Tulane University - Jambalaya Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

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Board of Administrators 111 t toiiictii fi ' ii ' iv 21

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A Message from the President One year ago, writing of my aspi- rations from Tuiane, I stated my personal commitment to insuring Tulane ' s primacy among Southern private universities and to securing its position as a national resource. In the intervening twelve months, there have been many encouraging developments at Tuiane, and I be- lieve that we are well on our way to achieving these goals. Through its Five Year Plan, Tu- iane has committed itself to work for dramatic improvement in vital areas desperately in need of atten- tion. Our faculty remains seriously un- derpaid, and our library acquisitions lag far behind comparable universi- ties; moreover, the University cur- rently suffers from a backlog of de- ferred maintenance totalling about $17 million. Over the next five years, there- fore, we are committed to raising the average faculty salary to the me- dian level of the American Associ- ation of Universities and we are committed to improving our li- brary ' s position relative to our peer institutions. We can point to some successes. No summary can capture an entire year. A broad stroke at best suggests the complete portrait. For some, I suspect the two high- lights of the year were a drubbing of LSU in football and in basketball four months later. For others, the highlights may have been visits to our campus by Jorge Luis Borges, Polish poet Czes- law Milosz, John Kenneth Gal- braith and William F Buckley; and Robert Massie, a noted biographical historian who taught and lectured at Tuiane during the fall semester. Tuiane is many different things to its alumni and friends, staff, stu- dents, faculty, and administration. The University is complex. Next year, we will shift our atten- tion to long-range concerns: What will Tuiane look like in the 1990 ' s and into the year 2000? This focus compels us to ask the most funda- mental questions about the nature of society and what it means to be educated. Such planning cannot be com- pleted in a month or in a year, or even in five years, but rather looking outward to insure that the institu- tion remains responsive to society ' s needs. 1 1 Eamon M. Kelly n n H M 1 KM HH m Hl mm HI n l I R - - H l ■■■■ ' - jtf 1 ■ ■ ' ' ■ f ' kW •jM H r jjRf T J m i Bf IK ' ' jH jMMj jl l M m Eamon Kelly, President of the University John Phillips, Chairman of the Board 20 President Board of Administrators I

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Architecture School Dean Ronald C. Filson Arts Sciences Dean Joseph E. Gordon Business School Dean Meyer Feldberg Engineering Dean Hugh Thompson Law School Medical School Dean Paul R. Verkuil Chancellor John Walsh Newcomb College Dean Ravmond Esthus University College Dean Louis BarriUeaux 22 Deans Deans Being a dean is more chal- lenging and demanding than teaching. A teacher is a self-start- er, whereas a dean must deal with external stimuli. Paul Verkuil told that to The Hullabaloo in September, 1978, shortly after he was named dean of Tulane ' s Law School. Since that time, Verkuil has met the challenges and demands rather well. The Law School is one of the foremost in the country, accord- ing to Verkuil. He boldly makes this claim in spite of a cramped Law School building and recent national budget cuts. Based on admissions scores and grade point averages Verkuil places Tulane in the country ' s top twenty-five law schools. Only 21 other schools have a higher GPA, he said. Productivity of the faculty in terms of published works and a library with over 700,000 vol- umes also bolster Verkuil ' s claim. An important member of the cadre of de ans who form the top echelon of Tulane ' s administra- tion, Verkuil is well aware of the threat posed by budget cuts and a declining college age population. To help continue the Law School ' s academic success, Ver- kuil hopes to draw more money into the school through alumni donations, particularly in the form of scholarships. These schol- arships will be necessary to at- tract high quality students as gov- ernment loans become scarce. And despite national trends, the Law School ' s admissions ac- tually increased by 1 5 percent last year. This makes Verkuil optimis- tic for the future. I feel we ' re on the right track, he said. If we can receive continued support from our alum- ni as well as the administration, I see no reason why we can ' t main- tain the level that we have achieved thus far. Verkuil believes that Tulane ' s reputation for teaching Civil Law is a major attraction to perspec- tive students, although some peo- ple are turned off by the dual cur- riculum. The reality, of course, is that if you come here from out of state and have no desire to practice in Louisiana, you can be educated just as well anywhere, he said. But, maintained Verkuil, being exposed to another legal system is an important bonus stu- dents receive at Tulane. Verkuil has been dean just slightly longer than most students attending the school, but he can point to a job well done. He has no immediate plans for leaving Tu- lane, he is quite content with his job here. And needless to say, Tu- lane Law seems quite content with him. Dean Meyer Feidberg points to a graph of the Busi- ness School ' s financial standing while on a tour of selected Louisiana cities to meet Business School alumnae.