(Photo by Jason Cohen)

Action has to be swift. When a patient experiences the common co-infections of HIV and tuberculosis (TB), doctors need to know test results quickly so they can determine a treatment plan. Treating the HIV infection first could increase the TB’s bacterial load. But waiting to treat the HIV could have devastating results. Decisions have to be informed, calibrated and made ASAP.

Enter Tulane. A team led by researcher Tony Hu recently developed a new rapid test that can detect both HIV and TB simultaneously and far faster than conventional methods. The new test could save time and lives. 

Such a breakthrough is the kind of global impact President Michael A. Fitts envisioned for Tulane when he arrived at the university a decade ago. In fact, Hu himself came to Tulane as part of the endowed presidential chair program Fitts established to recruit internationally recognized scholars who could further complement and bolster Tulane’s already-existing ranks of world-class scholars. 

“We appreciate his bold vision and trust in young faculty like me, and backing us all the way,” said Hu, the Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Biotechnology Innovation and director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Diagnostics. “That is hard to find elsewhere.” 

A leading proponent of the power of an interdisciplinary approach to education and research, Fitts contends that bringing the best minds from a wide array of fields together can help solve some of the most intractable problems of modern society — from infectious disease to environmental issues, from health care inequities to the difficulties of aging, from political polarization to economic challenges. 

“The great promise of higher education is the potential to use its scholarship, expertise and research to solve the most important challenges facing local and global communities — to literally improve and save lives,” Fitts said. “Universities have enormous social and economic impact in their community which, in Tulane’s case, stretches around the world.”

And Tulane has a unique academic advantage in pursuing such initiatives, Fitts argued. “Our special collaborative culture, our history as an outwardly facing university, and the close intellectual relationship between our schools and faculty supports innovation — both in research and student education. By breaking down silos in pursuing cutting-edge exploration and supporting a holistic student experience, we are a national academic leader in interdisciplinary education and discovery.” 

With this mindset, Fitts has brought about one of the greatest periods of growth — in every dimension of university life — in Tulane’s history. 

“Mike’s strategic vision and adeptness built a collaborative team, and with that came surging applications, extensive campus development and a burgeoning downtown presence,” said Carol Lavin Bernick, who has just completed a four-year term as chair of the Board of Tulane. 

David Mussafer, who became board chair after Bernick’s departure in July, could not agree more. 

“Great leaders are rare. Mike Fitts is one of those rare truly transformational leaders. At its core, his presidency has redefined Tulane’s expectations for itself,” Mussafer said. “What I appreciate about Mike’s presidency — and find inspirational — is his insistence on excellence in everything Tulane. He pursues and expects nothing but the best for and from Tulane. He’s entering his second decade with a laser focus on creating a better future and I’m inspired and excited about where this incredible university is going under such groundbreaking leadership.”

Building on pillars

The consummate strategic planner, Fitts early on established four pillars on which he has founded Tulane’s future. One of the most visible of these pillars is his goal of building a physical environment that inspires excellence in research, scholarship and service — a university that has at its heart the student experience. 

Thus, one simple way to chart Tulane’s success under Fitts is to take a walk. Warning: if it’s your first visit to campus in a while, prepare to be surprised. 

Begin your trek just off St. Charles Avenue and you will see Fitts-led change that is as immediate as it is impactful. There’s Mussafer Hall, which was built as a central source for services dedicated to the holistic success of students in their academics, careers and lives.

Just across the quad from Mussafer, the gleaming corridors of the Steven and Jann Paul Hall for Science and Engineering are bustling with students and brimming with discovery. Opened earlier this year, Paul Hall is an interdisciplinary research marvel and one of the most significant academic expansions in Tulane’s history. It is connected, by walkway and spirit, to neighboring Flower Hall, another modern building that forms the core of a burgeoning science district in the heart of the uptown campus. 

If you cross Freret Street on your walk, you will soon encounter River and Lake, the first of five on-campus residences that will comprise The Village, a hub of living and learning designed to make the Tulane student experience second to none. 

Not far from The Village is The Malkin Sacks Commons. Opened in 2019, this three-story, 77,000-square-foot gathering space includes a nonpareil dining hall, multipurpose meeting spaces and a state-of-the-art home for Newcomb Institute. Its offerings and central location have enriched the social and intellectual life of the university and enhanced the Tulane sense of community. 

Additions such as The Village and The Commons may be part of the reason Fitts is so wildly popular with students. He’s pretty much a rock star, if the thunderous applause that greets his introductions at campus gatherings such as Convocation is any indication of his broad appeal. 

Interest in attending Tulane among the nation’s best and brightest has soared to levels never before seen, and the academic quality, selectivity and diversity of incoming classes have set new records during his presidency. The enthusiasm for Tulane is not limited to undergraduates, either. 

