Talk:Tulane University

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[edit] Colors

Are those the right colors? —Preceding unsigned comment added by AtmanDave (talk • contribs) 01:31, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

The colors are Olive Green and Sky Blue, even though one usually uses forest and sky. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.172.144.221 (talk) 04:03, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Additional images

I was thinking of trying to find additional images for this page and perhaps add a student life section. Any thoughts?

If someone can take and upload some good photos they're willing to release under GFDL or similar free licence, those would be welcome. -- Infrogmation 17:20, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
I normally attend Loyola, right next door to Tulane. Once I get back to Loyola in January I could probably get some pictures of the two schools.Kevin M Marshall 02:40, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Real History

Tulane University was founded in 1884, not 1834. It simply claims the history of the schools before it. There was no university when the Medical College of Louisiana formed, and therefore no university had been founded.

  • The practice of dating the history of an institution to its forbears is common. The institution itself is more continuous than the name applied to it. --Dystopos 13:29, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Not to mention that, even if it were not common practice, 1834 is the year used by historians and the university for the year of its founding. --Bobster687 17:00, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
  • The institution of 1834 was not a university. It was a "medical college" that bore no resemblance to the university of 1884. Not to mention that, the university wants to use an earlier date; of course they use 1834. Also: "historians" is general and uncited. You might as well say "they."
  • The article itself says that Tulane University of Louisiana was "created" in 1834 in the "History" section. Self-consistency is necessary in an encyclopedia. You can claim that the university "dates" from 1834 all you want, but it was created - that is, founded - in 1884. I would also like to note that both of the users opposing the 1884 date attend or attended Tulane and are therefore likely to be biased. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.81.236.59 (talk • contribs)
  • Feel free to make clear the historical process that gave rise to what is now called Tulane University. I'm not sure why a graduate of Tulane would have a bias about its date of foundation. What matters to me is what I explained above... that it is standard practice to date the history of an institution to its forbears. Looking around I see that Duke University dates to 1838 (when it was a subscription school). Its infobox details the various iterations. Auburn University dates itself to 1856 (when it was a private religious school). Oxford University dates itself to the 12th century, when various lecturers began addressing scholars somewhat informally in the town. If you find this practice problematic, I suggest that the solution is to better describe the historical process rather than to counter accepted sources with your personal views. --Dystopos 03:32, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Simply put, it is more prestigious for a university to have been founded earlier, which is one reason a Tulane graduate could want to claim an earlier date of founding. Also: the Duke University article lists the schools leading up to the founding of Duke, but does not claim that Duke itself was founded in 1838. Furthermore, Duke itself admits that it was founded in 1924 (see the Duke web site), directly contradicting your theory concerning standard practice. Oxford University does not claim to know its date of founding, and lectures were being delivered before the 12th century (look at the article). Auburn University is, then, the only one of your three examples that supports your argument. Do not attempt to mislead readers who do not do thorough checks of your claims. I do agree that it is better to describe the historical process (as the Duke University article does inside its date of establishment section, not just its history section). However, I also believe that until a more complete history is described, the true date of founding of the university that is the subject of the article should be displayed. This belief is based on logic, not on personal views; in fact, your misrepresentation of the founding date of the university the article concerns seems to be much more personally motivated. Wikipedia should contain facts concerning these universities, not arbitrarily support claims the universities make.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.81.236.59 (talk • contribs)
  • Look, I fully support accurate coverage of the history of the university. The institution that was founded in 1834 is now a University, therefore it is rather straightforward, consistent with typical institutional historiography, and fully accurate to say that Tulane University was founded [as the Medical College of Louisiana] in 1834. So go ahead and word it how you think is best, but your comment regarding how much the current institution "resembles" its forbears is not relevant, as I illustrated above, and you can keep your uninformed theories about my motivations to yourself. --Dystopos 23:04, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
I modified the infobox to show the historical progression of the University. Hopefully this will satisfy everyone and prevent an edit war. VerruckteDan 23:08, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Future?

