Closure of Newcomb College Upsets Many

Bruce D. Collins (General Counsel of C-Span, Washington, D.C.) recently published his article entitled Louisiana State Supreme Court Ruling Causes Donor Discontent, Inside Counsel (Apr. 2011). In this article, Mr. Collins discusses the closure of Newcomb College at Tulane University, which I previously blogged about here. Excerpts from the article are below:

Years after its horrific devastation of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina just claimed two more victims—Newcomb College for women at Tulane University and the sanctity of donor intent in Louisiana.

. . .

My cynicism saves me from bafflement about how Louisiana’s courts could ignore their own law. I am guided in my thinking by the words of others, such as Machiavelli (or, more recently, the new Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel) who said, “Never waste a good crisis,” as Tulane certainly did not when Katrina became the excuse to take over Newcomb’s legacy. Or that disreputable fixer Roy M. Cohn who said, “I don’t want to know what the law is; I want to know who the judge is,” and whose sentiment might have inspired Tulane’s confidence in the state’s judiciary to reach the desired decision. And every first-year law student recalls the contracts professor who said about nearly every issue, “That is the majority rule of law in the United States—except in Louisiana.” Now we can add, “The majority rule is that ‘donor intent’ must be given great deference—except in Louisiana.”

Special thanks to Sue Bentch (Professor, retired, St. Mary’s University School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.