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The inaugural remarks of Scott S. Cowen, 14th president of Tulane University, delivered on Friday, Sept. 24, 1999. GROWING GREAT BY DREAMS Mr. Chairman, honored guests, friends, colleagues and my dear family: I am honored to stand before you as the fourteenth President of Tulane University. I am pleased to see so many of you here and want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this special day with me. However, to see so many people in the audience reminds me of a comment Sir Winston Churchill once made when he was congratulated on the size of an audience gathered to hear him speak. It was no great achievement to draw such a crowd, Churchill said. "Twice as many would have turned out for a public hanging." Maybe so, but I thank you for being here this afternoon, nonetheless. Since the founding of this great institution in 1834, it has been blessed with the strong leadership necessary to transform it from a regional medical college into an international university. Our challenge is to continue to build on this legacy to attain an even higher level of academic quality and recognition for Tulane. I welcome this opportunity, and have every intention of ensuring that it is realized. At last year's convocation, I spoke about the challenges facing higher education in the new millennium and what Tulane needed to do to continue its ascendancy among the very best private research universities in the country. Today, for just a few minutes, I would like to speak with you on a much more personal and intimate basis. In fact, I would like you to go on a journey with me. Let's for a moment imagine that we are at a gathering at Tulane University in the year 2010, and the topic is "Tulane since the beginning of the Millennium." What is it we would like to say about our achievements since the year 2000? There is nothing special about picking the year 2010 as our starting point. It seems like a long enough time period to get us to think beyond our current horizon of opportunities, yet short enough to at least be in our sight and imagination. I have been thinking a lot about that question for the last 15 months. In the process, I have come up with hundreds of ideas ranging from "Tulane University survived Scott Cowen's presidency and was even better off for it," to "Wow, Tulane was the first university in the 21st century to get a $1 billion unrestricted endowment gift in a lump-sum payment and the check successfully cleared the bank." No doubt, you have your favorite scenarios. However, throughout the summer, I disciplined myself to get the list down to three simple, straightforward statements. Let's now time-warp to the year 2010 at Tulane University. Our gathering is being held in an attractive and functional University Center constructed with funds raised in a highly successful capital campaign in the first decade of the new millennium. Everyone associated with the university at the time gave often and generously, almost to the point where the president simply couldn't accept any more money. Oops, sorry, my fantasizing got the better of me! First, I would like anyone associated with this institution to say that it had a profound and long-lasting impact on his or her life. In fact, the Tulane experience was a seminal one in the intellectual growth and development of all those associated with it. At a time when technology is pervasive in society Tulane found a way to create a high-tech, high-touch culture that values the human spirit and individual initiative. I want the Tulane experience to profoundly touch the minds and hearts of all those associated with it. In early June, Marjorie and I had the pleasure of going to Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a number of Tulane alumni, many of whom are in the audience today. It was a wonderful weekend, steeped in fun, deep conversation about Tulane, and ample opportunities for us to learn a lot about this institution from people who care for it deeply. One of those people was Bobby Boudreau, a lawyer from Lake Charles who earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Tulane University in the early '50s. We flew from New Orleans to Santa Fe with Bobby and his wife, Margaret, and for three-and-one-half hours, Bobby peppered me with questions about Tulane and my plans for the institution. At first his questioning amused me, but then I couldn't help but be impressed by his unabiding love for and interest in the institution. The questions, the suggestions and the wonderful stories about Tulane continued throughout the weekend as Bobby introduced me to friends old and new. The day we left Santa Fe to fly back to New Orleans, Bobby handed me a letter he had written at 5:00 that morning and asked me to read it when I got home. The letter was written in green ink and in longhand. It is impossible for me to do justice to the poetry of his letter, but it had a profound impact on me because it described so vividly what impact Tulane University has had on Bobby and his family. Ironically, several days later, I received another letter, this one from my host for the Santa Fe weekend, Carol Cudd, Newcomb class of '59 and a member of the Tulane board. Carol's letter exhibited the same intensity and love for Tulane as did Bobby's. The following are just a few of the observations they shared with me as to why Tulane was so special to them.
If we could only consistently ensure a collegiate experience that engenders these emotions and feelings in everyone associated with Tulane University, we would have accomplished something very special. Even though there are probably many Bobby Boudreaus and Carol Cudds among our alumni, my desire is to have all of them, as well as our faculty and staff, feel that same love and intensity toward Tulane. For our students, this requires us to be attentive to every aspect of the collegiate experience, from admissions to career counseling and placement, and everything in between. For our faculty and staff, it requires us to create a culture of excellence and develop an infrastructure that allows us to attract and retain the very best people.
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