A judge ruled against the group's claim. Then Newcomb's heirs sought an injunction in Orleans Parish Civil District Court to block Tulane from dismantling Newcomb as a women's college. This action also failed; a state judge ruled that the plaintiffs had not shown that Newcomb's closure would cause them irreparable harm.

"It was really powerful to be part of a women's college in the South," [Tenaya Hart Wallace] added. "As a Newcomb graduate you kind of carry that torch. I don't know if I would have given Tulane a thought if there hadn't been that Newcomb connection."

ALUMNAE EFFORTS: "There is quite a groundswell of support," said [Alicia Rogan Heard], who graduated in 1967 from Newcomb College, one of the nation's first degree-granting institutions for women. "We're not giving up."; PHOTOGRAPHER: Photographs by Lee Celano For The Times; STUDENTS: Newcomb College was "a platform for women's issues that is gone now," said senior [Lauren Rios], right, with junior [Lauren Ruth].; PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Celano For The Times