LOVELY CAMPUS TIME in May 2017 identified Tulane as the most beautiful campus in Louisiana. Tulane is “a spot worth visiting even for the nonmatriculated. Majestic Gibson Hall faces Audubon Park just across St. Charles Avenue, and behind it lies acres of lovely campus.”
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SALLY ASHER
ByWater Leader
Best & Brightest
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Weighty Subject Students in a Statics class participate in a "truss-busting" competitition in Maker Space to see who can design the lowest weight structure that bears the most weight.
WATER EXPERT Mark Davis is the new director of the ByWater Institute.
CHERYL GERBER
Tulane University’s incoming first-year class in fall 2017 is 22 percent students of color. Satyajit Dattagupta, vice president for enrollment management and dean of undergraduate admission, said this is a significant increase since just three years ago, when the class was 16 percent students of color. The class also includes 96 international students. The admissions team that helped recruit the class specifically looked for students who were committed to academic rigor, regardless of race or demographic. “From the start, our messaging focused on three things,” Dattagupta said. “The academic quality of the institution, the world-class faculty and the unparalleled research.” In fact, many in the incoming class have already expressed interest in research opportunities as part of their college experience. “Our admissions team has moved energetically to build a more diverse student body, one which better reflects the depth and breadth of our 21st-century society,” said Tulane President Mike Fitts. Students can find academic and research opportunities through the new Center for Academic Equity, which offers workshops, study halls, speaker series, and summer research grants and fellowships to underserved undergraduate students, said Paula Nicole Booke, senior program coordinator. The center was launched earlier this year with Rebecca Mark, professor of English, as the director. Dattagupta said the increase in diversity marks the start of an exciting chapter for Tulane. President Fitts agreed. “Despite the real progress we are making in this area, we know there is still more work to be done. There are still people missing from the table. We need to ensure that Tulane attracts the best and the brightest from every segment of our society.” —Faith Dawson
Mark Davis, founding director of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources and Law Policy, has been appointed as the new director of the ByWater Institute at Tulane. Davis is a widely consulted authority on water management and a senior research fellow at Tulane Law School. He previously spent 14 years as executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, where he helped shape programs and policies to improve the stewardship of the wetlands and waters of coastal Louisiana. Davis will continue to direct the Institute on Water Resources and Law Policy. “There is a lot of commonality between the two [institutes],” Davis said. “It’s really a question of expanding the reach and collaborative power of the university. We’ve always relied on the support and partnership of people from engineering, science, the arts and architecture, and this is an opportunity to take that collaboration to the next level.” Opened in August 2016, the ByWater Institute brings scholars together to find solutions to a major challenge facing Louisiana and vulnerable communities worldwide— how to manage threats of rising water from coastal erosion, natural disasters and a changing environment. The Tulane River and Coastal Center, a 5,800-square-foot facility on the Mississippi River, is a core asset of the ByWater Institute. —Barri Bronston
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