By Deon Roberts, Online Editor
When a person makes a donation, such as to a university, how much should their wishes control how that gift is used?
That is the question the Louisiana Supreme Court is dealing with, in a case involving Tulane University and a donation made to the school to establish a women’s college at the school.
More than a century ago, Josephine Newcomb donated more than $3 million to Tulane to establish Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, which opened in 1887 as a degree-granting college for women.
After Hurricane Katrina, which created financial uncertainty for just about every business in New Orleans, Tulane merged Newcomb and Tulane’s six other undergraduate colleges, creating Newcomb-Tulane college.
That’s where the trouble began for Tulane. Two of Josephine Newcomb’s heirs, Parma Howard of Columbia, S.C., and Jane Matthis Smith of Greenville, N.C., objected, saying that Tulane had no right to merge Newcomb with the other colleges.
The case has worked its way to the state Supreme Court.
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