1

       1                      PUBLIC FORUM

       2                           ON 

       3               TULANE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

       4                   FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2003

       5                    DIXON HALL ANNEX

       6

       7

       8   BRIEFING PANEL:

       9

      10        SCOTT COWEN
                    President
      11
                YVETTE JONES
      12             Senior Vice-President for
                     External Affairs
      13
                PAUL BARRON
      14             Professor of Law

      15

      16

      17

      18

      19

      20

      21   REPORTED BY:

      22        SIMONE R. BERTUCCI,
                CERTIFIED COURT REPORTER
      23

      24

      25




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       1

       2

       3                       A G E N D A                     

       4   WELCOME ADDRESS
                Scott Cowen............................  3
       5
           THE CURRENT STATE OF DIVISION IA ATHLETICS
       6        Yvette Jones...........................  8

       7   MODERATOR ADDRESS
                Paul Barron............................ 22
       8
           AUDIENCE COMMENTS........................... 24
       9
           CONCLUDING REMARKS
      10        Scott Cowen............................ 63

      11

      12

      13

      14

      15

      16

      17

      18

      19

      20

      21

      22

      23

      24

      25




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       1             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       2                  Good afternoon, everybody.  For 

       3   those of you who I do not know, I'm Scott Cowen, 

       4   President of Tulane University, and it's my great 

       5   pleasure to welcome you here today for our briefing 

       6   on the topic of athletics.  As a reminder, this is 

       7   the first of two briefings we will be having.  The 

       8   next one will be on Monday at 5 o'clock in this 

       9   same room.  

      10                  I'd like to introduce two other 

      11   people who will be joining me here for the 

      12   briefing.  Yvette Jones.  Yvette is Senior 

      13   Vice-President for External Affairs at the 

      14   university, and Paul Barron.  Paul Barron is a 

      15   Professor of Law at the Tulane Law School.  Paul 

      16   will be moderating the part of the program where we 

      17   get to hear your feedback and your questions.  

      18                  I also want to tell you that we have 

      19   a stenographer here today.  The stenographer will 

      20   be preparing a transcript of the entire session, 

      21   and we will post this transcript on our web site 

      22   that we have on the topic of athletics, and 

      23   probably more importantly, make sure that this 

      24   transcript is available to members of the Ad Hoc 

      25   Committee and to the Board of Administrators of the 




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       1   Tulane University so they have the benefit of 

       2   hearing all of your questions and feedback for 

       3   them.  

       4                  We basically have three objectives 

       5   that we want to accomplish in the time we have 

       6   together.  Let me see if I can articulate those for 

       7   you.  One is, I will take a few minutes at the very 

       8   beginning to briefly describe the board's process 

       9   of review.  We will then provide for you an 

      10   overview of sort of the macro issues that are 

      11   impacting the operations of Division IA programs in 

      12   general in the United States.  And then the last 

      13   part of the program, which is really the majority 

      14   of the program, is really to listen to you, to 

      15   listen to your concerns and your issues and 

      16   questions; and I know you have many of them, and we 

      17   want to make sure that we have ample opportunity to 

      18   hear all that from you.  

      19                  As you know, we have established a 

      20   web site on this topic.  I think a lot of you are 

      21   aware of it and have seen it, and we have, in fact, 

      22   posted on that web site virtually all the letters 

      23   and E-mails and comments we've gotten on this 

      24   topic, so the information is available to everyone.  

      25   And, likewise, we have posted on that web site a 




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       1   number of information points that we think would be 

       2   of interest to you as you put this issue in context 

       3   for not only Tulane University but also for the 

       4   larger picture of what's going on with the NCAA and 

       5   in higher education.  

       6                  I know when we come to the part of 

       7   the program where we hear your feedback, you'll 

       8   have a lot of questions you're going to want us to 

       9   answer for today, and this commentary is a very 

      10   important part of our process, so we will try to do 

      11   the best we can to answer some of your questions, 

      12   especially those where there is a clear, factual 

      13   answer; otherwise, we really want to understand the 

      14   nature of your questions and your comments, and 

      15   that's what we will be most interested in hearing 

      16   from you.  But we will try, to the best we can, to 

      17   answer questions where we know the answers today, 

      18   whereas a lot of the answers to the questions will 

      19   evolve as this process continues on.  

      20                  I'd like to start out by just 

      21   addressing three very quick points that have come 

      22   up over the last couple of weeks since this issue 

      23   has become public.  The first one is:  What really 

      24   motivated this review at this particular moment in 

      25   time?  And we have stated it on our web site, but I 




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       1   want to state personally that we had envisioned 

       2   that the review of athletics would transpire this 

       3   year some four years ago.  And if I could just take 

       4   you back four years ago, we were in the midst of 

       5   developing a ten-year plan for the institution.  

       6   That ten-year plan is also posted on the web for 

       7   all of you to see, and has been on for about four 

       8   years now.  

       9                  At that time we said that our 

      10   initial effort was going to be a developing 

      11   academic plan, and in three to five years hence we 

      12   would come back and review athletics.  So this is a 

      13   normal review that we had anticipated several years 

      14   ago.  You should also know that in the last four 

      15   years that every school and college of the 

      16   university has also been reviewed.  So this is a 

      17   normal part of our planning process, and the timing 

      18   was anticipated several years ago.  

      19                  The focal point, really, of the 

      20   Board review has focused on what is happening in 

      21   the world of Division I intercollegiate athletics 

      22   generally.  There's been a lot of change in the 

      23   last ten years, and you'll hear some of that this 

      24   afternoon.  So the board has been studying very 

      25   generally how the world of intercollegiate 




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       1   athletics has changed and what impact those changes 

       2   may have on Tulane University now and in the 

       3   future.  And that's been an important question for 

       4   them to analyze, and that has been the focal point 

       5   of really the review.  

       6                  The question has also come up about 

       7   why is it that the Board is doing this.  Well, as 

       8   many of you know, the Board of Administrators is 

       9   the governing body of the university.  They are the 

      10   only group, quite honestly, that is associated with 

      11   the university that is knowledgeable of all aspects 

      12   of the university; and, in fact, in their role as 

      13   trustees of the institution, they have the 

      14   responsibility to represent all of the university's 

      15   constituencies, and that's a very difficult job, 

      16   but they take it very, very seriously.  So the 

      17   Board is in the unique position of seeing how all 

      18   the pieces fit together into one whole that really 

      19   looks at how Tulane University overall is doing, 

      20   given everything that this institution does.  

      21                  Where are we in the process right 

      22   now?  The Ad Hoc Committee has not finalized its 

      23   findings to the Board and will not do so for 

      24   probably another two weeks or so.  They will then 

      25   present those findings to the full Board of 




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       1   Administrators at our board meeting on May 28th and 

       2   29th, and then it will be at that time when the

       3   board will decide where we go from here.  So I just 

       4   wanted to open with a few of those comments to give 

       5   you a little sense of some process issues and 

       6   questions that have come up.  

       7                  Now I'd like to turn the microphone 

       8   over to Yvette Jones who will give you an overview 

       9   of what are some of those macro issues that are 

      10   really impacting Division IA intercollegiate 

      11   athletics generally in America, and how these 

      12   things impinge on Tulane University. 

      13             MS. JONES:

      14                  The presentation I'm going to give 

      15   you today is a presentation that we gave to the 

      16   Board of Administrators at the outset of this 

      17   process.  It's the same information that we gave to 

      18   them to form and frame their discussions.  Scott 

      19   mentioned why we are doing this now in terms of the 

      20   university's planning processes, but also there 

      21   have been a number of major events that have 

      22   occurred externally that have shaped the 

      23   discussion.  

      24                  First of all, there has been 

      25   excessive commercialization in Division I among 




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       1   some of our peers, and this has been one of the 

       2   issues that has drawn concern from the Board.  

       3                  Ten years ago a group was formed 

       4   called the Bowl Championship Series Alliance.  It 

       5   was a group of universities that were in 

       6   conferences that got together and made a deal with 

       7   the television stations for the postseason play for 

       8   football, and that arrangement has actually created 

       9   a division between the "haves" and "have nots," and 

      10   I'll show you some of the numbers related to that. 

      11                  Title IX, I think most of you know 

      12   that the federal government has a set of 

      13   regulations related to equity among men and women's 

      14   sports, and that has increased the cost of 

      15   performing and adding sports to our programs.  The 

      16   NCAA regulations have been reviewed recently, and 

      17   I'll talk a little bit about some changes that are 

      18   occurring there.  And then, finally, our board has 

      19   been very concerned about the conflicted mission 

      20   for higher education and the outcome measures for 

      21   successful programs.  

      22             Now I want to give you an overview, sort 

      23   of a one-on-one on the NCAA, because in the last 

      24   few weeks a lot of information has been in the 

      25   paper, and we've been asked a lot of questions 




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       1   about what's the difference between the various 

       2   divisions.  