Any idea of what will become of this and all the other colleges now that they've been flooded? Jarwulf 06:25, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

The article has a link to emergency.tulane.edu which has as much information as feasible for now. Dystopos 14:27, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV

The article says, "The Green Wave entered the postseason ranked No. 1 and beat Rice University in a thrilling game to win its Super Regional." The use of the word "thrilling" makes this not an NPOV. Whether a game is thrilling or not is your own opinion not an objective fact. I don't have the time or the care to go through the article searching for and correcting other errors but maybe someone else does. 129.81.212.204 16:48, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

  • OK. Thanks for the detailed report. --Dystopos 19:02, 16 January 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Advice for incoming students

33% of students at Tulane have an STD. This is above the national average, and a good thing to keep in mind. The most prevalent STDs on campus are HPV (Genital Warts) is the most common (50% of students tested have this), followed by Chlamydia (10%) and Genital Herpes (8%).

from the College Prowler guidebook, Tulane University - Off the Record -- unsigned comment by User:205.201.29.200

  • The same page mentions that "Mugar Memorial Library" is a "Top Place to Find Hotties". Boston might be a bit of a haul just for a hook-up. Not sure how reliable this source is, but feel free to add cited info if you like. --Dystopos 22:57, 18 January 2006 (UTC)


  • How can the statement that "50% of students tested have [HPV]" be reconciled with the statement that "33% of students at Tulane have an STD?" Do you mean that 50% of students with an STD have HPV?--74.241.103.221 04:53, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

What do STDS have to do with this Wiki entry?

This is not a discussion form about Tulane. Discussion here should be limited to improving the Wikipedia article. -- Infrogmation 15:39, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] infobox

If it's okay, I've replaced the custom table, with the standard Template:Infobox_University. As you can see, the syntax much easier with the infobox. But no doubt, the template is work-in-progress. Any edits you think you are necessary to the infobox, you should bring up at the talk page. --Ttownfeen 18:07, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation?

I've always wondered, is it pronounced more like TUH-LANE or TWO-LANE?


I've noticed that people from Louisiana tend to pronounce it TWO-lane, whereas students who come from the northeast will say it more like "T'lane." -- Tulane97 20:06, 8 April 2006 (UTC)


Both are right.

I'm from Baton Rouge, although my entire family's from New Orleans, and I never heard it called "T'lane" until I heard northerners call it that. Locals tend to call it "two-lane" --Bobster687 03:32, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

I live near Tulane and formerly worked there. "Two-lane" is certainly closer, though the "u" sound to my ears is just slightly softer than in the word "Two". -- Infrogmation 01:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PECKER?

No one calls Riptide pecker, I don't know who put that but it may be a penis joke.

Also, no refences to Harvard: the Tulane of the North - a common saying amongst New Orleanians, that's odd. It's one of the more fun things you hear about the University.

  • I don't think that "_____ is the Harvard of the South"/"Harvard is the _____ of the North" is restricted to Tulane. --Dystopos 13:44, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

really? I've not heard it about any other school. I first heard the saying in New York however. What other Universities does this saying apply to? I can think of a few that deserve it more than Tulane may now, but historically, I'm not sure.

Pecker is the name of a different mascot then Riptide. Pecker is an inflatable suit with the image of a sneering pelican. Pecker gets his name from the fact the operator of the suit can smack people with his beak with virtually no distress to his victim because its filled with air. He's most often seen at football games.

How about we all shut up and just get along? Also, keep the Saved By The Bell references to a minimal or at elast to second period, please.74.195.3.11 04:10, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

  • Pecker was, if I recall, a popular write-in suggestion for the name of the new pelican mascot when it was introduced in 1995 or so. (My suggestion was to just keep the name "Gumby", but what do I know.) --Dystopos 05:16, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Frasier

There was an episode of Frasier where he implied that Niles' surgeon went to Tulane medical school, and that Frasier was somehow not happy about that, saying only "and I think you all know how I feel about Tulane's medical school." [1]. I don't know if there's anything more about Tulane in the series than that.

p.s. it's TWO-lane.

[edit] Movie Premiere

The world premiere of All the King's Men was actually at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10, six days before the Tulane premiere. [2] It surprises me like, not at all, how everyone at the Hullabaloo paper seemed to missed that fact. Call it the US premiere, or the Tulane premiere, or the New Orleans premiere, or the BS premiere. Here's another link. [3]

[edit] Tulane only university to go from being public to private?

Is it true that Tulane is the only school in the US to have been converted from a state university to a private university? This is mentioned in the Ford Commencement address, and I was wondering if it is still true or if another school has done so since then or something. If Tulane is still the only school, I think it should be mentioned in the opening paragraph. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 34african34 (talk • contribs) 05:09, 7 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Tulane/Jewish ties

I know this person from Louisiana that swears up and down that Tulane is a Jewish University. I have never found any evidence of that myself -- no claim from the University, no record of it in the University's history, nothing that even could be mistaken for sectarian ties, Jewish or otherwise. There was some mention of anti-semitism long ago, which is the only tie-in. Do other people think there's some Jewish tie? Where does this idea come from? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Infomaniac8 (talk • contribs) 22:56, 26 February 2007 (UTC).

