I deeply regret that employee reductions were necessary to secure the university's future. We have tried to make the reductions as strategically and humanely as possible, recognizing the hardship it places on those whose positions have been terminated.

If you lost an entire year, it would be very difficult to retain students and to retain faculty, ... They, because of the risk associated, would feel like they should transfer somewhere else.

The new model would fundamentally transform the look and feel of the New Orleans public schools. You hear the phrase, 'No child left behind,' I'd like to give meaning to that.

It's not only important for Tulane to come back, it's important for the city of New Orleans to come back, ... We don't want to be an oasis in an otherwise desolate land.

This is unprecedented in the history of the US, to have had a national disaster of this magnitude with a diaspora of this magnitude.

This is a model that is starting to emerge in America, and we could be the first to bless it.

One could make a case for all five of those teams matching up with our criteria. The net result, I think, is Conference USA is going to be stronger than it is today in terms of alignment.

Speed is the most important thing to keep in mind, because we have a city that was decimated,

There's nothing in common about this model and what was in existence pre-Katrina.

While this news is extremely disappointing to all of us, our students can continue their academic careers uninterrupted thanks to an avalanche of support from our colleagues in higher education,