       3                  Division I has 321 members, and they 

       4   are divided into three subclasses.  Tulane is a 

       5   member of Division IA.  There are 290 members of 

       6   Division II, and then Division III, which is a 

       7   classification that we've been discussing in the 

       8   papers lately, has 422 members and is actually the 

       9   largest division of the NCAA.  

      10                  The criteria to be a member in 

      11   Division IA are:  You have to support 14 teams 

      12   divided evenly between men and women, you have to 

      13   schedule 60 percent of your games against Division 

      14   I teams, and that's really related to the football 

      15   program, and then you have attendance requirements 

      16   that you can see here, either an average over a 

      17   four-year period or a certain number in at least 

      18   one of the preceding four years. 

      19                  Financial aids requirements, there 

      20   are two ways of measuring this.  One is that you 

      21   have at least 50 percent of the maximum allowable, 

      22   and they give you those numbers for each sport, or 

      23   you have to spend at least $771,000, and you can 

      24   see that there are certain requirements for women's 

      25   sports.  




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       1                  Division IA is actually divided into 

       2   twelve conferences, six of which are in the BCS, as 

       3   I mentioned before, and six that are not.  You can 

       4   see the BCS is made up of conferences that we all 

       5   know, including the SEC, which Tulane was a member 

       6   of many years ago.  Tulane is a member of CUSA, or 

       7   Conference USA, which is one of the members of the 

       8   Non-Bowl Championship Series. 

       9                  Now, many questions have been 

      10   raised about Stanford, Duke and Rice as peer 

      11   institutions to Tulane.  Stanford is a member of 

      12   the Pacific Ten, Duke is actually a member of the 

      13   Atlantic Coast Conference, and Rice is a member of 

      14   the Western Athletic Conference.  And I'll talk 

      15   about what that means in terms of dollars.  

      16                  The next division is actually IAA.  

      17   Same requirements in terms of the number of sports 

      18   you have to have, a little different in terms of 

      19   how you divide them between men and women, and then 

      20   there's a slightly less scheduling requirement of 

      21   50 percent of your football games.  If you 

      22   remember, in IA it was actually 60 percent, and 

      23   then you do have a scheduling requirement for your 

      24   basketball program.  And then, again, the 

      25   attendance requirements are not the same as 




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       1   Division IA, but the financial aid requirements are 

       2   the same.  

       3                  Now, some of the schools that are 

       4   Division IAA are -- we see on the Private, all of 

       5   the Ivy schools are.  In fact, that is what the Ivy 

       6   League is.  It is an athletic conference.  These 

       7   institutions were grandfathered into IAA.  They 

       8   have a different scholarship requirement than other 

       9   members of IA.  They have fewer scholarships for

      10   their football program than the others.  And then 

      11   public institutions in our geographic area, you can 

      12   see those that are listed here. 

      13                  Then the third division or third 

      14   subclass of Division I is AAA, which is a 

      15   no-football model, and then all of the other 

      16   requirements that you saw in terms of attendance or 

      17   scholarship are the same as if you were in IA.  

      18   There are many schools that are AAA.  In fact, 

      19   three of them are in our conference, that's 

      20   Marquette, St. Louis and De Paul.  They all have 

      21   very strong basketball programs and do not have 

      22   football programs.  And then you can see some of 

      23   the public institutions that are included in AAA.

      24                  Now, I'll move on quickly to 

      25   Division II.  The requirement here is ten sports, 




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       1   so we've gone from fourteen in Division I down to 

       2   ten.  Fifty percent of your football games must be 

       3   played against either IA or IAA teams or Division 

       4   II teams.  The financial aid requirement has been 

       5   reduced.  If you remember for Division I, the 

       6   criteria was $771,000 had to be spent at least, and 

       7   now the requirement is about $250,000, and there

       8   are no attendance requirements for Division II.  

       9   You see some of the institutions, private and 

      10   public, that are in Division II.  In fact, many of 

      11   the California school system are playing at the 

      12   Division II level.  

      13                  Now, Division III has been discussed 

      14   most recently.  It has the same varsity sport 

      15   requirements as Division II.  There are ten, you 

      16   have five men and five women.  There are no 

      17   scheduling requirements or attendance requirements.  

      18   The major difference between Division III and the 

      19   others is that you do not have the athletic 

      20   scholarship requirements that you have in the 

      21   others.  In fact, you give need-based or 

      22   merit-based financial aid to student athletes as 

      23   they come in, so you're recruiting the athletes 

      24   through your admissions process.  

      25             You can see the Division III institutions 




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       1   here.  You'll note that in our geographic location 

       2   Emory and Wash. U. are listed, and then there are 

       3   many other private institutions.  As I said, this 

       4   is the largest division, and many small and large 

       5   colleges play at the Division III level, and then 

       6   you can see there are some public schools that do 

       7   as well.  

       8                  Now, in the Board's discussions, 

       9   they have focused on some of the current issues 

      10   that are involved in being a Division IA 

      11   institution.  The first, of course, is the rising 

      12   cost to compete.  I think we all know that in the 

      13   popular press today there are many articles about 

      14   the size of coaches' salaries, the cost for the 

      15   arms race that's been involved in terms of building 

      16   new facilities.  Universities are spending hundreds 

      17   of millions of dollars on new football and 

      18   basketball arenas.  And then again, because of the 

      19   very nature of this, there is a lot of money spent 

      20   on promotions and marketing.  

      21                  The economics of the BCS have been 

      22   another issue that the Board has been reviewing, 

      23   and let me just go over some of the numbers with 

      24   you.  I showed you the conferences earlier, but 

      25   what you see here is -- these are fiscal 2000 data, 




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       1   but you see the kinds of revenues that were 

       2   distributed depending on which conference you were 

       3   in.  So, if you notice, the top four are Bowl 

       4   Championship conferences, and you can see the size 

       5   of the distribution.  

       6                  So, for example, Vanderbilt, which 

       7   is in the SEC, received a check for six and a half 

       8   million dollars in fiscal 2000 for being a member 

       9   of that conference.  Likewise, Tulane, which is a 

      10   member of Conference USA, received $900,000; and, 

      11   actually, last year we only received six hundred 

      12   because of a revision in the revenue-sharing 

      13   arrangement.  

      14                  Part of that revenue that you saw 

      15   distributed comes from this Bowl Championship 

      16   Series postseason play for football.  Again, these 

      17   are 2000 data, and in fiscal 2000 there were about 

      18   $100,000,000 of revenues generated from television, 

      19   game day revenues, the NCAA tournament, and that 

      20   $100,000,000 was distributed to these six 

      21   conferences.  The Non-Bowl Championship Conferences 

      22   actually shared in the distribution of about 

      23   $10,000,000.  So all of these six conferences 

      24   shared in that ten while the others shared in about 

      25   $100,000,000, and that distribution was made up of 




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       1   these sources, and you can see that it was about a 

       2   $98,000,000 bowl payout alone.  

       3                  Now, the way that has been 

       4   distributed is that if you were a member of the 

       5   Bowl Championship Conferences, you actually saw 

       6   anywhere between 15 and 18 million dollars go to 

       7   each of those conferences, which then was shared 

       8   among the universities.  In our conference you can 

       9   see $800,000 was distributed, and those dollars 

      10   were distributed to the universities.  So there is 

      11   a real growing disparity between the Bowl

      12   Championship and Non-Bowl Championship dollars.  So 

      13   those are the first two issues the Board has looked 

      14   at, the cost and then the BCS.  

      15                  Third, of course, is gender equity 

      16   issues.  As I mentioned, federal regulations 

      17   require that we have the same level of 

      18   participation and dollars spent between men and 

      19   women's programs.  

      20                  The academic issues, while this is 

      21   not an issue specific for Tulane, the eligibility 

      22   requirements for most other institutions are lower 

      23   than what ours are to compete, which can put you at 

      24   a severe disadvantage. 

      25                  And then, finally, I think I 




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       1   mentioned at the outset the changing criteria to be 

       2   within Division IA does have costs associated with 

       3   it.  Effective in August of 2004 you'll notice that 

       4   the requirements to be IA are going to change.  No 

       5   longer will fourteen sports be enough, we'll have 

       6   to move to sixteen.  Currently Tulane has fifteen.  

       7   We just added a new sport, and that gives us 

       8   fifteen, and so we'll be looking at adding another 

       9   one in IA.  

      10                  Scheduling requirements are 

      11   changing.  Not only will 60 percent of the games be 

      12   played against Division I, but you'll also have to 

      13   have at least five home games against Division I 

      14   teams.  

      15                  The attendance requirements are 

      16   changing.  They will be based on each year's paid 

      17   attendance, and 15,000 will be the number.  This is 

      18   not an issue for us.  I know many people might 

      19   think it is, but actually our attendance for a home 

      20   game every year is higher than this.  

      21                  And then on the financial aid side 

      22   there are significant changes.  If you remember, 

      23   currently the minimum dollar value is $771,000.  

