The following has just been released to the press:

October 7, 2009 — Susan Henderson Montgomery, a successor of Josephine Louise Newcomb, who endowed Tulane University’s H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College through a bequest and series of gifts, announced today that she will appeal the Civil District Court’s August 31 ruling denying her summary judgment motion that the court order Tulane to reinstate the women’s college.

Commenting on Ms. Henderson Montgomery’s decision, Renee Seblatnigg, President of The Future of Newcomb College (TFoNC), said: “Once again, Judge Rosemary Ledet came to the wrong conclusion in her second ruling regarding the reopening of Newcomb College. We anticipated that Ms. Henderson Montgomery would likely have to go through the appeals process to succeed in her efforts to obtain an order to reinstitute Newcomb.

“We have the utmost confidence that – at the end of the day – the higher courts will agree that Mrs. Newcomb’s bequest to the Tulane Board of Administrators was clearly subject to the condition and obligation that her money be used to develop and maintain in perpetuity a coordinate women’s college at Tulane.

“The precedent set in this case is important for all charitable organizations and their donors. If Judge Ledet’s ruling is left to stand, the tens of thousands of Louisianans who generously support the state’s nonprofit sector will think twice before giving. They will doubt, correctly, that they have any legal recourse if a nonprofit organization uses their donation for a purpose other than the one they intended, and they will be discouraged from giving as a result. Is that the signal the courts want to send at a time when so many Louisiana charitable organizations are in need of contributions?”

TFoNC is the group of alumnae and others supporting legal efforts to force Tulane University to re-open Newcomb College.

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