IT IS no secret that frivolous law suits permeate the American legal system. Bordering on the tedious and inane, many cases are not worth a second glance. But one law suit recently grabbed my attention: A peer institution, Tulane University, is engaged in a court battle over donor intent after the dissolution of Newcomb College, the all-female coordinating college associated with Tulane for 120 years.
Many relevant groups, most importantly the closest living relatives to the donor who made Newcomb possible, Parma Matthis Howard and Jane Matthis Smith, believe that the Tulane administration acted illegally by violating donor intent. They lost the first lawsuit -- Howard v. Tulane -- and are currently appealing the case. However, by holding on to old loyalties and an outdated institution, this lawsuit is unneeded and misguided.
Undoubtedly, we should take an interest in seeing that donor intent is honored in the non-profit sector. But Howard v. Tulane simply is not one of the relevant cases. Unwilling to return to a coordinating women's college in its purest form and true donor intent having been violated for years, the Tulane administration found a way to update Newcomb College in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
In the past 100 years, women's education has been at the center of significant debate and controversy. In more recent history, there has been a much publicized national effort to increase funding and educational opportunities to undergraduate women. By and large, the success of women's education has been one of the greatest accomplishments of the modern academy. Women have integrated into all-male institutions with aplomb and, in the process, have largely retreated from single-sex education. For many years Tulane University resisted disbanding its all-female degree granting college, despite the general proclivity in higher education to officially integrate the sexes.
Founded in 1887, Newcomb College was the first women's college that coordinated with an all-male institution (Tulane); it was the precursor to institutions like Radcliffe College and Pembroke College. But in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Tulane administration enacted the "Renewal Plan," which among other initiatives, called for the dissolution of the coordinating women's college.
Despite the appeal, the courts failed to issue an injunction in 2006 and so Newcomb College no longer exists as an academic institution; in its place the Newcomb Institute, underwritten by the Newcomb endowment, functions as a resource center for all university women.
In light of this transition, many have only glanced at the facts and too quickly assumed that a serious donor intent issue exists and that Tulane's president, Scott Cowen, is running a renegade administration bent on transforming the institution according to his agenda.
In a relevant article published on Townhall.com, William Rusher, former publisher of National Review, said, "Once the donor has passed on [trustees] could divert the money to all sorts of purposes that have no recognizable relation to what the donor wanted." This alarmist tone, insinuating that all foundation money and charitable giving is at serious risk of misuse in light of the Tulane case, has been used to stir public interest. In fact though, the auspices of Tulane's Renewal Plan give every possible consideration to honoring Josephine Newcomb's donor intent. Not only will the endowment remain separate and support the activities of the Newcomb Institute, it also ensures that, on an essentially coeducational campus, for efficiency's sake services will not be duplicated.
It is absurd to state, as it does on the Save Newcomb College Web site, that "For nearly 120 years Newcomb college successfully fulfilled its mission [of coordinating women's education]." If donor intent were a legitimate concern for Mrs. Newcomb's relatives and Newcomb alumni, they should have sued long ago. According to Mrs. Newcomb's instructions, Newcomb College was for "the cause of female education in Louisiana by establishing, and maintaining 'The H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College' in the Tulane University of Louisiana, for the higher education of girls and young women."
However, since the sixties Newcomb has become further integrated into an increasingly coeducational institution. By 1980, the faculty, curriculum and dormitories merged, rendering Newcomb College virtually unrecognizable. In fact, only one all female dormitory remains in the wake of post-Katrina restructuring efforts due to a lack of student interest, not wayward administration priorities. Sure Newcomb College has a history on Tulane's campus as a degree granting institution with its own dean and student body, but those distinctions existed in name only for many years.
If donor intent were truly honored in this case, the structure of the institution would smack of sexism and female enrollment would likely go down at Tulane. Women- only institutions are becoming an outdated mode of education, as evidenced recently in Virginia by the demise of Randolph-Macon Women's College. The updated, more mainstream Newcomb Institute is functionally a women's center, which exist on many campuses nationwide.
The administration at Tulane has been sensitive to the traditions and loyalties toward Newcomb and preserved for a modern world the legacy of this once necessary and visionary institution. Of course Newcomb College was important to many as a degree granting institution, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, relevant constituents should, as a matter of prudence and realism, support the changing role of women-centric education.
Christa Byker is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at cbyker@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Celebrate the Contemplative Commons and other non-academic student spaces
By Editorial Board | 3 hours agoThe Contemplative Commons stands as a testament to the value of spaces that transcend commercial imperatives, fostering interdisciplinary engagement and experiential learning.
KURTZWEIL: What we lose in the name of efficiency
By Paul Kurtzweil | YesterdayPenicillin was discovered in a moldy petri dish — this government would have it thrown out because it was wasting space on the counter.
RASHID: U.Va. must empower faculty and students through transparency
By Muhammad Ali Rashid | YesterdayBy attempting to contain, or even eliminate uncomfortable narratives, the administration incrementally consolidates power and frays communal trust.
