What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

I got to travel with some really great people in China.
Here's Jonathan, Kevin, Janice, Erin and Isther. 

After nearly 2 months on the road recruiting for Tulane, I am finally back in New Orleans! It was a great trip that took me to six cities in three countries. I met some amazing students and am really excited to be back here in the office reading the applications for the future class of 2018.

This trip was a long one, in large part because it was my first foyer into the world of international recruitment. I spent a week in Shanghai and a week in Beijing recruiting students who are interested in coming to the States for college. It was a very different experience from recruiting American college students, but in many regards, it was very similar. The Chinese students I met have the same hopes, fears, aspirations and goals that students in the USA have. It was really cool to get to know these students and get them excited about Tulane.

In addition to my usual Southern California admission trip, I also attended the NACAC conference in Toronto. I've told you a bit about the bigger world that is college admission, and this conference was our big annual event, held for the first time outside of the United States. I spent two weeks in LA, two in China and then a week in San Diego and Orange County. It was a great trip, but I am glad to be home.

Here are a few photos of the journey!

Packing for a 2 month trip is never easy!

Los Angeles high school visit- Meet the lovely girls of the Archer School! 

One of the various panels of admission professionals imparting
their vast knowledge at the NACAC conference in Toronto. 

Toronto is really incredible. Here is the view from the top of the CN Tower.
Did you know Toronto is the 4th largest city in North America? 

Speaking of large cities, here is Shanghai!  

Here is me reppin Tulane on the Great Wall of China.

And here is me checking out this giant rubber duckie at the Summer Palace in Beijing 

Visiting various Chinese schools.

Tulane, but in China! 

I got to see the Bird's Nest! Awesome! 

It's just like America! But China!

Last stop was Orange County. If you get this photo, you get me. 

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Pardon Our Progress- Part II

Cranes for Zimple house on the horizon!  (nola.com)

Last year, after New Orleans was named the fastest growing city in America, I did a blog post all about the explosion of construction activity around NOLA. So many cool things going up- I'm going to do a follow up post to that in a few months with some really cool "after" photos (but you can get a sneak peek- the Saengar Theater opened in grand fashion last month, and is currently showing Book of Mormon).

In the meantime, New Orleans is not the only thing that is growing at a rapid pace these days- our campus is currently bustling with construction activity. While construction on campus can be inconvenient, it is always a great sign of progress and growth for universities. We've got three major projects going on on campus right now, and when they are done, we'll have some pretty incredible additional services to offer our students, staff and community here at Tulane. So, whats all the construction all about? Let's check it all out!

Can. Not. Wait! 

Yulman Stadium- Probably one of the most exciting projects to hit campus in recent memory, we are around halfway done with our beautiful brand new on-campus football stadium. The goal is to play our first game there in October of 2014. And the buzz has been HUGE- in large part because, get this, Tulane is having an awesome season! Having been a Green Wave fan since I arrived on campus as a freshman, our team isn't usually a talked about team. But last week, USA Today named us the top surprise team in the nation. We're currently 5-2 and only one game away from bowl eligibility (and rumor is we may get the New Orleans bowl- how cool would that be?). Our QB, Nick Montana (son of Joe Montana, who is at each and every game) is having a pretty stellar season, and with players like running back Orleans Darkwa and the best kicker in the NCAA Cairos Santos leading the charge, this is a team to watch. I can only imagine what it's going to be like to be in our brand new on campus stadium. Yulman will seat 30,000 fans and will end up costing around $73 million thanks to large donations from the Glazer family (of the Tampa Bay Bucs), the Benson Family (of the New Orleans Saints) and the namesake family, the Yulmans (if any of you are reading this-- thanks!) Looks like the opener may be in Yulman next year against Georgia Tech- I am literally counting down the days till this game. In the meantime, I'll just stay tuned to the stadium cam to watch the progress.

Stadium Construction

Zimple House looks pretty nifty 

Zimple House- On the residential side of things, we are also around halfway through construction of a brand new residence hall on campus. The residence hall is currently named Zimple House, and will be our third residential living community on campus. Zimple house will be LEED Silver and will be both a four and a six story building that will be connected with skybridges over a landscaped courtyard. Tulane is planning all kinds of cool features for this facility- there will be a demonstration kitchen (so you can learn how to cook some serious New Orleans food), a 35-seat classroom, living rooms, social lounges and study rooms on the upper floors. The 80,000 square foot facility will be at the cutting edge of residence halls on college campuses- not to mention that it's walking distance (well, really shouting distance (well, really, touching distance)) from some of the most popular off campus nightspots for our students.

Zimple House goin' up!

