Pull Quote
February 9th, 2011 by Editor BThis caught my eye on the the front page of today’s Times-Picayune:
“It always amazed me that you had these two universities that were right next to each other but they didn’t talk to each other,” Bruno said. “Why do we have two libraries? Why do we have two cafeterias?”
For a brief moment I thought he was talking about Tulane and Loyola. Yeah, I thought to myself, they could really get some efficiency going if only they’d merge operations.
How silly of me.
February 9th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Well, the obvious reason why that wouldn’t happen is because Tulane and Loyola are private. In Tulane’s case, at least, you are paying for exclusivity. (Not attaching a value judgment to that: it just is.)
February 9th, 2011 at 11:26 am
Indeed. They are private institutions, and so politicians can’t talk about merging them. I’m sure they get public money in the door in many different ways, though, so maybe they should? You know, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, or so I’ve heard it said.
February 9th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
As a victim, er, graduate of a Jesuit University and a Jesuit law school, its hard to imagine integrating a Jesuit curriculum with a private University. If the Jesuits are, as rumored, actually moving away from education and toward social justice, maybe Tulane could buy Loyola, but its hard to imagine private students accepting the Jesuit requirement of 10 hours of Religious Studies, 10 hours of Philosophy, and 5 hours of Ethics. Not, of course, that they could not benefit from it.
February 10th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Based on the University / Faculty sponsored attempted thievery of a $ 25,000 national competition prize that was attempted by two members of a Tulane winning team in 2010 10 hours of Philosophy, 5 hour of ethic and 10 Hail Marys are in order.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:11 pm
Bart, yes, they get public money, at least Tulane does. Mainly, Tulane pays little or no property taxes, and Louisiana legislators each get to hand out one Tulane scholarship. This was a big scandal back in the mid-nineties, when it came out that many lawmakers were using the scholarships for themselves, their families, or campaign contributors.