Tulane University: General Information
2008-2009 Academic Year
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Tulane University
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 University, one of the foremost independent national universities in the
South, is ranked among the top quartile of the nation's most highly selective
universities. With ten schools and colleges that range from the liberal arts and
sciences through a full spectrum of professional schools, Tulane gives its 11,000
students a breadth of choice equaled by few other independent universities in the
country.
Tulane University's ten academic divisions enroll approximately 5,500
undergraduates and about 4,800 graduate and professional students. The schools
of Architecture, Business, Liberal Arts, and Science and Engineering offer both
undergraduate and graduate programs. Other divisions include the Schools of
Law, Medicine, Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Social Work, and
Continuing Studies. All divisions except the medical complex, which includes a
teaching hospital and clinic, are located on Tulane's 110-acre campus in uptown
New Orleans.
The University's origins trace back to the founding of the Medical College of
Louisiana, the Deep South's first medical school, in 1834. Classes started the next
year when 11 students and seven faculty members met in a rented hall; students
paid for instruction by the lecture. Born of the desperate need for competent
medical care in this region and of the founders' dedication to study and treat "the
peculiar diseases which prevail in this part of the Union," the college quickly
earned recognition.
Soon the medical college merged with the public University of Louisiana in New
Orleans, adding a law department and a "collegiate" department that became
Tulane College. The university continued building a national reputation. J. L.
Riddell, professor of chemistry, built the first successful binocular microscope in
1852. The medical department faculty fought for improved public health and
sanitation; and, in 1857, Christian Roselius, an early graduate of the collegiate
and law departments, was appointed Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme
Court.
The Civil War forced the University to close. After the war, the University
reopened in financial trouble. Total assets, excluding buildings, totaled $4,570.39