Rebecca Mark pauses in front of the Newcomb Dean's Residence, which will be the home of the new H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute. Mark has been named interim executive director of the institute.

Change brings transformation, says Rebecca Mark--but how will Newcomb College be transformed starting July 1, when the Board of Tulane's Renewal Plan goes into effect?

"Young women coming to Tulane will be getting the most energized educational experience," said Mark. "It's a very wonderful time for women to be on campus."

Starting July 1, Newcomb College will be transformed into the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute, and Mark has been chosen as its interim executive director. She will serve until a permanent director is hired through a nationwide search.

The new institute brings challenges for Tulane as well as Mark, though her background as a longtime member of the Tulane English department (her specialty is Southern literature), Newcomb Fellow and feminist scholar all combine to bring a bright vision for the Newcomb future.

She acknowledges the sense of loss that she and others in the Newcomb community have felt since December, when the Tulane Board decided to end the university's coordinate college system. The new, single undergraduate college, Newcomb-Tulane College, will be the channel for all entering students. All previous Newcomb programming for students and alumnae, as well as Newcomb's endowed funds, become part of the new institute.

"The sadness is a real sadness because it's no longer Newcomb College," Mark said. "But we will do everything in our power to celebrate and remember that history."

The future for the institute and all female undergraduates "is all good in terms of what the benefit is going to be," she added.

Mark began working on the institute's planning and budgeting in the late spring as her classes drew to a close. She intends to continue Newcomb's varied leadership programs for students and, for the first time, broaden those programs to include female undergraduate business, architecture, public health and engineering majors.

She expects the new institute to develop special seminars for alumnae and continue programs such as the Newcomb Fellows, which provides financial support for faculty members and their travel, research and course development. With "all kinds of possibilities for the future," Mark is planning retreats and meetings throughout the summer to develop new ideas.

Reflecting on Newcomb's history, she recalled how students brought oak saplings from Newcomb's original Washington Avenue campus to the Broadway campus, where they grew into the mighty trees so symbolic of Newcomb.

"We're moving once again but we're in sight of those oak trees," said Mark, whose new institute office will be in the former home of the Newcomb dean. "We will not let go of anything Newcomb College stood for. We want that sense of Newcomb as a leader in women's education."