New Orleans and Neuroscience Courses

First of all, we are all terribly worried about our friends and
colleagues at Tulane and other Southern Universities that have been
affected by Hurricane Katrina. I urge everyone who can, to participate
in our Red Cross Krasnow fundraising drive for the victims of this
terrible disaster. This evening I was listening to the increasingly
desperate tone of a nurse at Charity Hospital as she described the
awful conditions under which she and her colleagues are practicing. We
must all do our best to help in this time of need. Our own Krasnow
family has strong connections to New Orleans. I urge all of you to
consider those ties and to do what you can to help.

Second, I am, as director of the doctoral program in neuroscience
program, extremely concerned about reports that our students are being
turned away from Mason graduate courses for reasons that are clearly
bureaucratic. This is not the vision I have for doctoral education and
I promise that I will do everything in my power to fix this type of
counter-productive barrier to our students. Please don’t hesitate to
contact me directly on these issues.

Jim