      24   That is moving to spending at least $4,000,000.  

      25   Now, currently Tulane University spends about 




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       1   $7,000,000 a year on athletic scholarships, so 

       2   we'll clearly meet this requirement, but you can 

       3   see that the cost for some institutions will be 

       4   significantly higher.  

       5                  Conference USA, this just gives you 

       6   a breakdown of the schools.  As I mentioned, there 

       7   are schools in our conference that do not play 

       8   football in the AAA model.  Army is in our 

       9   conference for football only, and then the only 

      10   other private school in our conference is TCU. 

      11                  Now, there are issues that we've 

      12   been looking at related to Conference USA.  First, 

      13   as you heard, I talked about the Bowl Championship 

      14   Series as being a major one, and that actually 

      15   relates to the last item here, is that the income 

      16   from that conference is of growing concern.  

      17                  The profile of the schools.  As I 

      18   said, there is only one other school that is a 

      19   private institution, TCU.  Many of the schools in 

      20   our conference have different academic requirements 

      21   than we do, graduation rates are different, so 

      22   there are academic disparities.  

      23                  Then, more importantly, I think 

      24   there are some issues unique to Tulane University.  

      25   Our conference affiliation is an issue, and it 




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       1   really does relate to the fact that we are a 

       2   private school.  There really are only three other 

       3   private research universities that are in the same 

       4   position that we are.  That's SMU, TCU and Rice.  

       5   All of us are in Non-Bowl Championship Conferences. 

       6   The big difference, of course, is that Rice has an 

       7   endowment about five times the size of Tulane's, 

       8   maybe more, and TCU actually has an endowment of 

       9   about two to three times our size.  So, truthfully, 

      10   SMU probably finds itself in the same economic 

      11   position that we are.  

      12                  The profile of our student athletes 

      13   is among the highest in the nation, something we're 

      14   very proud of, but we don't know if that puts us at 

      15   a disadvantage.  The question is continually raised 

      16   about lowering the standards, so that is something 

      17   that we've been discussing.  And the cost of the 

      18   scholarships:  As I said, $7,000,000 is what we 

      19   spend every year in terms of athletic scholarships.

      20                  Our venue for football.  I call it 

      21   the double-edged sword.  The Superdome is a great 

      22   facility for recruiting, but it is a horrible place 

      23   to play college football.  80,000 seats, and unless 

      24   you have a huge fan base, it's very difficult to 

      25   fill that facility.  The economics of it are a 




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       1   problem as well.  When we made the arrangement to 

       2   play in the Superdome, we were unable to receive 

       3   any of the sponsorship or marketing dollars 

       4   associated, as well as any of the concessions or 

       5   parking.  So the real economics behind having your 

       6   own stadium are not of benefit to us because of the 

       7   arrangement.  We simply have a lease arrangement at 

       8   the Superdome.  

       9                  Diversity issues.  Currently there 

      10   are 106 African-Americans participating in our 

      11   athletic program, and of the undergraduate student 

      12   body, that's about 25 percent.  So any discussion 

      13   of athletics has to be sensitive to the issues of 

      14   diversity and the effect that it would have.  

      15             I talked about the NCAA requirements, and 

      16   as I mentioned, we will have to add another sport 

      17   next year.  

      18                  And then, finally, the financial 

      19   status of our department has been of concern.  We 

      20   are currently losing about $5,000,000 a year.  That 

      21   is the difference between the revenues that are 

      22   generated and the expenditures on the program 

      23   without the scholarship dollars.  Several years ago 

      24   the Board approved a subsidy for the program of 

      25   $1.8 million, and that is not included in the 




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       1   $5,000,000.  So the dollar figure that we've been 

       2   dealing with is about $5,000,000 every year.  

       3                  Now, when the Board actually began 

       4   to look at this back in January, these were the two 

       5   questions that they raised.  The first, of course, 

       6   is:  What is the impact of the changing landscape 

       7   on institutions like Tulane?  And you can see the

       8   kind of issues that they have been addressing.  And 

       9   then, finally, given that landscape, what steps 

      10   should Tulane take to really insure that our 

      11   athletic program and the academic side of the 

      12   institution are on the same mission?

      13                  So, with that, I'm going to ask 

      14   Paul to come up now and address any questions you 

      15   might have.  

      16             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      17                  There's just one point I want to 

      18   clarify, even though you mentioned it at the end, 

      19   because it could be confusing.  The $5,000,000 

      20   deficit that we're realizing in the department 

      21   excludes scholarships, which you already mentioned, 

      22   of $7,000,000, and it also excludes the allowable 

      23   subsidy that we're giving the department of 

      24   approximately $1.8 million.  So the $5,000,000 is 

      25   above that.  I just wanted to clarify that.  




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       1             MR. BARRON:

       2                  Hi.  I want to add my welcome to 

       3   all of you as well.  I really appreciate you taking 

       4   time out of your day to let us know what you think 

       5   about this important issue.  The purpose of this 

       6   part of the meeting, as Scott indicated to you, was 

       7   to get comments and input from the university 

       8   community.  This is your opportunity to let us know 

       9   what you have to say and to hear from you. 

      10                  Let me explain briefly how the 

      11   process is going to work.  As you can see, there 

      12   are two microphones in the aisles.  Feel free to 

      13   come to one of them and I will recognize you.  As 

      14   was mentioned, we're taking a transcript and we are 

      15   also recording today's meeting, and it would be 

      16   therefore helpful if you would identify yourself 

      17   when you begin to speak, if only by your first 

      18   name, so that we can know when different people are 

      19   speaking in the process.  

      20             Each person will be given three minutes 

      21   to speak to insure that everybody will have an 

      22   opportunity to do so.  Three minutes may not sound 

      23   like a long time, but it actually is a fairly long 

      24   time.  I will let you know when you get close to 

      25   the end of that time.  If you have more to say and 




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       1   we have the time, you certainly will have the 

       2   opportunity to speak again.  

       3                  Finally, there may be some of you 

       4   here who would rather not speak at the microphone 

       5   but would rather give us your comments in writing.  

       6   We do have some people here with cards.  If you 

       7   would like to do that, simply raise your hand, and 

       8   somebody will come by and give you a card.  Raise 

       9   your hand again and we'll pick it up from you.  If 

      10   you would like me to read the card, indicate that 

      11   on the card and I will do so, again time 

      12   permitting.  If not, it will become part of the 

      13   transcript of this meeting for purposes of review.

      14                  I want to emphasize something that 

      15   President Cowen said in terms of what it is we're 

      16   trying to do here.  This is really your chance to 

      17   give us the input that you want to give us.  I know 

      18   that part of that will be to ask questions.  That's 

      19   invariably so.  We will attempt to answer the 

      20   questions that we have answers to, but many of the 

      21   questions that you're going to ask will be 

      22   questions whose answers will really evolve over the 

      23   remaining time of this process.  We will obviously 

      24   take those questions into account.  They will be 

      25   part of the record, and we will consider them 




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       1   carefully in the process.  But I do want to kind of 

       2   warn you in advance that there will be some 

       3   questions that we simply won't be in a position 

       4   today to answer because the answers simply aren't 

       5   known.  

       6                  With that in mind, we now find out 

       7   who is the person who is going to have the courage 

       8   to break the ice and come to the microphone and 

       9   make the first comments.  Somehow I didn't think 

      10   that it was going to be hard to get anybody to do 

      11   it.  Why don't I start on this side and then, sir, 

      12   I'll take yours. 

      13             MR. VICTOR LAW:

      14                  Hi, I'm Victor Law, Professor of 

      15   Chemical Engineering, and I've been at Tulane for 

      16   223 years, so I have a little bit of perspective on 

      17   the fact that we continue, and have for at least 

      18   the fifty some-odd years that I've really been 

      19   knowledgeable of Tulane athletics, we continue to 

      20   shoot ourselves into the athletic foot.  I'm really 

      21   appalled the way this whole thing has come about 

      22   and has become so public only because it's so 

      23   negative.  Not that we shouldn't review.  

      24   Obviously, that's part of the university's role.  

      25   But I wanted to make just a very few comments that 




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       1   I know you're all aware of.  

       2                  What is the value of intercollegiate 

       3   athletics at a university like Tulane?  And, 

       4   unfortunately, it's something we can't measure 

       5   accurately.  Perhaps we could build some nice 

       6   stochastic models, and based on assumed 

       7   probabilities we could actually somehow assess 

       8   this, but it wouldn't be practical.  But we say 

       9   there's a $5,000,000 deficit.  We've always, in my 

      10   memory, had a deficit, and it seems to vacillate 

      11   widely from year to year, but that's neither here 

      12   nor there. 

      13                  What is our total budget of the 

      14   university?  

      15             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      16                  Six hundred million dollars.

      17             MR. LAW:

      18                  I'm terrible at mental arithmetic, 

      19   but it seems to me that $5,000,000 is a relative 

      20   pittance compared to the 600.  And what does it buy 

      21   us?  I think that's what we need to evaluate.  And 

      22   I'll leave it at that.  That's my main point, that 

      23   I think we get more than $5,000,000 worth of 

      24   positive effect, whether it's publicity, people who 

      25   would not give to the university if we didn't have 




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       1   an athletic program, and the issues of diversity 

       2   and so forth are immeasurable.  Thank you. 

