other people, that 

      19   could have gone to schools like Emory or Washington 

      20   University; and in many areas of the country, 

      21   because of Tulane's athletics, you are able to say, 

      22   I went to Tulane, and more people know that Tulane 

      23   is a good school because of those athletics.  And, 

      24   frankly, Emory and Washington -- you can go to New 

      25   York, you can go to L.A. and say I went to Emory, I 




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       1   went to Washington.  People know those are good 

       2   schools because they're in the top 20 in the 

       3   country.  For a school like Tulane that is in the 

       4   40s for both law and undergrad, I'm able to go to 

       5   New York or California and say I went to Tulane, 

       6   and they know it's a pretty good school, and they 

       7   know because of the athletics, they know the name 

       8   recognition.  So I think a hole in your model in 

       9   considering Division III or Division II at all is 

      10   failing to recognize that the -- not knowing who 

      11   won Division III hurts very much for -- people know 

      12   that Tulane is a good school because of its 

      13   athletics, and I think frankly Emory and Washington 

      14   have advantages in that area that Tulane doesn't.  

      15   I think frankly cutting athletics to Division II or 

      16   Division III, even with your cost savings, if you 

      17   pump them back into academics you're not going to 

      18   get an Emory or Washington academic level.  So 

      19   keeping the athletics is worthwhile because people 

      20   in Los Angeles saw the ConAgra Bowl, people know 

      21   about the Tulane baseball team, and I don't think 

      22   that your cost benefit is there in a Division II or 

      23   Division III model.  Thank you.

      24             MR. BARRON:

      25                  Thank you very much.  Yes, sir.




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       1             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       2                  I just want to comment on your 

       3   statement.  This is no comment on athletics, but I 

       4   sure have aspirations that Tulane University become 

       5   much more nationally known academically than 

       6   Washington University and Emory, and that's not a 

       7   comment on athletics, but I do not accept the fact 

       8   that we cannot exceed them.

       9             DAVID BROWNING:

      10                  My name is David Browning.  I 

      11   Graduated 1986 with a computer information systems 

      12   degree.  I also have a sister that graduated MSW, 

      13   and we are a family much like much of Tulane.  My 

      14   sister could care less about athletics.  They could 

      15   drop off the face of the earth and she'd just be 

      16   happy as could be, and I think there's always that 

      17   segment within Tulane.  Myself, however, I enjoy 

      18   Tulane athletics so much, I've created a web site, 

      19   and through that I've met hundreds if not thousands 

      20   of Tulane alumni throughout the nation.  I posted 

      21   this in the feedback section.  I've had 2.9 million 

      22   hits in the past seven months.  I'll get hits from 

      23   Israel, Spain, Portugal, I mean literally every 

      24   country (sic) in the United States because Tulane 

      25   alums want to see what's going on with the baseball 




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       1   team.  If we did not have that baseball team, or if 

       2   it was a Division III baseball team, I really don't 

       3   think you would see that kind of interest from our 

       4   alumni.  

       5                  The pictures I've presented, most of 

       6   them were from homecoming last year.  I think 

       7   everybody realizes how big of a success that was.  

       8   The first four pictures there are basically just 

       9   pictures of -- you see the cheerleaders, you see 

      10   past cheerleaders, if I'm not mistaken, if that's 

      11   who else was on the float, you see President Cowen 

      12   in the nice blue Corvette, you see the women's 

      13   basketball team who are both academically very --  

      14   I don't know whether you say upper tier, if you 

      15   want to say that, compared to some of the other 

      16   women's athletics.  You also have a picture of 

      17   Moweldy Moore, one of our outstanding athletes who 

      18   also happens to be a minority.  You could not ask 

      19   for a better picture postcard of what a student 

      20   athlete should be.  He's also a minor league 

      21   baseball player at the same time.  You have a 

      22   picture of Michael Aubry hitting a game-winning 

      23   home run.  If anybody was there when he did that at 

      24   UAB a few weeks ago, it was electrifying.  If that 

      25   goes away or drops to Division III, I think you'll 




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       1   be missing a critical part of it.  And, basically, 