“It has been a joy to work with and learn from President Fitts,” said Tamunoboma Dominion Fenny, who served as president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association. “He has made it a point to center student voices and concerns in his decision-making, and that is greatly appreciated. He recognizes that the educational experience at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels is of equal importance and works hard to ensure that all our perspectives are taken into account.”

From new campus residences to a historic transformation that will turn downtown New Orleans into a thriving hub of Tulane-led innovation and invention, Fitts is building with a vision and creating with a purpose.

“Mike Fitts has taken Tulane, which had been transformed through the crucible of Hurricane Katrina into a service-focused institution, and made it also a nationally recognized research university centered on breakthroughs that change and save lives both here in the city and, really, worldwide,” said Walter Isaacson, the bestselling biographer and Leonard A. Lauder Professor of American History and Values in Tulane’s School of Liberal Arts.

Indeed, research prowess is a hallmark of Fitts’ presidency. It is also a primary goal of Always the Audacious, the latest iteration of Only the Audacious, which has raised $1.5 billion as Tulane’s most successful capital campaign ever. 

Tulane’s fundraising success was also cited in the remarkable and continued improvement of the university’s credit rating by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. The financial media has also commented on the university’s strong financial posture in recent years. Bloomberg News lauded the university’s financial resilience, especially in the face of challenges such as Hurricane Ida. Forbes touted Tulane’s financial and academic strength and “approaching Ivy League” acceptance rate, declaring, “Among top-tier colleges, few have improved in financial strength as much as New Orleans’ Tulane University.” Another Forbes rating listed Tulane as Louisiana’s No. 1 employer.

Through such audacious success, intentional investment and direct funding, support for Tulane research has risen by more than 70 percent over the last seven years — an increase that stands out in higher education. This means more money for breakthroughs in infectious disease treatment, better funding for advances in chronic conditions such as diabetes, more support for research into leading causes of death, and greater opportunities to explore the brain and the mysteries of aging. 

Downtown plans

Bold is the operative word when it comes to Fitts’ quest to revitalize New Orleans’ downtown and reinvent the city and region into a hub of discovery and bioscience entrepreneurship. 

“The downtown campus project isn’t just about bricks and mortar; it’s about revitalizing the heart of New Orleans and driving economic growth for our city and state,” said Patrick Norton, senior vice president and chief operating officer, and one of the leaders of Tulane’s downtown expansion. “It’s about creating new treatments, new cures and new jobs — through the virtuous cycle of research and the scaling of these inventions and discoveries through technology transfer and startups and spinouts. Mike’s blueprint for the future of downtown is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Tulane, New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. The potential impact is immense.” 

Fitts’ downtown plan includes a new partnership finalized last year with LCMC Health, in which Tulane Medical Center, Lakeview Regional Medical Center and Tulane Lakeside Hospital joined LCMC Health, a local health care network. This partnership brings wide-ranging benefits to the New Orleans region by expanding access to comprehensive and specialty care, advancing academic medicine, boosting innovation and medical training, and providing investment and other positive impacts to the community.

When completed, the downtown expansion will have placed a new nursing program, a historic increase in lab and research infrastructure, more health care offerings, and world-class schools of medicine, public health and social work within blocks of one another in the city’s urban core. It is change on a scale the city and region have rarely seen — one that will create more than 2,000 jobs in New Orleans and across Louisiana. 

The inspiration for this grand plan can, in one sense, be traced back to Fitts’ days as a Harvard undergraduate. Back then, one of his favorite professors was Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who would go on to become one of the country’s most revered public servants, representing the state of New York in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2001.

Moynihan’s dictum, “If you want to build a great city, create a great university and wait 200 years,” is an oft-repeated phrase of Fitts’ to which he adds, “Tulane is approaching its 200-year anniversary, and New Orleans recently celebrated its 300th, so our time has arrived.”

Pittsburgh, Nashville, Raleigh and Austin are among the cities Fitts points to as examples of the power of urban universities to revive and renew moribund downtowns. 

“But we are unique among such cities,” Fitts said. “Our culture, music and cuisine — it’s just a phenomenal combination that can’t be matched by other locales. We are the perfect town for young startups.” 

Innovation stands at the core of Fitts’ downtown plans, exemplified by the Tulane University Innovation Institute (TUII), which he established in 2022 as an accelerator for commercializing the genius of researchers and inventors at Tulane and in the New Orleans community at large. Led by Kimberly Gramm, the inaugural David and Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer, it also provides mentorship and de-risking expertise as well as administrative, budgetary, marketing and branding support for fledgling startups. 

Gramm spends much of her seemingly inexhaustible energy working across disciplines to cultivate cutting-edge discovery and an entrepreneurial mindset — a campus culture that fosters new ventures and technologies. She credits Fitts with “nurturing an environment that inspires innovation and creativity, which translates into students and faculty taking risks to solve problems.”

