Tulane's purpose is to create, communicate and conserve knowledge in order to enrich the capacity of individuals, organizations and communities to think, to learn and to act and lead with integrity and wisdom.
Tulane pursues this mission by cultivating an environment that focuses on learning and the generation of new knowledge; by expecting and rewarding teaching and research of extraordinarily high quality and impact; and by fostering community-building initiatives as well as scientific, cultural and social understanding that integrate with and strengthen learning and research. This mission is pursued in the context of the unique qualities of our location in New Orleans and our continual aspiration to be a truly distinctive international university.
Tulane University is a community dedicated to excellence in the pursuit of knowledge through superior teaching and research, distinguished professional accomplishment, and leadership in education on the regional, national, and international levels. Its status as a privately endowed, non-sectarian educational institution, the quality of its faculty and student body, and its reputation support this mission. This Handbook is intended as a general guide to the policies and operation of Tulane University. For detailed, comprehensive information on the constitutions of the faculties, the regulations of departments, and matters such as benefits, faculty members should refer to the offices of their dean, their department chair, and the Office of Human Resources. The information in the Handbook is current at the date of its issuance, but much of it is presented in summary form, and nearly all of it is subject to amendment.
Tulane’s graduate and professional programs are concentrated in those areas where it carries on superior teaching and research. In order to maintain and increase a high level of institutional distinction, Tulane strengthens its undergraduate and graduate programs by the judicious application of human and material resources in those disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas where it currently enjoys distinction or is on the threshold of attaining distinction. The guiding principle of academic distinction to be considered in the expansion or initiation of fields is the same as that followed in promotion and tenure procedures for the faculty, where the criteria dictate rigorous evaluation to assure high standards of quality.
Tulane's beginnings date back to 1834 when a group of New Orleans physicians founded the Medical College of Louisiana. By 1850, the college had merged with the public University of Louisiana; a law school had been added; and an academic department, the forerunner of Newcomb-Tulane College, had been established. The University was reorganized as the private, non-sectarian Tulane University of Louisiana in 1884, when Paul Tulane gave the school its first endowment, and since that time has been governed by a self-perpetuating Board of Administrators. In 1886, Mrs. Josephine Louise Newcomb founded Newcomb College, the first degree-granting coordinate women's college in the nation, as a memorial to her daughter Harriott Sophie.
Since then, more schools and colleges were incorporated. The undergraduate programs in Architecture, Business, Liberal Arts, Science and Engineering, and Public Health and Tropical Medicine reside under one undergraduate college, Newcomb-Tulane College. Graduate programs are offered in these disciplines as well as Law, Medicine, and Social Work. Master and doctoral programs in liberal arts, the sciences, and engineering, are administered through the academic departments. The School of Professional Advancement offers courses in applied programs designed for working adults.
From the construction of the first building of the Medical College of Louisiana in 1843, the campus continued for half a century on Common Street between University Place and Baronne Street. In 1894, a new 110-acre campus was established in residential uptown New Orleans. In addition to the uptown campus, the University maintains a downtown health sciences campus, the F. Edward Hebert Research Center in nearby Belle Chasse, the Tulane National Primate Research Center near Covington, Louisiana, and satellite sites for Professional Advancement classes in suburban New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi.
Since the 1960's, the University has grown rapidly in size and importance. It prides itself upon its selective undergraduate admission, its demanding and diverse curriculum, and its distinguished graduate and professional schools. Building on its strength as a center for international studies, Tulane continues to attract outstanding international students and scholars to study and teach here. Its stature as an international center of scholarship is a particular source of pride for the University.
