Judge Rules in Tulane's Favor; Women's College to Stay Closed
After Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and shuttered Tulane University for a semester in the fall of 2005, Tulane used the following summer to start reconstructing its campus and restructuring operations. To cut costs, the university opted to close Newcomb College, Tulane's women's college.
The college's closing prompted a three-year legal battle that ended Monday, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. The plaintiff, the great-great-great niece of Josephine Louis Newcomb, the founder of Newcomb College, argued that Tulane had violated the terms of Newcomb's will by folding the women's college. Tulane argued that while Newcomb had left her entire estate to Tulane, she did not list a requirement to keep Newcomb College open. The judge agreed with Tulane.
In a three-page opinion, Civil District Judge Rosemary Ledet ruled that the wording of Newcomb's will "contains no enforceable conditional obligation to support the plaintiff's claim."
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Reader Comments
Why it should be reopened?
I am a graduate of Newcomb College and while I agree with some of the comments of vic of DC, he is missing some important information. While it is true that for many years Newcomb and Tulane classes were integrated, that is where it ended.
The fact that Newcomb had it's own student body and advisors meant that there were unique opportunities for the women of Newcomb College. As you might expect, women at a womans college have more leadership opportunities than those in a coed environment. What women at Newcomb College had was the best of both worlds. We had our own student government, President, VP, etc - all women. We had Newcomb Senate and Mortar Board. We had female advisors that gave focused on and understood women's issues - advice to women from women. There was actually very little redundancy in advisors and staff, because the they served different segments of the university population. It was not a situation where staff could be reduced due to consolidation.
We also had our own admission requirements and standards, our own graduation ceremony...Newcomb was wonderful and unique! It was destroyed by Tulane NOT for financial reasons, but to create a more uniform undergraduate experience (according to Scott Cowen himself).
Should be over
I certainly understand the concern that alumnae from years past have, but Newcomb was founded to give southern women an opportunity to attend a top notch college. Now Tulane has more female students then men, so doesn't mean that her gift was successful? There was an unnecessary amount of redundancy in advisors and staff between Paul Tulane and Sophie Newcomb college who were giving the same exact advice for the same exact classes.Newcomb was rolled into Tulane decades ago, and hasn't been a separate institution since. If you were a female liberal arts major you would see Newcomb's liberal arts advisers instead of Tulane's, and your degree would say "Newcomb College" instead of "Tulane College" underneath "Tulane University." That's literally it. Classes, opportunities, etc were all identical and 100% integrated for Tulane College and Newcomb College students, so you were never really aware that Tulane and Newcomb existed "separately" except when you had to fill out paperwork. Not sure what the previous poster is talking about, but it was a waste of money to have that redundancy.
When they had to make tough decisions after the storm I completely supported the creation of one undergraduate liberal arts college. I support Tulane, and President Cowen. We are back on track to be better then before. I certainly hope that the folks supporting this suit have finally given it a rest and will embrace supporting the institution that Sophie Newcomb supported: TULANE.
Newcomb College Is Not Dead!
Your article about the Newcomb College case is inaccurate in two respects. First, cutting costs had nothing to do with the closing of the college. Tulane officials have said so, themselves. Second, the legal battle did not necessarily end on Tuesday. In this country, we have a appellate process through which the errors of trial judges are reversed every day. Stay tuned!
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