       3             MR. BARRON:

       4                  Thank you for your comments. 

       5             MR. BOB SEGARI:

       6                  My name is Bob Segari.  That's less 

       7   than one percent of the entire budget, I just want 

       8   everybody to know that, when you talk about 

       9   $600,000,000, less than one percent. 

      10                  My son was a four-year walk-on on 

      11   the football team this year.  He had scholarship 

      12   offers -- he could have went and played Division 

      13   III and Division II football.  He decided to make 

      14   loans and pay his own way to come to Tulane to be a 

      15   part of the athletic program because of how much he 

      16   loved the school, how much he loved the university, 

      17   how much he loved the city of New Orleans.  I just 

      18   thought I'd get that out there.  He will graduate 

      19   in two weeks, he will stay in New Orleans, he will 

      20   be successful, he was on the Dean's List.  He will 

      21   be the kind of individual that will contribute to 

      22   the Athletic Department, but not if you go to 

      23   Division III.  And I'm sure he's not the only one 

      24   that feels like that.  

      25                  I heard Rick Dickson say on the 




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       1   radio last weekend that "We have met the enemy and 

       2   it is us."  He went on to elaborate that perhaps 

       3   the athletic department hasn't been run -- or 

       4   hasn't done the right things that it should have 

       5   done in the past.   

       6                  You guys, as well as I do, know that 

       7   the BCS is going to change whether it's next year, 

       8   whether it's two years.  If we'd have had the 

       9   foresight back in the '60s to bite the bullet and 

      10   stay in the SEC, we wouldn't be talking about this 

      11   right now.  In fact, the football program would 

      12   probably be giving money back to the university, as 

      13   LSU does.  So I'd like the Board and I'd like the 

      14   committee to understand now that the decision 

      15   they're going to make in the next two weeks is 

      16   going to affect the future of the athletic program, 

      17   and that they not be short-sighted with a three- or 

      18   a five-year program, and to remember that, that we 

      19   stand to make a lot of money.  The situation is 

      20   going to change.  We have to decide if we want to 

      21   be a part of it. 

      22                  Another thing, as far as entrance 

      23   requirements, we keep talking about lowering the 

      24   entrance requirements.  I understand our entrance 

      25   requirements are higher than the NCAA, but I think 




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       1   when you say lowering, you're casting a negative 

       2   aspect there that somehow we're going to take some 

       3   person that doesn't belong in college or that can't 

       4   read or can't write and is here to strictly play 

       5   football, and I guess I object to that sometimes 

       6   with the way we project that lowering the 

       7   standards, somehow you're no good for us, you can't

       8   come here.  I just want the Board to consider what 

       9   they're going to do, consider the people that will 

      10   stop giving if we go to Division III football. 

      11                  Finally, I'm going to say, I went to 

      12   Hawaii.  There wasn't a lot of us in Hawaii, but 

      13   the respect that was shown that football team and 

      14   the university by being in Hawaii, by not taking 

      15   the cheap way out, to go to a bowl 5,000 miles 

      16   away, should serve this school well, and you should 

      17   understand what it means to these young men, and 

      18   what those young men mean to this university.  

      19   Thank you.

      20             MR. BARRON:

      21                  Thank you very much.  Anyone else? 

      22             MR. LANCE QUERY:

      23                  I'm Lance Query.  I'm a librarian 

      24   here.  The question of whether it's five million or 

      25   six million or it's a pittance or it's a great 




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       1   deal, we can debate that for a long time.  I would 

       2   hope the Board would also consider opportunity 

       3   losses.  It's not just the cost of -- any program, 

       4   whether it's athletics or anything else, that there 

       5   are opportunity losses.  Each of the deans could 

       6   probably tell you what he or she could do with one, 

       7   two, a half a million dollars.  I'm in the library 

       8   business, and I'm constantly -- we have, I have to 

       9   say, a very respectable library, but I'm constantly 

      10   asked by new faculty, graduate students:  Why don't 

      11   you have this journal?  Why don't you have this 

      12   book?  Why don't you subscribe to this database?  I 

      13   can tell you very frankly, for one million 

      14   dollars -- for a half million dollars I could turn 

      15   this library from a respectable library to a world 

      16   class library, and the impact upon our student body 

      17   in fact would be enormous. 

      18                  I have a factual question.  I 

      19   understand that the figure was bandied about in 

      20   terms of what Washington University and Emory were 

      21   spending on athletics was around about what we're 

      22   spending.  My understanding is that Washington 

      23   University and Emory are spending much, much less, 

      24   less than $2,000,000 or around $2,000,000.  I think 

      25   that's a piece of factual information we need to -- 




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       1   the community needs to have that, because if 

       2   they're spending what we're spending, that's 

       3   important.  If they're spending a smaller amount, 

       4   then I think the community needs to know that.  

       5                  One last item, and that is in terms 

       6   of the quality of life issue in terms of athletes.  

       7   I happen to be a very, very strong supporter of 

       8   athletics in higher education, but I was recently, 

       9   on a very nice October afternoon, in St. Louis 

      10   attending the Washington University football game, 

      11   and let me tell you, that was a hell of a lot of 

      12   fun.  And in terms of the quality of life of the 

      13   student body that afternoon I haven't matched that 

      14   with any experience.  

      15             MR. BARRON:

      16                  Thank you.  Do you want to comment 

      17   on that?

      18             MS. JONES:

      19                  Washington University actually 

      20   spends about $3,000,000 on their athletic program.  

      21   Compared to IA programs that spend -- we spend 

      22   about $20,000,000 with scholarship and the cost of 

      23   the operation.  The three million at Washington 

      24   does not include any scholarship because they are 

      25   not required to give them for the program. 




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       1             MR. BARRON:

       2                  Yes, sir, please.  

       3             MR. SCOTT SLATTEN:

       4                  My name is Scott Slatten.  I am a 

       5   third-generation Tulane supporter of athletics.  My 

       6   grandmother actually went to the Rose Bowl game 

       7   back in the '30s.  My father and uncle were some of 

       8   the founders of the Green Wave Club back in the I 

       9   guess late '60s, the fund-raising arm.  In the 

      10   three I guess major sports, being football, 

      11   basketball, and baseball, we purchase over 35 

      12   season tickets.  I attend as many games as can 

      13   reasonably be attended with three children, and I 

      14   am just absolutely floored that this is even being 

      15   considered.  Many of you know who my father is.  

      16   He's floored, too.  He's to the point now where 

      17   he's just beaten down.  It seems like the 

      18   gentleman's comment about the enemy is us -- I just 

      19   wish and hope that the university will, for the 

      20   first time in 30 or 40 years, get 100 percent 

      21   behind the Athletic Department like it needs to be 

      22   supported in both attendance and fund-raising.  

      23   It's hard -- it just seems to me like the deck has 

      24   been stacked against the Athletic Department for 

      25   many years.  




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       1                  I know nobody likes to lose money.  

       2   I'm in business myself.  Just to relate a story 

       3   from my personal experience, our family company was 

       4   going through some rough times in the 1980s and the 

       5   early '90s, and we had to make a decision of which 

       6   route we were going to take, and what we did is we 

       7   invested tens of millions of dollars into our 

       8   company, and now we have the largest market share 

       9   in our business, in the tugboat business on the 

      10   Mississippi River.  If Tulane would make that 

      11   commitment to its Athletic Department, we have a 

      12   great athletic director who is tirelessly working 

      13   for the university.  I think we have the best 

      14   coaches as a whole that we've ever had.  The 

      15   football team has had four winning seasons in the 

      16   last six.  And I realize attendance at football and 

      17   basketball are a problem, but I think it's been 

      18   proven with baseball, success on a regular basis 

      19   will bring the fans back.  No, we're never going to 

      20   average 50,000 people a home game.  That's what we 

      21   averaged in the '70s and '80s when I went to 

      22   Tulane, but we've lost a generation of fans with 

      23   poor coaching, lackadaisical attitudes.  But now I 

      24   think we have it turned in the right direction.  

      25   And, as proven with baseball, we're in the top 20 




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       1   for the last, if I'm not mistaken, four or five 

       2   years.  We'll never be there with football, but I 

       3   think if you will get behind Rick Dickson and the 

       4   coaches in every sport, then I think you will bring 

       5   the fans back.  But discussions like this are 

       6   killing things, and that's all I have to say, and I 

       7   hope you give them a chance. 