Howard Tilton Memorial Library- Tulane's got an extensive collection of libraries on campus, containing over 3.2 million volumes and thousands upon thousands of periodicals, subscriptions and documents. The largest of our libraries by far is Howard Tilton, a.k.a HTML, a.k.a. Howie T. Howie T is currently undergoing massive growth- we are adding two floors to the top! The library has done a great job of blogging all about the progress and construction is just beginning. The new floors will house many of the books and resources that were formerly on the ground floor and basement of the library, which flooded in Hurricane Katrina. The top floors will house everything from special collections to microfiches. Essentially, as Tulane and its resources have grown since Katrina, the need for more space in the library has grown too. And if you are worried about the noise during construction, Howie T has a solution for you!

Getting Howard Tilton prepped for his growth

So there you have it, a quick report all about our bustling little campus. Stay tuned as these projects come to completion- they will surely be great additions to our campus. You can always read all about construction updates and capital projects at Tulane here. And here are lots and lots of photos for you!

All kinds of action at the site of the new stadium (Sarah Swig)

Here is where Yulman will be, right behind our rec center. (nola.com)

Construction at Zimple House

Zimple House courtyard 

Zimple when finished 

New top floors of library when done

Inside of library upon completion

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AWARDS

It is unquestionably a good thing that prizes in the arts exist. By and large, artists of all types are underpaid—if paid at all!—and monetary awards help them create or, in many cases, even just subsist. My problem is who or what, and on what basis, is rewarded.

I have never been on the selection committee for a major monetary award, but I have frequently been a voter on New York or national film and theater awards. (Come to think of it, I was once a juror for the Paris Film Festival, but apparently managed to jinx it: it promptly ceased to exist.) Relatively rarely have I agreed on which plays or movies won awards; quite a few of them I downright abominated. The same goes for important awards I only read about.

There is even worse: I frequently had little or no respect for the persons adjudicating these awards. In fact, I was somewhat ashamed—pained by the thought that readers might assume that I actually voted for some of those stinkers. As if my single vote could have made much of a difference by defying the majority.

I vividly recall a session of the National Film Critics’ Society where Hollis Alpert passionately argued for Charles Champlin’s election to the group. I found myself wondering not only about the proposed postulant, but no less also about his ardent champion. What thinking person would want to gain membership predominantly on the efforts of such an advocate?

I likewise recall leaving a meeting with Stanley Kauffmann, whom I respected, and wondered why he had voted for a certain idiot. To which he replied that in a group comprising that many idiots, what difference would one more make. My point, however, was that it further diminished the slender chances of something worthwhile prevailing. Which raises the greater question of who let in the other voters. There is the obvious answer: the jobs they unfortunately held.

Frankly, I can see why first-rate critics might not want to be members of such an organization, although I can also see why they might want to. Being a voting member gives you the (specious) illusion that your views somehow matter, even if not even the whole issue—the unimportance of the occasion--hardly does. So the Oscars are of real interest only in the speeches made by the winners and presenters: who will come off with dignity, and who will make an ass of him or herself? And perhaps also in who will wear what laughably outlandish attire, and who will be in good taste?

Still, not wanting to be a voting member also makes sense. One looks at one’s fellow voters, in a group small enough to fit around a table, and wonders what one has in common with most of these individuals, and what good membership is in an assemblage in which you are visibly outnumbered, and your vote cannot count for much over against twenty or thirty others. And there is such a thing as guilt by association.

And then there is also the dreadful business of political correctness. The Nobel Prize in literature is clearly the most important extant literary award. Now if you look at the list of choices through the years, you are bound to be prey to contrary emotions. Yes, they have chosen some wonderful, often obscure but eminently deserving winners. But no, why on earth would they have picked this or that one?

Some of it has to be P.C. A country that hasn’t had a representative in years, or at all, must—it is high time!—have a winner. And who are we to dispute the choice? How many Egyptian novelists and African poets have we read? Can we truly tell whether this laureate won for being a novelist or for being Peruvian? Or of any other country short on accolades? You may actually stand a better chance of winning if you are from Honduras or Mozambique than if you are from France, England or the U.S.A. Of course, the Nobel Committee will sternly deny that geography has anything to do with it, and they may honestly believe what they are saying, but does that necessarily make it true?

I am guessing that it does for the current winner, Alice Munro. Regrettably, I have never read one of her stories, but I am ready to believe that the award was justified, having read many glowing and credible critiques of her work. The very fact that she has published numerous volumes of short stories, but eschewed novels, speaks for her. Surely the short story is the undervalued and relatively unrewarded cousin of the novel, yet to have steadily favored it may be proof of some kind of artistic valor and magnanimity. Also speaking for the bountiful Ms. Munro, now in her early eighties, is that, before winning her Nobel, she declared that she would write no more.

To acknowledge some sort of limitation in oneself is praiseworthy, but it is especially noble (not Nobel) to know when to stop something you are famous for. Just think of the enormous number of artists in any field who did not know when enough was enough, and went on turning out repetitive, diminished, even worthless work. This even holds for singers, who surely ought to know when their song has turned into a croak.

