Scott Cowen

Cowen's wife of 30 years, Marjorie Feldman Cowen, passed away on December 16, 2019. They have four grown children and five grandchildren.

In February 2018, Cowen published his most recent book, .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Winnebagos on Wednesdays. Princeton University Press. 2018. ISBN 9780691174617.

In 2010, both before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Cowen testified, successfully, in the Commerce Committee of the Louisiana senate, against a bill by state senator Robert Adley to terminate funding for the Tulane University Environmental Law Clinic.

Also in 2010 Cowen increased his attention to Tulane's athletics program, including a joint announcement with athletics director Rick Dickson that Tulane would build a new practice facility for basketball and volleyball and recognition that Tulane "must get better" in all its athletics programs and especially men's basketball and football. The message announced that Tulane in academic year 2011-2012 would be back up to the 16 athletics teams fielded prior to Katrina.

Recipient of the Times-Picayune Loving Cup for 2010, Cowen was also recognized as New Orleanian of the Year in 2011 by Gambit newspaper, Louisianian of the Year in Louisiana Life magazine, and one of the 300 most important people in the 300-year history of New Orleans by the Times-Picayune. Cowen holds honorary doctorates from the University of Notre Dame, Brown, Case Western Reserve, George Mason, and Yeshiva universities as well as several other universities.

In 2009 Cowen represented Louisiana's 10 private colleges and universities when he testified in the Louisiana legislature against a bill that provided for concealed weapons on campuses.

Cowen was one of four US recipients of the Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Awards in 2009. Cowen dedicated the $500,000 award to Tulane's community-related activities, including the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, the Center for Public Service that coordinates the university's service-learning requirements, and social entrepreneurship professorships. The Carnegie Corporation cited Cowen's leadership in New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina. In 2009, TIME Magazine named Cowen one of the nation’s top "10 Best College Presidents". The following year, Cowen was appointed by President Barack Obama to the White House Council for Community Solutions, which advised the President on ways to reconnect young people who are neither working nor in school. Cowen is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Cowen was known in higher education as a supporter of reform in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to bolster academics involving athletes and also to open Bowl Championship Series (BCS) eligibility to teams in conferences such as Conference USA (C-USA) to which Tulane belonged. Cowen supported efforts "to get rid of the BCS and go to a playoff system."

Hurricane Katrina and flood waters resulting from the levee's failures hit Tulane's uptown and downtown campuses shortly after the start of the 2005 fall semester. Cowen led Tulane through a rebuilding and academic reorganization, during which the decision to merge and eliminate Newcomb College's quasi-selfstanding character wholly into Tulane was criticized, as was also the decision to eliminate several departments in the School of Engineering and merge its remaining departments with the science departments in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This resulted in a new School of Science and Engineering as well as a new undergraduate college, Newcomb-Tulane College, and a restructured School of Liberal Arts. At the same time, Tulane became the first and only major private research university to incorporate public service into its core curriculum.

Cowen was recruited by Lou Holtz to play football for the University of Connecticut, where later-legendary Holtz was briefly serving as an assistant coach. After receiving his bachelor of science degree from UConn in 1968, Cowen entered the United States Army Infantry Officer Candidate School and served for three years as an infantry officer. He was assigned to the Army Security Agency where he spent a tour of duty in the Middle East. On discharge he enrolled in George Washington University, where he received his master of business administration (MBA) in finance and doctor of business administration (DBA) in finance and management. After a brief stint as an instructor at Bucknell University, he began a 23-year career starting as an assistant professor and finished as dean and Albert J. Weatherhead Professor of Management in the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Son of Helen Cowen and Stanley Cowen, Scott Cowen finished his secondary education at Metuchen High School, New Jersey. Upon graduation in 1964 he was cited as "the student who had done the most" for Metuchen High. In 2016 Cowen was inducted into the inaugural Metuchen High School Hall of Fame.

Scott S. Cowen (born 27 July 1946) is the President Emeritus and Distinguished University Chair of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was also Seymour S. Goodman Memorial Professor in the A.B. Freeman School of Business and professor of economics in Tulane's School of Liberal Arts. He most recently served as the Interim President of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio from 2020-2021. He has written more than a hundred peer-reviewed journal articles and five books. His most recent book, Winnebagos on Wednesdays: How Visionary Leadership Can Transform Higher Education, was published by Princeton University Press in 2018. Cowen is the eponym of Tulane's Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives. Cowen served as Tulane’s 14th president from July 1998 through June 2014.