       8             MR. BARRON:

       9                  Thank you very much.

      10             MR. VICTOR LAW:

      11                  I appreciate very much the 

      12   librarian's comment, and I certainly agree that any 

      13   dean or director can use a half million or million 

      14   dollars.  The question is whether or not any of 

      15   these funds would be realized on the academic side 

      16   if we dropped athletics, and that's the question 

      17   that I was posing earlier.  I don't think we can 

      18   answer that question definitively, but my gut 

      19   feeling is there wouldn't be a dime available of 

      20   that five million -- or the twenty million if you 

      21   want to use that number as the total that we 

      22   spend -- I don't think a dime of that would show up 

      23   in the academic arena for a variety of reasons such 

      24   as less giving, the fact that we would have to give 

      25   financial aid to another two or three hundred 




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       1   students who are nonathletes, et cetera.  

       2             MR. BOB SEGARI:

       3                  I want to address the gentleman's 

       4   comments about Emory and St. Louis and Washington 

       5   or whoever the heck we're talking about.  All I can 

       6   tell you is that on the night of December 25, 2002, 

       7   ESPN was constantly broadcasting the name of Tulane 

       8   University as the only athletic event on that 

       9   night.  Now, you tell me if you could get that type 

      10   of publicity for $5,000,000 in a captive audience.  

      11   Now, you tell me that that didn't mean something to 

      12   this university as far as students and academics, 

      13   not just athletics.  How did the old commercial go? 

      14   Priceless?  Well, that advertisement that night on 

      15   ESPN was priceless.  It would have cost you more 

      16   than $5,000,000 of air time to promote your school 

      17   that much, and I'd like people to remember that.  I 

      18   did not see Emory, I did not see Washington and 

      19   Lee, I did not see whoever on TV that night.  I saw 

      20   Tulane University from New Orleans, Louisiana, on a 

      21   game.  Priceless publicity that you cannot purchase 

      22   for $5,000,000, and you need to remember that, as 

      23   it benefits not just the athletics, but it benefits 

      24   the school in general.  

      25             MR. BARRON:




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       1                  Thank you.

       2             MR. ED KILLONE:

       3                  My name is Ed Killone.  I'm an 

       4   employee of Tulane University, and I'm also a 

       5   graduate from University College in 2000.  My major 

       6   was sports administration or sports management.  It 

       7   was discontinued.  A lot of the same issues that 

       8   y'all are bringing up right now we had in different 

       9   courses and all.  To complete those courses and 

      10   all, we brought in professors from other 

      11   universities because the professors that were 

      12   teaching the courses at the time had gone on to 

      13   other universities at that time.  We had a course 

      14   called Current Issues in Sports, and we were 

      15   looking at some of the same things that you're 

      16   looking at right now.  And if we'd have only looked 

      17   at it more in depth as to what's going on within 

      18   the university, a lot of these problems could have 

      19   been addressed or at least thought out or thought 

      20   through at that time.  

      21                  Doctor Lance Green, who was head of 

      22   the Department of Exercise Science, is an excellent 

      23   teacher.  In fact, he taught us some things that, 

      24   to me, made a lasting impression on my life.  But 

      25   one of the things I really think that we need to do 




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       1   is look at what is our identity, what do we want to 

       2   achieve and which direction do we want to go.  

       3   Also, look internally at who's in place right now, 

       4   who can we get in place.  

       5                  Like at LSU, I don't know if you're 

       6   aware, but Doctor Andonie has donated his 

       7   collection to LSU, and they're going to open a 

       8   museum I think in a year or so.  And I had the 

       9   opportunity to work with Doctor Andonie.  I 

      10   donated -- because I like to collect sports 

      11   memorabilia.  I donated a lot of my memorabilia to 

      12   him, and of course he donated his collection to the 

      13   new museum that's going to be opened up.  But we've 

      14   talked about different things about where LSU is 

      15   and where Tulane is and so forth.  I think we need 

      16   to have the universities get together.  Apparently 

      17   LSU is doing something right up there.  Now, I 

      18   don't know if it fits our pattern and we should do 

      19   it also, but just the interchange of information 

      20   between us and the rest of the universities in the 

      21   state.  I'm also a graduate of Southeastern.  I 

      22   graduated from Southeastern in 1969 with a degree 

      23   in accounting.  Southeastern, as you know, 

      24   discontinued football and is now bringing it back.  

      25   When we used to have alumni meetings up there and 




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       1   all without the football game, which everything 

       2   used to be centered around, then we tried to go 

       3   ahead and do it around basketball games, but it 

       4   didn't work.  The attendance fell off at a lot of 

       5   these different functions, the alumni and so forth.  

       6   I think a university without that added feature 

       7   doesn't have a whole well-rounded student, doesn't 

       8   produce a whole well-rounded student.  

       9                  So, again, if you'll talk within the 

      10   university itself to a number of people that I 

      11   believe can give you some guidance, like Doctor 

      12   Lance Green.  I mean, he has some great ideas.  I 

      13   don't know if he's on your committee and he's 

      14   putting his thoughts into it and all, but there are 

      15   really a lot of things that we can do.  Thank you.

      16             MR. BARRON:

      17                  Thank you very much.  

      18             MS. DANIELLA Irle:

      19                  My name is Daniella Irle, and I am 

      20   the head swimming and diving coach here at Tulane, 

      21   the newest addition to the staff here.  I just have 

      22   a couple of points that I wanted to try to clarify.  

      23   First of all, with regard to Title IX, Title IX 

      24   doesn't ask for equality, it asks for equity.  If 

      25   we spend a thousand dollars on a football player, 




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       1   we do not have to spend a thousand dollars on a 

       2   female swimmer.  There was an erroneous statement 

       3   earlier, and I think the public needs to know that.  

       4   It's not matching dollars for men and women, it's 

       5   equitable dollars for men and women. 

       6                  Also, one of the concerns you-all 

       7   voiced was lower admission standards for athletes, 

       8   so on and so forth.  I can tell you one of the 

       9   reasons I came to Tulane as the swimming coach is 

      10   because that will not be the case here.  I have 

      11   fourteen incoming athletes.  All of them met -- 

      12   most of them have been admitted to Newcomb of their 

      13   own accord.  I have a few in University College, 

      14   but none of my athletes needed any special 

      15   treatment to get into this university, and I think 

      16   that is exactly the kind of diverse, well-rounded 

      17   student that we're looking for here.  

      18                  Also, you talk about the addition of 

      19   sports almost as if it's a negative.  I would 

      20   counter you to say maybe you should be looking at 

      21   that as a new source of revenue.  I, myself, my 

      22   staff, we have forty new TAF members in the last 

      23   three weeks just off the swimming community, people 

      24   in this area, some alumni.  I think you could 

      25   expect that to grow.  I mean, these are things that 




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       1   we're being very proactive with.  So as opposed to 

       2   maybe looking at new sports, the addition of one 

       3   additional sport as a negative, maybe we could 

       4   start looking at that as a positive, because I 

       5   think it will be.  I actually have one set of 

       6   parents who live out of town who bought season 

       7   tickets for football, and they will be flying in to 

       8   participate in those type of things.  So don't sell 

       9   us short.  It's not a negative that we're here. 

      10                  Also, you cannot place a dollar 

      11   value on the exposure that you-all get from 

      12   athletics.  There isn't a department on this campus 

      13   who can expose this university to the national 

      14   community like we can, and be thankful that you 

      15   have an athletic department that does it well.  

      16   Many universities it isn't done so well, and it's a 

      17   little embarrassing.  I think here you can be proud 

      18   about it.

      19                  And, finally, in a lot of the 

      20   things I read from President Cowen, the Board, so 

      21   forth, you talk about wanting to be a leader, you 

      22   talk about wanting to be leaders in higher 

      23   education.  Then what are we saying when we decide 

      24   it can't be done, that you can't have great 

      25   athletes and great students?  What kind of leaders 




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       1   are we when we throw in the towel?  So as a coach 

       2   here -- those are the reasons I'm here is because 

       3   we are the model institution, and I believe that.  

       4   But if we throw in the towel, then you've said the 

       5   BCS school is right, that is the right model, and 

       6   that is the way it should be, and I refuse to 

       7   believe that.  So I would ask you guys to fight for 

       8   us and allow us to continue what we're doing here.  

       9   Thank you. 

      10             MR. BARRON:

      11                  Thank you.

      12             MR. JOHN HRYHORCHUK:

      13                  Hi, I'm John Hryhorchuk.  I'm an 

      14   undergrad.  Basically I agree with everything 

      15   people are saying about the marketability of the 

      16   university, and for me personally, I would not have 

      17   come to Tulane if it was not a Division IA school.  

      18   I would never have heard of Tulane University if it 

      19   had not been for the perfect season.  Well, I guess 

      20   I would have heard of it because I got so much crap 

      21   from the Admissions Department, just paper after 

      22   paper, but it was meaningless to me because I got 

      23   crap from a lot of the schools when you're in high 

      24   school.  You need to find something that separates 

      25   it.  And when I was getting the stuff from 




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       1   Washington and Lee, and when I was getting the 

       2   stuff from Emory, it's nice, they're equal 

       3   institutions, but they don't have that extra thing 

       4   to make the difference.  And for me, watching Shawn 

       5   King out there on the football field did it for me.  

       6   Didn't live in Louisiana, didn't attend a single 

       7   game, but you know what, I heard about it.  I saw 

       8   highlights on ESPN, and it made a difference.  