       2   just in closing, last picture on there is the 

       3   Easter Bunny at a recent baseball game with seven 

       4   and eight-year-old kids.  Those are your future 

       5   Tulane fans.  Maybe students, maybe not students.  

       6   But two of those children are mine.  They're 

       7   growing up knowing Tulane.  When we lived in Ohio, 

       8   we didn't know what Tulane was.  But they're here, 

       9   they're seeing Tulane, and -- you know, that's my 

      10   main comment.  

      11                  But I do have one question I don't 

      12   think has really been brought up.  Being a New 

      13   Orleanian now and living here for thirty years, 

      14   Tulane tries to be a good community partner.  If we 

      15   drop to Division III, I'd just like to know what 

      16   we're going to do with all of the jobs that would 

      17   be lost.  You have very low-level jobs as far as 

      18   paying.  You have the concession people at the 

      19   Superdome, you have the concession people at 

      20   Turchin Stadium, you have the athletic trainers.  

      21   You have the high end, you have your coaches making 

      22   hundreds of thousands of dollars a year that will 

      23   no longer be in the city.  And I'd just like to 

      24   hear your comments about that.  

      25             MR. BARRON:




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       1                  Thank you very much.  I feel like 

       2   I've asked a question in class and everybody is 

       3   looking down at their book so they won't be called 

       4   on.  Have we come to the end?  Is there anybody who 

       5   wants to make a comment?  All right.

       6                  I would like to thank you very much 

       7   for all of your input.  I want to remind you of a 

       8   couple of things before I ask President Cowen to 

       9   close the proceedings.  First, I want to remind you 

      10   that if you want to give additional feedback or 

      11   look at the feedback that is coming in or see a 

      12   transcript of tonight's proceeding, the web site is 

      13   feedback.Tulane.edu.  There is also a voice comment 

      14   line.  It's at area code 504-862-8020, and we 

      15   encourage you to give us any additional 

      16   information, feedback, comments and questions that 

      17   you would like on those two vehicles.  Again, I'd 

      18   like to ask President Cowen to close the 

      19   proceedings. 

      20             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      21                  Thanks, Paul.  I just have three 

      22   observations I want to share with you as we 

      23   conclude the program tonight.  First of all, I want 

      24   to thank you all for taking time from your 

      25   schedules to be here this evening.  We really do 




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       1   appreciate it.  I particularly want to acknowledge 

       2   our students.  I love your passion and I love your 

       3   commitment to the institution, and it means a lot 

       4   to us that you came out tonight and shared your 

       5   thoughts with us, it really, really does.  And I 

       6   mean that for everybody, but it's so nice to see 

       7   the students out.  

       8                  I think you probably all realize 

       9   that this has been a very difficult process for 

      10   everybody involved in it, a difficult process for 

      11   our alumni, difficult process for our students, our 

      12   friends in the community, the Athletics Department, 

      13   the Board, and the administration.  It is a 

      14   difficult process, so it's been taken very, very 

      15   seriously by everybody.  But I also want you to 

      16   know, I think it's an absolutely essential process 

      17   that we have to go through if we truly want to 

      18   build a great academic institution.  We do have to 

      19   ask ourselves these tough questions, as unpopular 

      20   as they are from time to time, otherwise it is to 

      21   ignore something very important in the institution 

      22   and to shrug our responsibility, and I want you to 

      23   know that.  

