Tulane University - Definition and Overview

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian university headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

An early 20th century view of Tulane's Gibson Hall

Tulane hosts colleges and schools centered around liberal arts, sciences and certain professions. A common Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences serves both the men's undergraduate Tulane College and the once-separate women's Newcomb College, also for undergraduates. Professional instruction features the following schools:

• School of Architecture
• A.B. Freeman School of Business
• School of Engineering
• Law School
• School of Medicine
• School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
• School of Social Work

Tulane has a separate Graduate School, which offers advanced degrees in engineering, sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the fine arts. It also has a University College which serves the New Orleans community and focusses on continuing education.

Statistics

The following statistics from a university press release (http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=5365) reflect some of the changes at Tulane between 1998 and 2004:

• Undergraduate applications received annually have more than doubled since 1998, growing from 7,780 to 17,548.
• The average SAT scores for incoming students has risen from 1278 to 1335.
• Application acceptances have lowered from 79% of applicants to 44%.
• Funding for research and development has nearly doubled, from $68 million to $130 million.
• The National Institutes of Health funding ranking has risen from 96 to 78.

Campuses

The main campus occupies over 100 acres (0.4 km²) in uptown New Orleans, near the Audubon Zoo and just a streetcar ride away from downtown. Other locations include:

• the F. Edward Hebert Research Center, near Belle Chasse, Louisiana, which provides facilities for graduate training and research in computer science, bioengineering, and biology;
• Tulane National Primate Research Center in Covington, Louisiana, one of eight such centers funded by the National Institutes of Health;
• Tulane University Health Sciences Center, located in downtown New Orleans, which houses the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine;
• the satellite campuses of University College, Tulane's open admissions college, located in downtown New Orleans and in Biloxi, Mississippi;
• Houston, Texas, where the business school offers an executive MBA program.

History

The University dates from 1834 as the Medical College of Louisiana. With the addition of a law department, it became The University of Louisiana in 1847, a public university. 1851, saw the establishment of an Academic Department, the forerunner of the College of Arts and Sciences.

It closed during the Civil War; after reopening, it went through a period of financial challenges. Paul Tulane donated extensive real estate within New Orleans for the support of education; this donation led to the establishment of a Tulane Educational Fund (TEF), whose board of administrators sought to support the University of Louisiana instead of establishing a new university. In response, the Louisiana state legislature transferred control of the University of Louisiana to the administrators of the TEF in 1884. This act created the Tulane University of Louisiana.

In 1885, a Graduate Division started, the predecessor to the Graduate School. One year later, gifts from Josephine Louise Newcomb totalling over $3.6 million led to the establishment of H. Sophie Newcomb College within Tulane University. Newcomb was the first coordinate college for women in the United States.

In 1894 a College of Technology formed, the forerunner to the College of Engineering. In the same year the university moved to its present-day uptown campus on St. Charles Avenue, five miles by streetcar from downtown.

An Architecture Department originated within the College of Technology in 1907. One year later, Schools of Dentistry and Pharmacy appeared, both temporarily: Dentistry ended in 1928, and Pharmacy six years later.

In 1914, Tulane established a College of Commerce, the first business school in the South.

1925 saw the formal establishment of the Graduate School. Two years later, the University set up a School of Social Work .

University College dates from 1942. The School of Architecture grew out of Engineering in 1950. The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine dates from 1967.

The student-run radio station of the university, WTUL-FM, began broadcasting on campus in 1971.

The Jambalaya, Tulane's yearbook, published annually since 1897, published its last edition (Volume 99) in 1995, after problems due to mismanagement.

In 2001 the Tulane Center for Gene Therapy started as the first major center in the U.S. to focus on research using adult stem cells.

In July 2004, Tulane received two $30 million donations to its endowment, the largest individual or combined gifts in the university's history. The donations came from Jim Clark, a member of the university's Board, and David Filo, a graduate of its School of Engineering. The gifts had particular significance, since Tulane had had one of the lowest endowmsnts ($722 million as of June 2004) among the 62 members of the Association of American Universities.

Students and alumni

Well-known students who've attended or graduated from Tulane include:

External links

• Tulane University website (http://www.tulane.edu/)
• Student newspaper (http://www.thehullabaloo.com/), the Hullabaloo
• Official Tulane athletics site (http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/)
• University's Special Collections (http://specialcollections.tulane.edu/)

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