“Mike Fitts’ support of TUII is a New Orleans game-changing decision,” Gramm said. “It will ‘level up’ the regional economy to become an entrepreneurial powerhouse. Providing support for ideas will grow New Orleans into an innovation and entrepreneurship hot spot that will be transformative for the immediate future and for decades to come.” 

Steering with resolve

Leading an American university is a career for which Fitts — son of the chairman of the Department of Surgery at Penn Medical School and grandson of the dean of Penn’s Wharton School — seems born for. It is also one he still embraces with joy and enthusiasm 10 years in. But coming, as it does, with a constant demand for high-stakes decision-making with zero margin for error, growing societal scrutiny, campus unrest and other challenges inherent to running a complex, multifaceted enterprise, some may reasonably ask: “Why would anyone want that job?”

Fitts chuckled at the question.

“Well, the very things that make universities so challenging also make them so compelling and fascinating,” he said. “No other institution brings together a collection of individuals — students, scholars, scientists, staff and more — to live, work and discover in such an intensely relational manner. It is an arrangement that spurs innovation, advancement — intellectual and emotional growth — like no other.”

But?

“Well, all that difference, all that intellectual passion is also the perfect recipe, the fertile ground for growing debate and conflict. That’s all part of university life.”

He means that while addressing the problems of the world, those problems often present themselves at the very doorstep of the university. The racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd, for example, or the protests over the ongoing conflict in the Middle East are set against the backdrop of a hyper-polarized 24/7 news and social media cycle. These and numerous other issues have riven the nation and impacted university life in ways not previously seen. 

Fitts approaches such challenges with the trademarks of his leadership, attempting to bring together the best minds from various fields and increasing support for the community.

A Tulane for everyone

Creating a more welcoming and inclusive Tulane has been a top priority for Fitts from the beginning of his presidency. This includes establishing the Carolyn Barber-Pierre Center for Intercultural Life. Named for one of Tulane’s most committed and revered figures, the center brings together numerous university-wide efforts to foster a more inclusive environment for all. Fitts also orchestrated the hiring of the university’s first chief diversity officer, oversaw significant increases in the enrollment of first-generation students, and continues a hands-on effort to build a Tulane community that attracts and supports students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds.

Although much work remains to be done, Tulane’s progress is beginning to get noticed as evidenced by it receiving the 2022 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. The annual award recognizes U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.

With the goal of ensuring that cost is never a barrier to a Tulane education for any qualified student, Fitts announced Louisiana Promise in 2022. This program meets the full financial need of attending Tulane for students from Louisiana whose families make less than $100,000 annually. Nearly 150 families have already taken advantage of the program. Earlier this year, Fitts also announced partnerships with two iconic New Orleans high schools, St. Katharine Drexel Preparatory School and St. Augustine High School. Through these partnerships, the university will award full four-year tuition scholarships every year to two students from each school. 

Tulane also provides pre-college summer programming and courses to students from both schools and others through the Tulane Pre-College initiative and the university’s Louisiana Center for College Access, which helps prepare aspiring first-generation students for the rigors of college beginning their freshman year of high school.

As part of both Tulane’s commitment to a diverse student body and its continued stance against racism, Fitts expanded efforts to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and the ensuing war in Gaza. 

“Our goal is to support all students, faculty and staff, especially those who have deep cultural and religious ties to Israel and Gaza. We must continue to come together as a Tulane family to support one another as we reaffirm our unequivocal stand against all forms of hate and bigotry,” Fitts said. 

Boundless

In keeping with his pursuit of excellence across the board, Fitts has also worked to improve the “athletic wing” of the Tulane house. New state-of-the-art facilities, including academic and career services for student-athletes, are among numerous improvements.

In the decades before Fitts’ arrival, the Green Wave often did not attain the same acclaim in athletics as it did in academics. Much of that has changed now with Tulane’s ascendancy in football, baseball, golf, sailing and other sports. Cheeky Tulane “Football School” T-shirts, for example, have become de rigueur on certain fall Saturdays. 

“There is an old saying in the business world that ‘If you have more than three priorities, you have no priorities,’ suggesting that you have to make choices and focus in order to make progress. Mike’s success shows that’s not true, at least for great universities,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robin Forman. “He has been committed to making sure that Tulane advances in all aspects of its mission — from pathbreaking research across the academy, to superlative education for all students, to an academic medical center providing world-class clinical care, to supporting an entrepreneurial ecosystem that will energize both Tulane and New Orleans.”

Bernick said it all goes back to Fitts’ leadership, which has proven crucial in challenges ranging from implementing a nation-leading protocol of testing, contact tracing and isolation that kept Tulane safely open and operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensuring the university’s recovery from Hurricane Ida. 

“Despite turbulent times, he’s steered with resolve. Tulane’s momentum, thanks to Mike, is boundless.”