      24                  I also want you to know that on a 

      25   very personal level the process has been 




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       1   particularly difficult for me, and it's not because 

       2   of the personal attacks that have been thrown at 

       3   me.  That comes with the territory.  As president 

       4   of the university you are always going to be the 

       5   eye of the storm, and people are always going to 

       6   take their anger and frustration out on you, and 

       7   that I understand, and I accept that because that 

       8   comes with the territory.  But it is actually hard 

       9   for me because on a personal level I am a huge, 

      10   passionate Tulane athletic fan, as you've all 

      11   pointed up many, many times.  I love athletics.  I 

      12   went to college on an athletic scholarship.  So 

      13   this is as much a part of my fabric emotionally, 

      14   intellectually, as anything else is.  But I have to 

      15   remind myself, and I remind all of you, that first 

      16   and foremost I am president of a great institution, 

      17   and there's not a day that goes by that I don't 

      18   think about that.  And in my role as president of a 

      19   great institution, I am called upon to raise tough 

      20   issues.  It comes with the territory.  If I didn't 

      21   do that, then who else would do it?  So, I raise 

      22   these tough issues, and it is my job to work with 

      23   the Board and all others to try to look at these 

      24   tough issues in a very objective, dispassionate, 

      25   and fact-laden manner.   It is.  That doesn't mean 




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       1   I don't have personal feelings about it or others 

       2   don't, but it is the role of the president to do 

       3   that, and thank God I have a board that has really 

       4   taken on this subject and is really looking at it 

       5   independently and deciding what to do.  But I want 

       6   you to know this because when it's all said and 

       7   done, what I want for Tulane University is for it 

       8   to be a great academic institution.  That does not 

       9   have to be at the exclusion of athletics, and I 

      10   don't want you to read that, but in the end of the 

      11   day I don't want the gentleman in law school to say 

      12   we're Number 42, and Washington University and 

      13   Emory -- I want us to be at the very top.  That's 

      14   where I want this institution to be.  We deserve no 

      15   less than that, and my eye is always on that ball.  

      16   How can we take this institution to be among the 

      17   very best institutions academically?  Because in 

      18   the end, that's what we all deserve and want.  And 

      19   as I said, I want to underscore again, that doesn't 

      20   necessarily have to be at the exclusion of 

      21   athletics, but you have to look at the entire 

      22   institution. 

      23                  We've said on many occasions that 

      24   this decision is going to be made based on what is 

      25   in the best long-term interest of the university, 




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       1   and always mindful of our academic mission and our 

       2   goals and our resources.  I also want to say out 

       3   there, I am also very mindful that reasonable 

       4   people may differ on what is in the best long-term 

       5   interest of the institution, but everyone that I 

       6   have talked with and discussed this topic with, 

       7   including all of you here today, I have no doubt 

       8   that you have a genuine and sincere love for Tulane 

       9   University and want the right thing, and that's why 

      10   your input is so very, very important.  

      11                  So I do appreciate you taking the 

      12   time to be with us today, but I want to underscore 

      13   how important this dialogue is to the future of 

      14   this institution so we can achieve our aspirations 

      15   as a great academic institution, and that's what we 

      16   all want.  And as long as we're never forgetful of 

      17   that, we will make the right decisions, and we will 

      18   feel good about those decisions as we move forward.  

      19   Thank you for being with us.

      20                        *   *   *

      21

      22

      23

      24

      25




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       1                  C E R T I F I C A T E

       2

       3              This certification is valid only when 

       4   bearing my original signature and official seal on 

       5   this page.

       6             I, SIMONE R. BERTUCCI, pursuant to Rule 

       7   30(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 

       8   and/or Article 1446 A.(1) of the Louisiana Code of 

       9   Civil Procedure, do hereby certify that the 

      10   foregoing testimony was reported by me in 

      11   stenotype, was prepared and transcribed by me or 

      12   under my personal direction and supervision, and is 

      13   a true and correct transcript to the best of my 

      14   ability and understanding; that I am not of 

      15   counsel, not related to counsel or the parties 

      16   hereto, nor am I otherwise interested in the 

      17   outcome of this matter.

      18

      19
                           ____________________________
      20                   SIMONE R. BERTUCCI  (#86155)
                           Certified Court Reporter 
      21    

      22   

      23

      24

      25




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