A court in New Orleans has been asked to order Tulane University to reopen the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, which it shuttered after almost 120 years, according to the group Save Newcomb College.

Susan Henderson Montgomery, a successor of Josephine Louise Newcomb, who created the college through a bequest and earlier donations, petitioned the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish on May 27 to grant summary judgment on key issues in the case and order the college’s reopening.

The petition states that Ms. Newcomb’s bequest to Tulane’s board was contingent on the board creating and maintaining in perpetuity a women’s college at the university. The plaintiff’s lawyers say they are not seeking money or property but recognition of the donor’s original intent. The college was closed in 2006 as part of post-Hurricane Katrina restructuring.