It was darker than usual this morning as I headed out to the levee, thanks to overcast skies and a rainy forecast ahead of another approaching cold front. Appropriate weather for today as you'll see later. Even so, I was surprised to find the bike path deserted when I arrived a couple of minutes after 6:15. I found Donald alone at the playground and we continued on, eventually picking up a couple more riders along the way, and once again we cut the long ride to a medium-length one. We had a pretty good ride, though, and the added effort of the smaller paceline and moderate wind made up for the shorter distance.
Today a press release by Tulane was scheduled for noon. Tulane announced its cuts. Some of the details are on the "Survival to Recovery" website. Numerous degree programs have been eliminated. The Medical School's clinical enterprise is being slashed. A number of athletics programs are being eliminated. As I sit here there is a group downstairs in the President's office stuffing FedEx envelopes with letters to the 230 faculty and staff who are being terminated. It is both sad and scary. The university is bleeding, the city is bleeding, the state is bleeding, and the Federal government is responding with about the same level of urgency we saw when the levees failed. I guess they don't call us "the city that care forgot" for nothing.
I look outside the window of Gibson Hall and there is a handful of workers working on the landscaping and putting christmas lights on the Azaleas that line the semicircular drive across from Audubon Park. It seem odd under the circumstances.
Easy ride tomorrow for sure.
2 comments:
The cuts are to be expected. We can't forget that the city was FLOODED for a couple of weeks, and it is just hanging on right now. I don't blame the Feds either for not "saving" New Orleans. Too many folks down here are "waiting for the calvary," as is our slack mayor. An Amry Corps of Engineers guy said last week or so that it would take 18 years to build a proper levee system to protect the city from another major hurricane. So, unless we can foresee the future and know we're in the clear for that long, why would we expect the gov't to dump money into a sinking ship? If you choose to live here, you're gonna have to put up with the reality that you're living on a timebomb waiting to explode...again.
The news of the cuts hit me like a ton of bricks. As a graduate of the School of Engineering, I think it's ridiculous to eliminate as many programs as they did, including mine. I feel as if I no longer have an alma mater.
I want my recent donations earmarked for the school returned, please.
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