       9                  Also, I made the comment, this 

      10   previous comment to President Cowen when he asked 

      11   me why I didn't go to Tennessee because they had a 

      12   better season that year -- well, you can't really 

      13   have better than perfect, but I do believe they had 

      14   a perfect season, won the national championship.  

      15   And there is a lot of merits to going to an 

      16   academic school that can simultaneously succeed at 

      17   athletics.  I mean, if we can be successful at 

      18   both, we can join the Stanfords and the Notre Dames 

      19   and be the institution that people want to go to 

      20   for every reason, not just for one.  You have 

      21   multiply-balanced students, and I think that's 

      22   important.  

      23                  Also, I think we need to address a 

      24   lot more the issue of the timing of this.  Because, 

      25   personally, I'm disheartened by the lack of student 




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       1   attendance here, but I know I had to stay an extra 

       2   day after exams to attend this, and it just -- it 

       3   reflects a much larger series of events at Tulane 

       4   of just poor timing, like with the housing policy, 

       5   slipping that through with no student input over 

       6   the Christmas break.  That was just pathetic.  And 

       7   what's going on here with waiting until it's the 

       8   summer to make a decision when you can't really 

       9   have the input of the student body.  It's 

      10   disheartening, and it's like you're stacking the 

      11   deck against this to push through a cause, and I 

      12   think that's inappropriate, and I would hope with 

      13   my whole heart that that's not true, and I hope you 

      14   learn from this and perhaps behave better in the 

      15   future.  Thank you.  

      16             MR. BARRON:

      17                  Thank you. 

      18             DR. GREG STEWART:

      19                  My name is Greg Stewart.  I'm on 

      20   the faculty at the medical school, and I'm one of 

      21   the team physicians for the Athletic Department 

      22   here.  I've listened over the last several weeks 

      23   with regard to the discussion that goes on, and 

      24   everything has been what happens to the Athletic 

      25   Department and the impact directly on the Athletic 




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       1   Department, and I haven't heard anything really 

       2   from the standpoint of the impact on the Health 

       3   Science Center or anything else, and I think that 

       4   it's considerable even to us.  

       5                  The Tulane Institute of Sports 

       6   Medicine which is here on campus I think is 

       7   probably one of the preeminent sports medicine 

       8   facilities in the southeastern part of this 

       9   country, if not throughout the United States, and 

      10   with revenue generated there, if we're talking 

      11   dollars, I think part of the reason that we are 

      12   successful is that we have a Division I athletic 

      13   program with football that allows us to bring in 

      14   over 12,000 physician visits, 40,000 physical 

      15   therapy units of service, 1,000 surgeries a year, 

      16   900 MRIs, 4,000 x-rays, all that are generating 

      17   revenue, and partly because of our reputation that 

      18   goes along with having what we cover and the 

      19   services we provide. 

      20                  I know that as an institution, part 

      21   of what we're trying to accomplish is working with 

      22   the New Orleans community.  Because we have a 

      23   Division I program, we also are responsible for a 

      24   majority of the Orleans Parish inner-city high 

      25   schools for their athletic care, that we also are 




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       1   responsible for the public schools in St. Bernard 

       2   Parish and St. Charles Parish and in Plaquemines 

       3   Parish.  We have some private schools throughout.  

       4   We're responsible for the care of Loyola, Dillard, 

       5   Xavier, SUNO.  We take care of the Zephyrs, we take 

       6   care of Shell Shockers.  All of this comes because 

       7   we have an institution that has a Division IA 

       8   football program.  LSU has a sports medicine 

       9   program as well, and what does anybody hear from 

      10   their sports medicine program?  

      11                  We have several million dollars in 

      12   outstanding grants right now that we're waiting to 

      13   hear from that depend upon having access to elite 

      14   athletes, and that would be Division I athletes.  

      15   We're looking at ACL injuries in female athletes.  

      16   And we then, as being a leader in that, if we 

      17   receive some of these grants and have the athletes 

      18   here, then that puts us on the map as a research 

      19   institution within this area.  We've done some 

      20   research in the past looking at mild traumatic 

      21   brain injury in football, and as a result of that 

      22   we see a lot of individuals who come in and see us 

      23   because of what we've done with this in the past.  

      24   And, again, it's because we have a Division I 

      25   athletic program.  




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       1                  From an educational standpoint we 

       2   have -- 

       3             MR. BARRON:

       4                   You're getting close to the end of 

       5   three minutes.  If you can kind of wind it up if 

       6   you would, please. 

       7             DR. GREG STEWART: 

       8                  All right.  We have biomedical 

       9   education, biomedical engineering students, we have 

      10   exercise science students, we have physical 

      11   therapy, pre-med, all of the students throughout, 

      12   as well as graduate and postgraduate individuals 

      13   who rotate through our institution, that if the 

      14   athletic program goes away, then a lot of this also 

      15   goes away because of the elite status of being 

      16   Division IA. 

      17             MR. BARRON:

      18                  Thank you.  I'm getting another 

      19   written statement.  It wasn't indicated -- well, 

      20   this one is indicated to please read.  I'll read 

      21   the first one I received.  In any event, it says, 

      22   "Is it fair to show differences between Divisions 

      23   IA, IAA and Division III without any mention of 

      24   exposure locally, regionally and nationally?" 

      25                  And then the second one that I just 




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       1   received says, "Can you please explain why this 

       2   review procedure was kept under an air of anonymity 

       3   until the issue was brought public through 

       4   unofficial sources?  Was the Board planning on 

       5   deciding on this issue without public discussion 

       6   had there been no 'media leak'?  Was there any plan 

       7   to notify those student athletes and employees 

       8   who" -- who would be, I guess, "affected by the 

       9   decision prior to a decision being made?  Protocol 

      10   to date leads me to believe that that is not the 

      11   case."

      12                  Okay.  Other -- 

      13             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      14                  Paul, let me comment on that very 

      15   last question.  

      16             MR. BARRON:

      17                  Sure. 

      18             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      19                  The process always envisioned that 

      20   there would be briefings on athletics.  That was 

      21   part of the outline that the Ad Hoc Committee and 

      22   the Board though would be an important part of the 

      23   process, to get commentary.  And in fact, even 

      24   though the time frame turned out differently 

      25   because of public information, we believe we are 




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       1   achieving exactly the same goals that was intended 

       2   all along, and that is to make sure that we had in 

       3   this process an opportunity for people to express 

       4   their views and their feelings and their opinions;  

       5   and both through the letters and E-mails and phone 

       6   calls we've gotten, and certainly through sessions

       7   like this, we are getting that.  So it was 

       8   envisioned.  The Board always envisioned that there 

       9   would be at least where there would be this.  

      10                  It is always a difficult issue, the 

      11   timing of it, because as you see, it's very 

      12   difficult to have a public discussion of athletics, 

      13   especially when our coaches and our students are 

      14   here, so it always has to be managed in a 

      15   relatively short period of time, and we think now 

      16   the process is involving a way that's allowing 

      17   you-all to have feedback.  But I do want you to 

      18   know that the Board has always envisioned there 

      19   would be at least previews on the topic. 

      20             MR. BARRON:

      21                  I see someone standing.  That must 

      22   mean we have another speaker.  Please.  

      23             MS. JULIA MOTT:

      24                  My name is Julia Mott, and I'm going 

      25   to be graduating from Tulane next weekend.  One of 




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       1   the things that's been one of the best memories 

       2   I've had the entire time I was growing up in New 

       3   Orleans and during my college experience is going 

       4   to the Tulane sporting events.  It's a real time to 

       5   have feelings for your school.  And I have to 

       6   admit, when I'm sitting there during my senior year 

       7   of high school at Newman and seeing Tulane have 

       8   their perfect season, it definitely affected my 

       9   college decision.  My decision came down to Tulane 

      10   versus Georgia, and I had a chance to go to a place 

      11   which had quality sports and quality academics.  

      12   And that benefit, by being able to choose a school 

      13   like Tulane -- I think it draws a lot of people 

      14   here that don't participate in athletics but like 

      15   it.  And when you've got students that have 

      16   interests that are more than just inside the 

      17   classroom, you get a more well-rounded student 

      18   body, and by coming to a place where there's a more 

      19   well-rounded student body, we all learn more than 

      20   what we would if we were just in some place that 

      21   only learned out of books.  We're learning from the 

      22   people around us who are different and have 

      23   different ideas and have different experiences and 

      24   different talents.  Those different talents are 

      25   what makes Tulane unique.  If you've got people 




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       1   that are talented, spanning from being able to 

       2   perform on stage to being able to perform on the 

       3   field, and those different qualities and those 

       4   different talents is what makes Tulane's student 

       5   body better.  And if we take away the chance for 

       6   people to show their talents on the field, you're 

       7   taking away an entire way for students to be able 

       8   to show how great our student body is.  Because 

       9   that diversity, it's more than just what color 

      10   people are, it's in what they bring.  It's what 

      11   makes the student body great.  And that's what 

      12   affected my decision to come here, because Tulane 

      13   has such an interesting and unique student body, 

      14   and not only that, but they're smart, too.  That 

      15   really helps when you're choosing a college.  And 

      16   all that seems to affect lots of decisions to come 

      17   here, it's not just me.  But when people make a 

      18   college decision, they're looking for a place where 

      19   they can fit in, and when you've got people who 

      20   have lots of different interests, you're going to 

      21   find your group that you fit into better, and 

      22   Tulane can serve that purpose with quality 

      23   athletics and quality academics.  