Then think also how hard things must be for the members of the Nobel Committee who surely cannot know all the many languages in which numerous writers publish, given also that translations from many of them do not exist, and even if they do, cannot readily be trusted. Lyric poetry, for one thing, is virtually untranslatable. So how does one pick a winner among thousands upon thousands? It is no surprise that there have been a few Nobel lit winners who sank back into justified oblivion. The wonder is how many have not.

Lamentable, too, are some of the Pulitzer Prize winners for drama. Nilo Cruz leaps to mind. Am I then against awards? Not at all. If anything, I am for more of them. Imagine if every American who wrote a play got something like a Pulitzer. The result would be that, among heaps of tripe, no genuine talent would be overlooked.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

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Ever Wonder Who Runs This Place?

Ever wondered who runs this place anyways? It’s not our admission staff. It’s actually a team of super dedicated student interns. More specifically, if you’re wondering where all this great content for our social media channels comes from, its from my team of seven student social media interns. They are the brains behind our Twitter feeds, blogs, Instagram, YouTube channel, and drive all the content behind the marvel that is TruTU.

I thought it might be cool for you all to get a chance to meet my dedicated team of social media interns. Here goes!

Brady Johnson doesn't actually wear glasses.

Brady Johnson
Originally from Orange County, California, Brady Johnson is an involved Tulane senior that now calls NOLA home. While formally studying Neuroscience, Brady is passionately developing tech solutions to improve healthcare delivery while driving down costs. For Tulane's Office of Undergraduate Admission, Brady leads tours around campus, answers emails and phone calls at the front desk, posts blogs and YouTube videos, moderates the Official Class of 2017 Facebook group, and manages the back-end of TruTU. In his free time, Brady likes to plan for his journey around the world after graduation.

TulaneOwen is so popular that he has
his own Mardi Gras krewe.

Owen Knight

Owen Knight (better known to the world as Tulane Owen) is from Bethesda, MD, and graduated from Walt Whitman High School (crosstown rival of my high school, B-CC, go Barons). He is currently a senior studying Marketing and Management in the A.B. Freeman School of Business. Outside of class, Owen is on the executive board for Green Wave Ambassadors, our campus tour guides. Owen’s also involved in Greek life, is on the Interfraternity Council executive board, and is a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He love football, listening to music, and marathoning shows on Netflix. Owen maintains a blog, tweets from @TulaneOwen, and runs the OnlyAtTulane Instagram account. Most famously, Owen also moderates the Official Class of 2017 Facebook group which is why he’s so popular on campus.

Sarah Swig
Sarah Swig is from San Francisco and is a senior majoring in Political Science and International Development with a minor in Spanish. She studied abroad for a semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and tells me she’s been lucky enough to visit some amazing places around the world. Sarah enjoys traveling and exploring new cultures and places, but New Orleans definitely tops her list of favorite cities. She loves to roam the city, take photos, and take advantage of everything New Orleans has to offer. Follow Sarah on Twitter at @Tulane_Sarah.









 JP Stiles

Born and raised in Darnestown, MD, outside of Washington, D.C., JP Stiles currently studies at Tulane University. He was drawn to New Orleans for its vibrant music and now proudly embraces the city as his second home. Wrapping up his time at Tulane, he will graduate next year with dual degrees in Psychology and Digital Media Production. Stay tuned for some of JP's amazing videos that he’s got in the works for us here in the admission office. Trust me, you are going to dig these for sure.







Alex Williams
Alex Williams is one of our newest members of the team and is a freshman from Baton Rouge, LA, majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a Marine Biology minor. Alex loves Tulane, so she told me she figured what better way to encourage people to come and be involved than to be part of a team that interacts with students directly? For her first-year perspective on what it’s like to navigate Tulane, follow her on Twitter @TulaneAlex and on Instagram @_alexsays!








Walker Daniel
Walker Daniel’s my second freshman on the team-  emphasis on the fresh. She tells me she’s so new to the whole college thing - but she’s loving every minute. According to Walker, she knows “how much of an influence the admission's social media team, TruTU, had on me during the crazy, how-am-I-ever-supposed-to-pick-a-school application process.” Follow her Twitter @TulaneWalker to watch her in the post-process: freshman year. Also, look for her on the Official Tulane University Class of 2018 Facebook page!


Just FYI, Mara was just named
Tulane's Homecoming Queen 

Mara O'Brien-Hahn
Mara O'Brien-Hahn grew up on a little farm in Tennessee and ventured to NOLA four years ago determined to join every Tulane student organization and eat a po'boy from every shop in the city.  She’s managed to make headway on both goals and is now Panhellenic President, a peer health educator, a Green Wave Ambassador, and a proud po'boy connoisseur.  For the record, Mara wholeheartedly believes you haven't lived until you've eaten a surf and turf po'boy from Parkway Bakery and Tavern.  Follow Mara as she shops for homecoming dresses on Pinterest, catalogs her life as a TruTU guest blogger, and shares her #seriouslifethoughts on Twitter. And if I could blow up Mara’s spot for a second here- she was just named our Homecoming Queen.









That’s all for now, stay tuned to see what these kids come up with.

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