Joint Committee Proposes Closer Harvard, Radcliffe

Harvard and Radcliffe should come closer together, according to preliminary proposals of the Harvard-Radcliffe Relationships Committee. The committee's tentative recommendations would rule out merger.

"This is definitely not a merger recommendation," Daniel Steiner, general counsel to Harvard, said. "It is a broad outline of a plan that will bring the institutions Harvard and Radcliffe closer together but will preserve the corporate identities of the two institutions."

Formed last April, the committee will release its recommendations by the end of the week.

Committee Members

The Committee includes two members of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees and two Harvard Corporation members. President Pusey and Mary I. Bunting, President of Radcliffe, are also members ex officio.

"Nothing has been decided at all," Bunting emphasized. "It is only tentative thinking about a new contract."

The Committee has not yet approved the final plan, which will be submitted to the Radcliffe Board of Trustees for approval in January. The Corporation must also accept the plan before it can go into effect.

Proposals

The proposals include the following:

Radcliffe would be headed by a woman dean who would be a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and whose role would include "responsibility for initiating and extending opportunities for women withing the University,"

Radcliffe dormitories and houses would become part of the Harvard House system.

Radcliffe would retain its present property and endowment funds, but the management of these funds would be conducted "in consultation with the Harvard Treasurer."

The dean of Radcliffe would have jurisdiction over a number of present Radcliffe offices, including the Radcliffe Institute and the Radcliffe Alumnae, Admissions and Financial Aid offices. Business operations in many cases would be combined.

Harvard would "assume full responsibility" for all the expenses currently paid by Radcliffe on the following three conditions:

1. Radcliffe turn over all tuition, all gifts for current use, and all endowment income.

2. The budgets of the "functions administered by the Dean of Radcliffe" be reviewed and approved by a joint committee.

3. Annual endowment givings be maintained at the 1969-70 level with possible adjustment for annual increases.

The Harvard-Radcliffe student ration was not specifically discussed and will stay approximately the same.

Admissions Policy

Frances C. Donovan, associate director of Radcliffe Admissions, said that as far as she could see, there would be "no change in admissions at all."

If accepted, the contracts between Harvard and Radcliffe would become effective and reopenable by Harvard on June 30, 1975.