      24             MR. BARRON:

      25                  Thank you.  When we have students as 




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       1   articulate as you, it does prove the point that we 

       2   have smart students.  Thank you. 

       3             MR. BILL LENNON:

       4                  I'm Bill Lennon, Director of the 

       5   Center for International Students and Scholars here 

       6   at Tulane.  I haven't been here 250 years, but the 

       7   glacier is moving at the same speed.  

       8                  I'm a big supporter of 

       9   intercollegiate athletics, and I think at Tulane it 

      10   holds a very, very dear spot in our great 

      11   university.  We know that well over half of the 

      12   Division I schools in the United States are losing 

      13   money and have to be subsidized, and I think for a 

      14   great university it is part of the cost of doing 

      15   business. 

      16                  We have seen a drop in attendance, 

      17   but we're not so far away when students were 

      18   sleeping out on Freret Street to get into the 

      19   basketball games against like Louisville and 

      20   Memphis.  I do agree also that the BCS format is 

      21   going to be changing because of the disparity 

      22   between the BCS schools and the other Division IA 

      23   conferences.  It's too much.  And that Conference 

      24   USA is perched in a good position to be at the 

      25   forefront in the changes.  I think that we see more 




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       1   exposure of Conference USA on ESPN and other media 

       2   networks.  I think Marquette running the NCAAs was 

       3   a great boost to the conference.  And we see with 

       4   Tulane's success in almost all the sports that we 

       5   can do well in this conference, and being at the 

       6   top of an emerging conference I think is a good 

       7   spot for us to be.  

       8             MR. BARRON:

       9                  Thank you.  Others?  Thank you.  I 

      10   was getting lonely up here.

      11             MS. BETSY DANFLOUS:

      12                  My name is Betsy Danflous.  I'm 

      13   actually a local and a graduate assistant in the 

      14   Athletic Department currently.  I went to school at 

      15   Newman a few blocks away and actually chose to do 

      16   my undergraduate degree at Appalachian State 

      17   University which is in the mountains of North 

      18   Carolina.  I'm sure that most of you have not even 

      19   heard of it.  It's a IAA school, just to let y'all 

      20   know.  We have IAA football, we've made to it the 

      21   playoffs in every single year, and I bet most of 

      22   y'all wouldn't have even known that it existed had 

      23   I not stood up here today.  

      24                  Tulane definitely affords students 

      25   and alumni a unique opportunity to say, yes, I was 




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       1   a part of something.  I was a part of something 

       2   big.  And many people in the New Orleans community 

       3   respect Tulane not only for academics but also for 

       4   its athletics.  It's a very important piece of 

       5   information for me to be able to stand up here and 

       6   say, yes, I'm a local; and, yes, I supported Tulane 

       7   throughout my entire life and throughout my entire 

       8   being as a New Orleans native.  Yes, I chose to go 

       9   somewhere else for college, but I came back home, 

      10   and Tulane is my new home as a graduate student.  I 

      11   am just as much a part of the Athletic Department 

      12   as anyone else, even though I am a graduate 

      13   assistant, and it is definitely a unique chemistry. 

      14   And if any of y'all have not been down to the James 

      15   Wilson Center, I invite all of you because we're 

      16   all very vibrant, fun-loving individuals that love 

      17   to see our team succeed.  

      18             MR. BARRON:

      19                  Thank you.  It's like when I ask a 

      20   question in class, everyone looks down at their 

      21   books in case I catch their eye. 

      22             MR. MAX KINTNER:

      23                  Max Kintner.  I'll be graduating 

      24   with my bachelor's and my master's in a week.  I've 

      25   been here for six years.  I'm originally from here, 




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       1   grew up in Baton Rouge.  A few other speakers were 

       2   talking about where they decided to come to college 

       3   and why.  Growing up in Baton Rouge, of course I 

       4   was an enormous LSU fan.  When it came down to 

       5   applying for schools, I only did apply to schools 

       6   with Division I athletics, so what that comes down 

       7   to is LSU, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Stanford and Texas 

       8   A&M.  Ultimately my decision came down between 

       9   Tulane and Stanford, and I came here because you 

      10   guys threw a lot of money at me, and it cost way 

      11   too much to go to Stanford.  But, that being said, 

      12   I came here with probably not -- I don't know 

      13   average or not.  If you grew up in New Orleans, 

      14   you'd probably go either way.  I grew up an LSU 

      15   fan, but I wasn't the biggest TU athletic supporter 

      16   in my beginnings of my collegiate career.  However, 

      17   I was a cheerleader for four years, the beginning 

      18   of that first year being the 12-0 season.  Those 

      19   experiences alone will make me love Tulane 

      20   athletics for the rest of my life.  Those 

      21   experiences coupled with college bowl series -- I 

      22   didn't go out as a functionary of the university, 

      23   but went out because I love Tulane.  I seem to 

      24   remember being an orientation coordinator somewhere 

      25   in there, and I realized -- I think our admission 




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       1   numbers expounded with that exposure, but also the 

       2   quality of our admissions.  I don't know what the 

       3   numbers are between that.  I guess it would have 

       4   been 2000 and 2001 applications, but I seem to 

       5   remember I was (inaudible) very much the exposure 

       6   gained from the college world series, not only an 

       7   increase in the number of applications, but also 

       8   the quality of our applications, but I just don't 

       9   know those numbers. 

      10                  But given the fact that I'm a 

      11   convert, I have to say that I do love the 

      12   university, and leaving here I love it for -- 

      13   mostly for the people I've met, but secondly for 

      14   the athletic experiences I've had.  The academics 

      15   were great, I love it, but I feel like I could have 

      16   gotten a great education anywhere; but I do love 

      17   the school and the city now for the experiences 

      18   I've had with the football team, with the baseball 

      19   team, and on the basketball and volleyball games 

      20   that I went to that more and more people are going 

      21   to now.  That's it.  I'm giving to the school 

      22   because -- when I leave I will be giving to the 

      23   school because of the Athletic Department and not 

      24   because of -- not as much because of the education 

      25   I received.  




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       1             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       2                  Mack, you were also a very good 

       3   cheerleader I might add.  

       4             MR. KINTNER:

       5                  Thank you.  

       6             AUDIENCE MEMBER:

       7                  Move to adjourn.

       8             MR. BARRON:

       9                  I just want to make sure that 

      10   everybody has an opportunity, because we said we 

      11   would be here until 2:00, and it's only ten after 

      12   1:00, and I want to make sure that everybody that's 

      13   had an opportunity to speak can do so.  

      14             MR. SEGARI:

      15                  This is just a general question for 

      16   Dr. Cowen. 

      17             MR. BARRON:

      18                  Please go to the microphone and 

      19   identify yourself again. 

      20             MR. SEGARI:

      21                  Bob Segari.  Doctor Cowen, I'd like 

      22   to ask, how do you feel about this?  If you had to 

      23   go before the Board of Administrators and give them 

      24   a recommendation, what would you say?

      25             PRESIDENT COWEN:




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       1                  At this time, Bob, I'm gathering all 

       2   inputs from all sources.  Listening to a lot of the 

       3   -- obviously the conversation we're having here 

       4   today which is very, very helpful.  I have actually 

       5   read all the E-mails and letters that have come in 

       6   personally, and I'm trying to gather all the 

       7   information I can before I formulate what should be 

       8   an opinion.  I think as you all realize, and I 

       9   really do appreciate your understanding about this, 

      10   is that this is a very complex issue that touches 

      11   every single part of the university.  And I know 

      12   the Board, and I know I, take it very, very 

      13   seriously; and, by the way, I know you take it very 

      14   seriously also, because the commitments and the 

      15   passion that you have expressed on this issue is 

      16   something that is important to all of us as we 

      17   think about it, it really is, to see that you feel 

      18   that way.  

      19                  So, Bob, I think as the process 

      20   unfolds, I want to continue to learn and to listen 

      21   and to be educated also before I formulate some 

      22   thoughts that I will share with the Board.

      23             MR. SEGARI:

      24                  I just ask that when you go, you 

      25   bring a picture of you with your hair painted green 




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       1   and your face so they know how you feel.  

