Other online resources: Harvard News Office Statement from Harvard University President Neil Rudenstine Radcliffe College homepage Radcliffe News Office Harvard Crimson coverage The principal players, on the steps of Fay House, Radcliffe Yard, from left: Mary Maples Dunn, Nancy-Beth Gordon Sheerr, Linda Wilson, and Neil Rudenstine. "This new incarnation of Radcliffe within Harvard," said Wilson in a formal statement, "will extend our reach while continuing in a new form our historic mission and community of alumnae, alumni, and friends." Photo by Jon Chase/Harvard News Office

Depending on how you count, the courtship lasted either 12 months or 120 years. Either way, this spring, Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges finally declared themselves united, now and forevermore. After a year of speculation, secret negotiations, growing alumnae frustration, and marked administrative silence, on April 20 Harvard University and Radcliffe College announced their intention to merge. The Radcliffe College Board of Trustees and the Harvard Corporation have approved the central elements of a formal agreement that will end Radcliffe's existence as an undergraduate college, while establishing the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study as an integral part of Harvard. "This really is the fulfillment of more than 100 years of the journey that Radcliffe and Harvard undertook together, but separately. It has evolved from stage to stage, over a considerable amount of time," said Harvard president Neil L. Rudenstine. "Now, it's taking one more, but very large, step--boldly....It will, in some sense, close a stage, but launch a new stage." Nancy-Beth Gordon Sheerr '71, chair of the Radcliffe College Board of Trustees, described the merger as "a natural progression in Radcliffe's history."

The newly created institute, conceived as "an interdisciplinary center where leading scholars can promote learning and scholarship across a broad array of academic and professional fields," will serve as an umbrella for the four existing institutions that have in recent years been Radcliffe's lifeblood: the Schlesinger Library, the Bunting Institute, the Murray Research Center, and the Public Policy Institute. A new component, as yet unformed, will focus on the study of women, gender, and society.

Though future decisions will give shape to this new academic focus, Rudenstine noted that it "wouldn't be unnatural" to compare it to existing Radcliffe units like the Bunting Institute. "The study of women, gender, and society has been implicit in Radcliffe's mission," he said. "Now it will be explicit."

Radcliffe's role as an undergraduate college has been a nominal one for more than 20 years. During the past year, as negotiations between Harvard and Radcliffe took place in near-total secrecy, rumor and speculation in the press suggested that Radcliffe would soon become an "allied institution" of Harvard, like the Arnold Arboretum or the University Art Museums (see "Radcliffe Quandary," July-August 1998, page 61, and "Radcliffe on the Road," January-February, page 63). Instead, this spring's agreement transforms Radcliffe into an entity comparable to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, or Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. "There are very few institutions of this kind--there are two or at most three other ones in the world," said Rudenstine. "The Radcliffe Institute is rare in terms of both its mission and its placement within the University."

Perhaps the most important aspect of the agreement is that a full-fledged dean will head the new institute and participate in the leadership and management of the University on an equal footing with the deans of Harvard's nine faculties; hence, the institute's administrative status will be comparable to the Medical School or the Kennedy School of Government.

Mary Maples Dunn, director of the Schlesinger Library since 1995 and former president of Smith College, will serve as the interim head of the new institute, effective July 1, when Radcliffe president Linda Wilson will step down after 10 years on the job. (She will complete her service with a year-long sabbatical.) In consultation with a special committee of leaders from both Radcliffe and Harvard, who must confirm the choice, the president of Harvard will appoint the first permanent dean of the Radcliffe Institute, most likely within a year.

The institute's programs are backed by a $300 million endowment, with Harvard and Radcliffe each contributing $150 million. (Endowment income is essential, since the institute will have no students, grant no degrees, and collect no tuition.) The Radcliffe Institute will thus be not only the administrative equal of Harvard's graduate and professional schools, but will boast an endowment that exceeds those of the Schools of Divinity ($240 million last June), Education ($193 million), and Design ($179 million). Rudenstine noted in addition that the University "will now begin to raise funds very aggressively for this institute."