There is a large Jewish student population, but no official connection. Historically the student body has been about 1/3 Jewish and 1/3 Catholic. Tulane97 23:24, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

  • There are ties to prominent Jewish individuals which date back to the University's role as the Medical College of Louisiana, but no ties to Judaism as such. (See Avron Fogelman, Judah Touro, Ben Wiener, Sam Zemurray et al) --Dystopos 23:48, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

There is also the Southern Institute housed there, which does research into Holocaust survivors in New Orleans (among a million other things). There is a sort of Conspiracy theory that it was invited to be housed at Tulane because of some anti-Semetic comments and actions by the then-current (sorry...) President. I think the "Jewlane" aspect comes from that, as well as the fact that a good percentage of the school is from the New York city area, which can be stereotyped as largely jewish. But I really don't think there's too much of a connection. 129.81.180.29 (talk) 19:04, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tulane Trivia, Myth, and Lore

  • This section is almost entirely NOT encyclopedic. If there's a citable source for any of this stuff, then bring it. Otherwise I'll be purging it in the very near future. --Dystopos 22:06, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
    • I've brought back everything that I could find with a reference; however, all the facts listed on there before were true. Unfortunately, by the very definitions of "myth" and "lore," these things may not be facts but are, in fact, common rumors, so they fit in this category well. I'll be searching for written Ambassadors' guides because the Green Wave Ambassadors tell most of these things to their tour groups, including most that have been deleted. --Bobster687 21:26, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
      • There is no place in this encyclopedia for "common rumors" (See WP:A). In the interest of compromise I have taken the time to rewrite those items from this section which can be verified through the citations you have found. This does not mean that all this trivia belongs in an encyclopedia article, but I'll let the wider community of editors take their shot at incorporating it. --Dystopos 18:27, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Semi-protect

I put in a request for page semi-protection, 'cause this is getting ridiculous. Here's hoping! --Ebyabe 15:16, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Good call, I was gonna see if it happened one more time before request protection and/or banning. VerruckteDan 00:45, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, but it only semi-worked. They blocked the main offender for 31 hours. So it'll start up again on Friday morning, unless they use another IP, when it could be any ole time. *sigh* --Ebyabe 00:50, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
I left a note on his/her talk page. Probably useless, I know, but I'm an incurable optimist, so what-the-hey? :) --Ebyabe 01:01, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
We'll just have to wait and see. I read your message on the talk page and I agree that if it's going to be added, there needs to be a source of some kind, which I find unlikely beyond eyewitness accounts. She does exist, I've seen her countless times over the years and was amazed that she made it through Katrina as if nothing ever happened. As for who she is, its all just rumor and stories, the kind of stuff you might hear on a campus tour (though they tend to not point out the locale characters that hang around campuses) one of those interesting people that hang around colleges. Anyway, my point was, we'll keep an eye on things and see what other actions might have to be taken. VerruckteDan 01:30, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
Clearly even if information about her were verifiable, it would fall far short of being encyclopedic. Maybe for a Tulane-specific wiki, but not in a general encyclopedia. --Dystopos 03:53, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prestige Factor

I was always under the impression that Tulane was considered a Southern Ivy school along the lines of Vanderbilt, Rice, Duke and Emory. Why is then ranked so low in the US NEWS rankings? Did it have anything to do with Katrina? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.7.101.41 (talk) 23:26, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, a lot of the New Orleans schools got docked because of their less-than-academic restructuring programs. I can't find an article, but searching for "Tulane Engineering" would yeild a lot of acrimonious pages. Tulane, like Ivy-League schools, tended to be overrated, but it still is barely a top 50 school as of 2007. 129.81.180.29 (talk) 19:07, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Being anywhere in the top 50 among academic rankings is quite an achievement. The USA is a big country with thousands of institutions, having various missions. Among National (research) Universities as rated by U.S. New & World Report, Tulane is the sole Louisiana institution among the top 50. The fact that Tulane's rating is below other "Southern Ivies" (Vanderbilt, Rice, Duke, Emory, Wake Forest) hardly diminishes the achievement of being that high. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.205.174.17 (talk) 21:10, 19 January 2008 (UTC)