       2             PRESIDENT COWEN:

       3                   That's a very good point, Bob.  You 

       4   know what one of the hardest things about being 

       5   president of a university is?  There are times when 

       6   you have to separate your personal feelings from 

       7   your institutional feelings and obligations to the 

       8   institution.  So, you know personally I am a very 

       9   big fan myself, and always have been, of 

      10   intercollegiate athletics, and always will be, so I 

      11   will say that with a great deal of pride to 

      12   anybody.  And there are times, though, when you 

      13   wear the institutional hat as president and you 

      14   represent multiple constituents out there, and of 

      15   course that's the great conundrum. 

      16             MR. BARRON:

      17                  Go ahead.  See, it just takes time 

      18   for people to be moved.  

      19             MR. VINCE GRANITO:

      20                  I feel a little self-serving being 

      21   up here. 

      22             MR. BARRON:

      23                  Absolutely not.

      24             MR. VINCE GRANITO:

      25                  Vince Granito, I'm an Athletic 




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       1   Department employee.  I've been at the university 

       2   for sixteen years.  This is the third institution 

       3   that I've worked for.  I will say I've worked in a 

       4   public institution and I worked at the United 

       5   States Naval Academy with their student athletes, 

       6   and I just want to say that in the sixteen years 

       7   that I've been here, the main reason that I've 

       8   stayed at this institution the length of time that 

       9   I have is because of the students and student 

      10   athletes that we have on this campus.  They are 

      11   unique individuals who take pride not only in their 

      12   athletic achievement but in their academic life.  I 

      13   am very proud to be a member of the Athletic 

      14   Department because we stand for what is good in 

      15   college athletics and what it's supposed to be 

      16   about. 

      17                  Now, I know that the problems that 

      18   are facing intercollegiate athletics today are 

      19   problems that are not of our choosing.  Doctor 

      20   Cowen has stated on a number of occasions that he 

      21   is very proud of the type of Division I Athletic 

      22   Department we are running.  So the issues that 

      23   we're talking about are national issues.  BCS is 

      24   something that needs to be solved, and I do believe 

      25   it's not going to help overnight, but will be an 




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       1   issue that will be solved.  The financial issue -- 

       2   let me back up.  

       3                  Being here sixteen years, I believe 

       4   that there is not a problem at this university that 

       5   cannot be solved if we all work together to solve 

       6   this problem.  I have been here, early in my career 

       7   athletics had been -- we were kind of a stepchild.  

       8   When we had financial problems, they were not 

       9   discussed in public.  They were hidden behind the 

      10   subsurface as if the university was ashamed that 

      11   they had an Athletic Department, was ashamed to put 

      12   out to the public that we had the issues and 

      13   problems that we did.  But I think this is good 

      14   that this issue is out in the community.  This is a 

      15   problem.  We have a financial problem, but this is 

      16   not a problem that cannot be solved, it is not a 

      17   problem that cannot be solved by this university 

      18   working collectively to solve this problem.  I 

      19   believe that this university being as old as it is, 

      20   if the alumni of this university, the student body 

      21   of this university, and the people who love this 

      22   university and the City of New Orleans and the city 

      23   itself are called to action on this issue, I 

      24   believe they will respond, and I think they will 

      25   respond greatly in favor of Division I athletics 




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       1   for Tulane, Tulane University.  That's basically 

       2   all. 

       3             MR. BARRON:

       4                  Thank you very much.  There's the 

       5   old adage that things will come to those who wait.  

       6   I'm practicing that now. 

       7                  All right.  One more person.  Why 

       8   did you keep me in suspense?  Please.

       9             MR. TONY BENNETT:

      10                  My name is Tony Bennett.  I'm an 

      11   employee in the Athletic Department.  I work with 

      12   our student athletes with their academics.  I'm 

      13   going to speak on a few different things.  First of 

      14   all, I'm going to speak on the student athlete 

      15   point of view.  Being that it's finals week right 

      16   now, most of our students are leaving right now.  

      17   Down in our office we hear all the concerns, 

      18   gripes, whether it's good or bad, of how the 

      19   student athletes feel about this situation.  

      20                  Just to give the Board a little 

      21   background information, which I'm sure you will get 

      22   this information.  If not, I will put that out 

      23   there.  We have approximately around 280 student 

      24   athletes.  Of those 280 athletes, 45 percent of our 

      25   student population has a grade point average of 3.0 




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       1   or higher.  Our baseball team, currently we have 30 

       2   student athletes on it, 24 of those students are 

       3   above a 3.0 grade point average.  So I think if the 

       4   Board makes a decision to take athletics away, 

       5   you're doing these students a disservice because 

       6   many of these students, whether it's football, 

       7   basketball, baseball, had many opportunities to go 

       8   to different schools.  Scholarship offers were out 

       9   there, whether it's going to be at Tulane or 

      10   someplace else.  They chose Tulane because of the 

      11   academic reputation and the athletic interest 

      12   that's there.  So basically what you have, based on 

      13   the numbers here, we have an opportunity to recruit 

      14   and bring in the best of both worlds.  So we're 

      15   going to produce the best students, and we'll 

      16   produce the best athletes.  For example, Patrick 

      17   Ramsey last year who was a first round draft pick 

      18   in the NFL, that brought a lot of exposure to the 

      19   university.  Not only was he a first round draft 

      20   pick, but last year he was the recipient of the 

      21   National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame 

      22   Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the 

      23   country that a student athlete can get.  Same thing 

      24   this year.  We have Britt (inaudible) who was on 

      25   our women's basketball team.  She was one of three 




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       1   finalists for the Walter Beyers Scholarship 

       2   recipient, which is the top scholarship to continue 

       3   on her education to go on to medical school.  So I 

       4   truly feel by eliminating the athletics, you're 

       5   doing our students here a disservice.  

       6                  More on a personal note, I attended 

       7   Division -- I'm a former Division I football player 

       8   myself.  Due to injuries, I had to transfer over 

       9   from Division I to a Division III program which is 

      10   Ohio Northern in northern Ohio there.  I played in 

      11   the Ohio Athletic Conference, which for the past 

      12   five out of nine years, (inaudible) won the 

      13   Division III national championship.  What does that 

      14   mean?  What does that mean?  They won the Division 

      15   III national championship, and you saw that for 

      16   maybe two or three hours.  That's the only 

      17   championship sport that's broadcast live on TV.  We 

      18   played on Christmas Day in front of 90,000,000 

      19   homes.  That advertising right there, like the 

      20   gentlemen said, it was priceless.  You can't get 

      21   better advertising than that from that situation.   

      22                  I only say over and over that we 

      23   always tell our students that we want the best out 

      24   of them.  We want them to give a total commitment 

      25   in the classroom, want them to give a total 




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       1   commitment on the field or court.  We're only 

       2   asking for the Board to give us that same 

       3   commitment that we challenge the students to give 

       4   to us on a daily basis.  Thank you. 

       5             MR. BARRON:

       6                  Thank you.  

       7                  Maybe I should say we're about to 

       8   wrap it up because every time I say that, someone 

       9   stands up and speaks.  Anyone further?  

      10                  I'd like to thank you for all of the 

      11   input we've received today.  I want to remind you 

      12   that we're going to have a second meeting such as 

      13   this this Monday evening, May 12, at 5 P.M. in this 

      14   same locale.  There are also two other ways that 

      15   you can let the university know of your feelings in 

      16   this regard.  One is that we have a hotline which 

      17   is area code 504-862-8020, and we have a web site 

      18   address that allows you to send a message.  It is 

      19   probably easier.  It is feedback.tulane.edu.  

      20                  I'd like to ask President Cowen to 

      21   make some concluding comments.  

      22             PRESIDENT COWEN:

      23                  I just want to join Paul in thanking 

      24   you for coming today.  I know some of you had to 

      25   leave work to be with us.  But a session like this 




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       1   is very important to me and it's very important to 

       2   the Board.  I will make sure that the transcript of 

       3   today's briefing is made available to the members 

       4   of the Ad Hoc Committee as well as the full Board, 

       5   and as we said, it will be posted on the web site 

       6   itself so those who weren't able to make it today 

       7   could have the advantage of hearing the 

       8   presentations that were done and all of your 

       9   comments, which were very, very valuable.  

      10                  This is, as I said before, a very 

      11   complex issue that touches every part of the 

      12   institution, and it's also a very difficult and 

      13   emotional decision for all of us.  I know it's very 

      14   difficult on our alumni and fans out there.  I know 

      15   it's very difficult on our student athletes and the 

      16   people in the Department of Athletics.  It's also 

      17   very difficult for those of us in the 

      18   administration and those on the Board, yet it is 

      19   exactly the kind of strategic question and issue 

      20   that universities should be looking at and in fact 

      21   are looking at.  

      22                  I think this process has benefitted 

      23   a great deal from the kind of feedback that you 

      24   have provided to us.  I appreciate it, and we will 

      25   continue to receive all inputs and all commentary 




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       1   for as long as we can until the process is 

       2   concluded.  So, thank you. 

       3                         *  *  *

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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

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      25




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