The legal merger means that Radcliffe's assets now become Harvard's. Currently, the Radcliffe College endowment is valued at about $200 million; the $50 million remaining after the new institute is funded will continue to support undergraduate financial aid. Radcliffe's real estate, which includes 37 buildings and more than 2o acres of prime Cambridge property, will become part of Harvard's holdings. The Institute's geographical center will be Radcliffe Yard; undergraduates will continue to live at the Radcliffe Quadrangle.

The new Radcliffe Institute has a broad academic mandate: it expects to bring together "faculty, fellows, visiting scholars, and creative artists representing a variety of fields of study, scholarly approaches, and career stages," according to the official announcement. Individual members of the Radcliffe Institute may teach courses within Harvard's various faculties by arrangements with the appropriate deans. The institute will also offer symposia, colloquia, workshops, and conferences for the University community as a whole.

The academic attractions of the Radcliffe Institute may, in the long run, help Harvard recruit women to the faculty, whose tenured ranks are currently about 12 percent female. The institute "will be a kind of beacon, as we look to invite faculty and fellows here," says Rudenstine. "Harvard will quickly become known as a place where the study of women, gender, and society is done with excellence and is supported by cultural norms. It's a place where many excellent women scholars will come--and, obliquely, I hope we'll be able to recruit some of them."

Female applicants will henceforth apply directly to, and be accepted by, Harvard College, and undergraduate women will receive Harvard diplomas without any Radcliffe seal or presidential signature. (As a result of the agreement, Wilson becomes the last of Radcliffe's seven presidents.) The Radcliffe Institute will, however, offer non-degree educational programs, which are expected to include popular ongoing offerings such as the Radcliffe Publishing Course and the Radcliffe Seminars.

The merger will make certain organizations superfluous. When the final agreement is hammered out by lawyers and signed--an event predicted to occur within the next few months--the Radcliffe Board of Trustees will dissolve. The Radcliffe Union of Students, an undergraduate organization, also appears headed for obsolescence.

More uncertain is the fate of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (RCAA), which was founded in 1925 and has been Radcliffe's key support organization, both financially and otherwise. President Wilson asserted that the RCAA's "support of the institute in the future will be very important." The RCAA issued a press release declaring its "qualified support" for the merger agreement. Although the alumnae organization is separately incorporated, Radcliffe has for years underwritten its activities. Noting that the professional schools have their own alumni organizations, RCAA president Jane Tewksbury '74 says, "It would make sense to continue the RCAA. The difference is that historically, the Radcliffe alumnae body have been former undergraduates. You would expect a natural affiliation to continue: we're all women who have had a Harvard education and are a natural audience for, and participants in, programs like those proposed for the Radcliffe Institute."

The effect of the merger on fundraising remains an open question. Radcliffe currently has raised more than $70 million of its $100-million capital campaign, launched by Wilson six years ago. The campaign has two more years to run. Will alumnae be as willing to support the Radcliffe Institute as Radcliffe College? "I think that some people who would have given may be unhappy and won't give," says Renée Landers '77, past president of both the RCAA and the Harvard Board of Overseers. "But others may be encouraged by this arrangement and be glad to give to the Radcliffe Institute. It eliminates some of the uncertainty about the old Radcliffe." Rudenstine adds, "We will find a lot of Harvard graduates, perhaps especially more recent graduates, who will find this [Radcliffe Institute] very intriguing. There may also be foundations interested in this who were not interested in supporting a college."

Single-sex colleges receive certain exemptions from antidiscrimination laws, but the institute will command no such privileges. "Participation [in the institute] will not have its eligibility restricted by race, class, or gender," said Wilson. Earlier this year, in what may be a harbinger of the future, Rita Brock, director of the Bunting Institute, indicated that the traditionally all-female Bunting would open its doors to male applicants.

The place of males in the Radcliffe Institute is one of a myriad of details to be negotiated and settled in the coming months. The appointment of the institute's first dean will be a crucial decision, since that dean is likely to put his or her--most likely, her--stamp on the fledgling organization. And the secrecy surrounding the past year's negotiations may mean there is all the more to accomplish. "The alumnae would have preferred a more open process, although I don't know that it would have changed the outcome," says Tewksbury. "I'm of the school that says you either process things first, or process them afterwards. So if you haven't prepared people for this, there will be a lot of discussions over the coming weeks and months." Indeed there will, yet the discussions will not concern the details of an engagement, but the set-up of a new household.