What strengths does Xavier University bring to this partnership with Tulane University?
Our faculty and students have had a strong volunteer commitment, and
his has been true for the last ten years. What they brought to this
partnership is that sensitivity, that commitment, and that
identification with the you people in the projects. That’s not to
suggest that just being able to “identify” was sufficient, but in fact,
they understood the youngsters. They, themselves as students, have been
well-trained in their respective fields, as well as the faculty.
So what they brought to this project was what we call a diversity
that Tulane didn’t have, and it complemented the expertise that tulane
had in various fields.
Tulane and Xavier have a partnership that predates the CAP program. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Actually, about twenty years ago, Xavier and Tulane decided to do a
joint MBA program. Ten years prior to our starting the cooperative
arrangement, Tulane had graduated one African American in its graduate
program, its MBA program. And when they collaborated with us, with the
number of students we had, we [created] what you call a three-one-one.
A youngster in business administration at Xavier would spend three
years at Xavier, one year at Tulane and Xavier, and in their five year
go totally to Tulane. In the first ten years [of the program], they’ve
graduated thirty African Americans [as compared to] one in the previous
ten years.
So that was the start of a collaboration where we were able to
combine what I call respective and complementary strengths…. That was
our first collaboration.
After that. we joined with them in the while environmental program.
Again, Tulane has [done]great work and research [on] the environment.
We had youngsters in the sciences who wanted to study the environment,
who wanted to get involved in the environmental programs and the like.
And so we created a research project and then we created a center,
called the Center for Bioenvironmental Research. Now we have joint
appointments of faculty from Tulane and Xavier…. We have a lab up on
Tulane Avenue, which is across from the Medical Center, where we have
offices for faculty and students.
