Inside Higher Ed: Professors Left Behind by ‘Bold Renewal’
Last Wednesday, Bill Buckles, a Tulane University engineering professor, had an endowed chair. He had a federal grant that had been approved, but not yet delivered, for a project to study watersheds around New Orleans, and perhaps to learn how they might function during a hurricane.
Fred Petry, also a tenured Tulane engineering prof, had been in his department longer than anyone else. Last summer he was honored by “our dear president,” he said, for his 25 years of service. “I was hoping for 30,” he added.
It is not to be. On Thursday, President Scott S. Cowen unveiled Tulane’s plan for its post-Hurricane Katrina future. The plan involved cutting four of Tulane’s six engineering programs, and 230 faculty members, 65 of whom are tenured. The electrical engineering and computer science program, which houses Buckles and Petry, was one of those eliminated.
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