<p>I can say only that my own son is having a wonderful freshman spring semester at Tulane. He is incredibly happy to be back and wouldn't be anywhere else. Helping where it really makes a difference seems to suit him, and he thinks his classes are just fine. If it's not for you, then it's not for you, but please, let's not get overly dramatic over an administrative entity.</p>
<p>Wow. I've been called many things this week, but overly dramatic hasn't been one of them.</p>
<p>Not to take anything away from the achievement of Newcomb College, but I got interested in this question since I started my college career at MHC. Trivia on women's education: Vassar opened its doors as a women's college in 1865. Mt Holyoke, which calls itself the first women's college, opened in 1837, altho as a seminary; it didn't become a full-fledged college until 1888. Oberlin was founded in 1833 and was co-ed from Day 1. Wellesley was chartered in 1870. Just points of interest.</p>
<p>Apologies if I offend, along, but I really do believe that the good being done by the people who are attending and will attend Tulane UNIVERSITY outweighs the presence or absence of separate Tulane and Newcombe Colleges, both of which will exist in name as the combined schools. Perhaps my own background--or you may say lack of same--as a public uni student makes me insensitive to the prestige factor.</p>
<p>Speaking as a parent of a prospective Tulane student and a faculty member elsewhere, my impression is that the restructuring, once it's digested, will leave Tulane more concentrated in its strengths, and thus much stronger. For the next few years, it should also be very dynamic, as the renewal takes effect. This strikes me as a period of great opportunity for the university and for students.</p>
<p>According to their web page, Newcomb's first is this:</p>
<p>"the first degree-granting college for women to be founded within a university in America"</p>
<p>Oldest college/university in the U.S. is said to be Harvard (1636).</p>
<p>As for oldest women's, it's complicated:</p>
<p>It is difficult to judge which was the first womens college. Georgia Female College (today Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia) was the first school chartered in the United States in 1836, to confer on girls "all such honors degrees and licenses as are usually conferred in colleges and universities." Wesleyan College is the oldest womens college that has neither closed nor become coeducational. Scholars observe, however, that Mary Sharp College in Winchester, Tennessee in 1851, was the first U.S. womens college to require both Latin and Greek in a four-year course, and give an A.B. degree comparable to those awarded by mens colleges. [ Woody, A History of Women's Education in the United States , p. 184. ] Mary Sharp College closed in 1896. Elmira College in Elmira, New York, founded in 1855, "is the oldest existing womens college in the United States which succeeded in attaining standards in a fair degree comparable with mens colleges at the very beginning of her career." (Elmira College became coeducational in 1969.) Ten years later, in 1865, Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York) was the first to have an adequate endowment and, like Elmira, attain standards comparable to those of the mens colleges. [ Woody, A History of Women's Education in the United States , p. 187.]</p>
<p>See this below regarding Duke three decades ago (I'm old enough to remember when Duke was not the "big deal" it seems to be perceived as today). Tulane's house cleaning, although in part forced by Katrina, should have similar results if they can pull it off financially. Duke's endowment made it possible for them to hire some star faculty; with Tulane's small endowment it would take more courage to do the same, but it could be done. </p>
<p>"Beginning in the 1970s, Duke administrators began a long-range effort to strengthen Duke's reputation both nationally and internationally. The university shed some programs and focused attention and money on selected departments which the university believed would rapidly become world class."</p>
<p>The future prestige of Tulane may take a hit but it should still be a solid school. Their resources are spread thin as they rebuild and give out high amounts of merit aid to attract a strong student body. Also, it is inevitable that profs will depart. Will they be replaced with profs of the same caliber?
Time will tell but in th elong run Tulane should be fine.</p>
<p>i really don't think the prestige will suffer, why should professors leave? the school is fine, they have cut programs so they could remain strong and the reorganization of their undergraduate system is great, the damage may have payed a toll on the school but it will rebound, it has too much connected to it not to</p>